Colorado Rat Breeder-Camarattery

By Amy 2006 copy right. Camarattery

Care

    There are  things you must consider before you bring a rat into your home are, can I take care of a rat for sometimes up to 5 years? Do I have time for a rat. There is alot  of time involved with caring for a rat, such as cleaning the rats cage, your floor weekly or more, feeding, playing with him or her. Other questions to ask your self are, do I have other pets that could be a threat to a rat. Can I keep the rat in a warm or cool enough environment all year around. Can I keep children from playing with them excessively. Can I afford the food, bedding, cage and or other accessories and maybe if need be vet bills? And is anyone in my house afraid or allergic to rats? All these questions should be answered before you bring a rat into your home.

  The most important thing for your rat is their diet. I have explained all about diets on my diets page. And of coarse fresh water everyday. And I mean empty the bottle and give them fresh water EVERY DAY. The third thing is the cage. The rat is a very lively animal and the need alot of room to run and play. So the more room the better. Cage style homes with levels are the best. You should have a wheel and chew toys in the cage as well. Rats teeth can grow their whole life so they need chew toys to keep them trim. Even bird mineral blocks are great for that. Then there is bedding. Some are good and some are flat dangerous. The dangerous one's are pine and cedar. They have phenol that are bad for rats, the nice wood smell we like, that causes them to get respiratory infections. Paper bedding can be great if they are non ink or soy ink paper. Aspen is great. Just make sure your bedding isn't dusty because that gets in their lungs. Rats love toys that hang so they can climb on them as well. Cat toys are great, the little balls with bells, or other toys they can carry and roll around. They love toys that hang so they can climb on them.

 

Training

 

   In this section I will explain different training methods. I will go through establishing trust, litter box training and learning their names and playing interactive games with your rat.

 

Establishing Trust

  You never want to handle your rat for at least 48 hours after you bring him home. The stress of moving to a new cage and new home is enough for him to deal with at first. So just give him that time to move in and unwind. Now I will talk about establishing trust. This first thing to remember is, you can't force him to trust you. Animals can pick up on our emotions very quickly. They can read you like a book. If you feel forceful or frustrated or happy or whatever your emotion the rat will take that and run with it. So only work with them when you feel calm. And by all means the second thing to remember is, they way to a rats heart is through his stomach! Just like men (humans). So if you have a rat that isn't exactly the sweetest thing in the world, use food! They respond to croutons and banana chips the best for me anyway. So just give them one and back off just put it on the floor in front of him. The next day open the door and drop it in front of the rat. So he know's it came from you, just so he see's you hand it to him. Then after he east it, hand him another but hold it there, wait.... let him come snatch it and run. Then let him alone. The third day, hand it to him again let him take it. When he eats is put one in the middle of your hand, kinda make him go up there and get it. That's all it takes 3 to f days of that! But DO NOT grab him and pet him. It's already apparent he is afraid of you. Let him do it on his terms. When he is on your hand eating  (after he has done that several times) just stroke him with a finger from the hand he's on. Then let it be. After a few times getting the best treat in the world and getting a soft "it's ok" pet. He'll be coming back for more.

  Now if you get him from a breeder he should already be trained to be a lover so you can skip that step. All of that is really just for the rat that hates people.

 

Litter Box Training

  Litter box training. The first thing to do is establish what corner the rat favors to potty in. That's where you place the litter box. Now the litter box MUST have a different kind of litter in it than the rest of the cage. This way the animal can understand that there is a difference between his floor and his toilet. So when you introduce the litter box take some of his potty and put it in the box. And every time he goes clean remove it from the undesired spot and place it in the litter box. It won't take long before he recognizes that that's where he is supposed to go. And if you actually see him go in there give him a piece of his favorite treat. That's about all there is to it!

 

Learning Their Names

 This one is the easiest! It's not any harder than teaching a dog or cat. Basically all you need to do is great the animal with its name. Say hi " Baby Cakes", and then use his name several times when you are playing with him. Rat's are smarter than some breeds of dogs(like mine!) so don't under estimate your rat.

 

Playing With Your Rat

  Now this is the fun part! This is why we get rats. But you might ask what can you do with a rat besides get him out and let him run around and kiss him and pet him? Isn't that about it? I mean how smart can they be with a brain the size of a pea?

  Well my friend, let me tell you a little something about rats. As I mentioned before they are smarter than some breeds of dogs. I for one have Shih-Tzu's. I bred the dogs for 7 years. And I have had many, many Shih- Tzu's for almost 20 years. So I have a real love for the breed. But to tell you the truth my rats blow the dog's out of the water as far as smarts! And Shih-Tzu's are by no means the least intelligent breed of dog. I am just using them as an example.

  You know how (if your a dog lover) you have so much fun playing with dogs and grabbing their snout and shacking it back and forth and pushing them around and they snare their teeth and jump at you, then they bounce around and run through the house and get all excited and come back for more? Yeah! Well rats do the exact same thing! To the tee! I even have a female who snares her teeth at me and grabs my finger with her teeth and shakes my hand back and forth, then she runs down stairs in her cage and pop's up and down (pop corning) and come's back again. It's so funny. All of my rats at least wrestle with me. If you have never done it with your rat, and even if he's been around for a while, try this... cup your hand over his back and kind of wobble it back and forth a tad, real gentle. Just rough him up a little bit. See what he does, it'll surprise you. For me in my experience the longest it ever took my rats to learn to do that was 2 minutes. Just be careful with the old guys we don't want to give them any heart trouble.

Water and Rats

Now we all know rats love to live is sewers and therefore love water. But what about rats that were not born in the sewer? What about rats that live in a home. Well... they still love water. You can simply bathe them in a tub of shallow water, or you can clean them like you would a dog with a tearless shampoo. But if they are not taking to the water as well as you hoped, here is a video of how to introduce them slowly: