| Welcome to the Misc. FAQ Page! |
| how can I tell male from female? Male rats are easy to spot when they are adults because they have a rather prominent scrotum at the base of their tail, where as the females don't. The younger the rat the harder this method is to use but it works from 4 weeks on to the trained eye. Younger than four weeks there is one method but it takes expericance to learn and isn't as accurate. I hope to have picture illustrating this soon. VERY young rats (1 day to four weeks old) can be told the gender by the distance between the two openings on their underside. Males are much farther apart than females and there is such thing as "undescended" males in which this is the *only* way you can tell what they are with out a vet's assistance. Undescended males SHOULD be neautered as their condition hightens their risk of getting cancer and neautering combats this. And undescended males *CAN* impregnate females most of the time. Make sure you have a *GOOD* vet to preform ANY surgery on your little furries! Rats can sometimes die under anestesia... in fact there's a 25% or higher chance they will not respond well to the anestesia in any surgery. *oops* I've gotten off topic! |
| Do rats have any health problems? Rats, often inbred rats tend to get tumors and cancer allot. I have been lucky, as I have not lost a rat to that yet. Rats also get respitory problems quite easily, the use of cedar or pine bedding will quickly make a respitory problem worse if not critcal. Rats can get things like myco, SDA, and other respitory problems. Tailess rats sometimes have spinal problems, although it's not over common. Also rats get absecces quite a bit while rough housing. These are easy to cure and DON'T mistaken a tumor for an abscess or vise versa. Absesses are curred by either having it lanced by a vet or if it's less stuborn than that, then just a warm wet warshcloth on it should soften it up and draw out the puss eventually. Rats can get internal abscesses that can cause internal bleeding and death. This is how I suspect I lost one of my girls recently. :( Mites are often a common problem. Mites can sometimes be seen but often the only trace of them is scaby skin and loss of fur. This is easily curred. you should see your vet but if you don't have a rat vet just yet you can use horse dewormer (Ivermectin) give then a little bit the size of a peice of uncooked rice, then between 7-10 days later give them another dose the same size and all should be curred. Vitamin dificiencies have been known to cause orange skin, dry skin, etc. Older rats can get strokes as well and sometimes seizures. And as stated above undescended rats have a higher chance of cancer....Please see my "rat check list" for a list of rat first aid items. |
| How long do rats live? An average lifespan for a rat is sadly only 1-2 years old. I have heard of a few unusual cases where rats have lived to be 5 (and one woman who claimed a whopping 8) but this isn't often the case. Long lived rats are often caused by good genes, a balanced diet, exercise, and LOTS of TLC! I hope some day I'll have a rat that lives over two...:) |
| Should I bath my rat? Is it nessasary? To bath a rat is both a challange and most of the times, a waste of time!:) rats really do not need to be bathed although you can bath them with warm water and a mild dog or baby shampoo. Try not to bath them more than once a week especially with the shampoo as it tends to dry out their skin. But again, bathing a rat is not nessessary usually. |
| Can Rats Swim? Rats can swim if they HAVE too. wild rats swim all the time and actually have been documented going fishing while in the water. Weither the rat LIKES the water is a whole other question. I think you'll find unless trained at a VERY young age to like water rats generally hate it. But my rats like fishing for frozen peas in a shallow dish of water. :) |
| My rat is making an odd grinding noise...is this OK?? Rats will grind their teeth or "brux" when they are happy or contented. Take this as a good sign! |
| Help! My rat has a bloody nose what do I do?? Rats don't really get "bloody noses". If you see your rat has a red discharge around their nose or eyes rest assurred it's probably not blood. This is called polyphorin and it can be anywhere from clear to red in color. It's caused when a rat is stressed, scared, hears a loud noise, or if it's constant it COULD be a sign of illness. |