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Post by wulfyskingdom on Oct 22, 2008 20:43:13 GMT 10
Cheers Wulfy; Did the issue resolve itself or did you have to intervene (ie separation) One of my mates (who has owned rats for a few years now) actually suggested putting Blitz down! (her point being that Blitz was clearly so aggressive and not socialised at a young age that he would be impossible to keep as a pet). Even if Blitzkrieg remains an angry lad after intensive work (and a possible castration in 6 months time as a last resort) I would never get rid of him. 'Tis not his fault he's a bit of a nutter. No the issue didnt resolve itself. He was highly territorial and agressive within his cage, however, when he was out he didnt bite me. I could get him out of the cage as long as I picked him up from behind. Approaching him front on made him rear up. He had myco issues so we didnt get him neutered (the anesthetic would not be good on his lungs), but he lived a happy life in his own bachelor pad and he was treated with as much love as I gave the rest of my rats. I dont see behavioural issues a reason to put a rat down when its possible for them to live a happy healthy life. Especially when neutering is definitely an option. Lots of people have neutered agressive boys and after giving them a few weeks for the hormones to calm down they're fine.
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Prue
Aussie Rat Owner
Posts: 45
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Post by Prue on Oct 25, 2008 10:07:54 GMT 10
hear hear.
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Post by nathan on Oct 27, 2008 8:47:54 GMT 10
Hi my name is nathan i have kept and bred rats in the past but stoped keeping them a few years ago i am now looking at getting back in to keeping them again.
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Prue
Aussie Rat Owner
Posts: 45
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Post by Prue on Oct 27, 2008 11:51:13 GMT 10
Howdy nathan and welcome to the forums. ratty addiction is a hard one to quit, no?
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Post by Australian Rat Forum on Oct 29, 2008 0:30:00 GMT 10
Greetings to all the new people here.
My name is Nathan and I'm an admin here but currently dont get access to the internet very much as I am travelling around, so only get to pop in when I can.
I'm currently popping in because of the other admin Kim being sick. I just wanted to let all you new people know that so you would know to contact Leeann at the moment to get your full membership to the forum, while Kim isnt here.
I also wanted to say hi to Nathan, since I'm also a Nathan.. it gave me a great laugh to see that there are 2 of us now, which could get confusing - lol -
Cheers Everyone and catch you around when I can.
- Nathan -
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Post by nathan on Oct 29, 2008 10:02:06 GMT 10
thanks for the welcome guys.
lol nathan its a good name that one ;D
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Post by coffee on Oct 29, 2008 12:56:47 GMT 10
Hi.
I've been breeding rats for over 10 years, but have never been part of a rodent forum. What better place to start.
I have never really been concerned with what "type" my rats are, I've only ever been concerned about temperament, and the "oh cool colour" factor. It'll be interesting to find out what type of rats I have. haha.
Any way, I'm sure it will be fun getting to know you all.
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sarah
Aussie Rat Owner
Posts: 22
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Post by sarah on Nov 15, 2008 0:33:20 GMT 10
Hi I'm Sarah,
I joined up a little while ago and it has taken me quite a while to introduce myself to everyone here, but that's just me. The worst thing (rat wise) is that my last 2 boys Bracken and Beechen died July and September 08.
It gets a bit hard hearing all about the great times everyone is having with their ratties when I miss mine so much. But I cant' deny that it is always good to hear from fellow rat lovers.
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Post by Kim on Nov 15, 2008 9:20:59 GMT 10
Hi Sarah and welcome to the forum. We all understand how you feel about the loss of your boys. Although when you are able to get access to the rest of teh forum you will find that we are not all talking about the great times we are having with our ratties. Some of us currently have sick rats and some of us have old rats, so we all understand. I actually have 80 rats between the ages of 4 weeks and 3 years 3 months. So I am always losing my boys or girls from either natural age related death or from them getting really sick and not being able to recover. Thats the hard thing about rats, losing them after having them for only a little while. I currently have about 4 sick rats that may not make it. Yet I am sure that we would all love to hear more about Bracken and Beechen and the good times you had with them.
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Post by oldratmum on Nov 15, 2008 22:05:53 GMT 10
Hi
glad I found this forum
I am wanting to get back into ratties, I last had a pet rat, oh, 19 or 20 years ago.
Have been "out of it" because I was raising my kids (10) and generally being busy.
Would LOVE a Sphynx rat if I got the opportunity
Am expecting that things have changed in nearly 20 years, rats are far more mainstream (as are ferrets, used to have those too)
And there are far more resources for the care and wellbeing of these wonderful creatures.
Looking forward to being a contributing member of the board.
oldratmum (christine)
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Post by wulfyskingdom on Nov 16, 2008 10:51:59 GMT 10
Hi Christine. Welcome to the forum.
I agree with you there, information on rats has grown on the internet and its a great place to research everything.
Thats wonderful to hear your looking at getting some more ratkids after having such a long ratty drought lol.
I'm sure they will appreciate the air conditioning too. Is it quite hot where you live? You can pick up some tips on keeping them cool during summer too. Things like feeding them water rich food like watermelon and cucumber, you can provide a low shallow dish of water in their cage where they can walk though or dip their tails into, freeze water bottles and wrap them in cloth and put them in the cage and they can sleep against them, pea fishing (get a big dish of water, put some peas in it and they have to use their paws to get them out - one of my rats put his entire head under the water).
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Post by misskimmers on Dec 4, 2008 13:56:33 GMT 10
Hi everyone!
I'm Kim, 18 and living in Queensland. I'm a full-time uni student (Psychology) and work part time at your local friendly Blockbuster (for all your game/dvd hire and ex-rental needs). I'm quite outgoing and I love talking about anything and everything.
I've currently got three lovely girls. Widdershins is my eldest, she is about 19 months old and she's the sweetest, most loving, snuggly brown berkshire girl in the world - she loves to come out and say hello to anyone and everyone! She also likes kisses and snuggletime in my shirt. Then there is Pancaspe [Pan-cass-pee] (or Caspe [Casper] for short). She's a cheeky little agouti hooded escape artist with a completely crazy personality - and she's super mischevious. I call her my possum, because with her colouring she just looks exactly like one! My final little one is the shy Cailin (or Cailie). She's a pink-eyed white, and very timid - despite being handled gently and carefully since birth. Caspe and Cailin are sisters, and are about 9 months old - they were rescues found through Brissy Rat Rescue... their mother didn't look after them and died shortly after birth. Widders is a pet store girl.
As for me. Despite being outgoing, I enjoy quiet activities - reading, art and craft (particularly sculpting miniatures and sketching) and tend to prefer staying home to going out - although I don't mind a bit of clubbing once in a while. I'm a lacto-vegetarian, which means I don't eat any meat/fish or eggs, but I'll eat dairy products.
That's me in a nutshell - there's a lot not there too, so feel free to ask!
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Prue
Aussie Rat Owner
Posts: 45
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Post by Prue on Dec 4, 2008 14:36:56 GMT 10
welcome! your girls sound adorable great to see another brisbanian in the forums
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Post by wulfyskingdom on Dec 4, 2008 20:37:46 GMT 10
Hi misskimmers! Welcome Your ratties sound lovely. I have 2 boys at the moment which I adopted from Brissy rat rescue too, although they have very recently closed indefinitely. Hopefully everything goes well and they may be able to reopen one day. Always good to see a fellow Brisbanite around. It sounds like blockbuster have drummed their slogan into you lol
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ceara
Aussie Rat Owner
Posts: 129
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Post by ceara on Dec 4, 2008 21:02:17 GMT 10
Hi misskimmers, and welcome! It sounds as though we have a heck of a lot in common I have an honours degree in Psychology and am also a rat lover. I have two girls, Whisper and Nibbles. I love the names your rats have! I'm in Adelaide, although I'm a Queenslander originally (Bundaberg). It sounds like we have similar hobbies as well I'm usually into the quieter pursuits although love people and going out as well. People who don't know me well tend to assume I'm an extrovert, and whenever I do psychometric testing, my levels of introversion/extroversion tend to vary depending on my mood. I love reading and finding out random things. I'm currently working as a vocational rehabilitation consultant, which I love. My office is full of Occupational Therapists who think (quite rightly) that I'm a bit of a nutter - but then Psych grads tend to be. How far into your degree are you, and which uni do you go to? What area of psych do you like? (hmm... Once you get enough posts, we should go to the off topic section). When you graduate, let me know if you're interested in getting a job like mine because I could refer you to internally-advertised vacancies if you want! Sorry, back on track. Rats! My girls are both black, one self (Whisper), one berkshire (Nibbles). I've just bought my partner a lovely enormous rat cage, so our numbers will be increasing dramatically next year - we intend to breed! Whisper and Nibbles both came from a pet shop, along with their sister (we think), Pixie, who we unfortunately had to put to sleep as she had severe fear/aggression issues that we couldn't overcome. Whisper is the most outgoing of our two - she loves getting into anything and everything. Her favourite place tends to be on James' shoulder (my partner). Nibbles is a bit of an oddball - she doesn't like being bothered when she's out and about and squeaks in protest if we try to pick her up and she doesn't want to move. It's really rather strange, and she only ever does it when she's out on the lounge, chilling with us. I would really like to learn more about rat genetics. I'm a bit of a science geek and tend to read a lot about things that I find interesting. This means I know a lot of very random things. I even started sending out a 'random fact of the day' email at work because I get all the weird questions sent my way!
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