Bad Rats!!!

[Shad0w]

LOL okay this is sort of funny...

I keep my rats on both water bottle and a bowl... some prefer the bottle, the others the bowl.

Last night one of my rats decided to try and dump the water bowl (they've never done this before)... with some struggling, he got it over and soaked a portion of their bedding.

I cleaned it up and thought nothing of it... 5 mins after putting everything back together. I saw two of my rats working on the bowl, like they were working together to dump it, sure enough, over it went.

Again i cleaned up, I guess the other rats got curious and decided to help try and tip the bowl for a 3rd time... Ugggg

Now I cant keep a bowl in with them...
As soon as they see it.. they gang up and try to dump it, Friggin rats are amused too easily :) Its like keeping a cage of toddlers :)
I think they were getting a kick out of watching me work!!!!

Anyone else have BAD RAT stories?

[mcfreshdeli]

When I got my first feeder mice, I learned the hard way the cartoons are filthy liars and mice dont eat cheese. They just lay by it and starve to death overnight.

Every time I put a water bowl in with them they fill it with bedding so it soaks up all the water, totaly wierd

[marisa]

Yeah, rodents and water bowls never mix well for long.

When I first started keeping mice for feeders, I ran out of water bottles a couple times and opted to kill them off rather than deal with a bowl of water. LMAO Now I stock up on the 3 dollar Wal Mart ones. :D

Rats I have no horror stories since compared to mice, they basically do it all themselves. I can't believe I EVER kept filthy stupid mice.

Marisa

[sleddergirl]

My mice were the horror story. At the store, I decided to set up a small breeding colony of mice, so that we were turning more profit, instead of continuing to buy them from our supplier. Well, long story short, three months later and a couple of stupid employees who don't see the importance of closing a mouse cage properly, the entire store was infested with mice.
We spent a month straight, hunting for loose mice every day. We would find a nest of babies each and every day, sometimes with multiple litters in a pile. One day we found 75 and the smell was still outrageous. Well after all that, we set the traps, poison and within 3 weeks it was all gone.......but OMG the smell and how fast they multiply was terrible.

[sapphire_moon]

Lol, rats actually need stimulation and that was providing it. lol...and yes, I'm sure they do like to watch you work and get frusterated. :)

my pet rats, when I fill the food bowl, one dives in and swims around knocking EVERYTHING out onto the floor....:rolleyes: lol

[mykee]

Which is why food hoppers and water bottles are really the only smart way to go when you own rats or mice. Less trouble for you, and easier clean-up.

[Shad0w]

LOL okay they rats did another funny thing tonight!!!

Its a 4 level cage, their food is kept on the bottom level in dishes. Tonight I put a small plate of cooked chicken and veggie leftovers from dinner on the top level.. they immediately started checking it out... with that they started picking up the food and carrying it down to the lower level, cleaning the plate off and putting the food in their dish... LOL... MAN these guys have character :D

[Stockwell]

Even water bottles, are old hat... VERI-FLOW valves with tubing and an auto fed reservoir...
thats the way to go...
I kicked the bottle last year and couldn't be happier
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/3136/1801mouseroom20041.jpg
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/3136/1801mouseracks304-med.jpg

[paulsreef]

Don't watch them, you'll get attached and won't have the heart to use them as feeders.

[mykee]

I'm with you Roy, Veri-flow for AG and you'll never have to change a bottle again. All that goo sittin' at the bottom of the bottle, can't ever reach it, must taste like poo. Auto or semi watering system; closed off from the air, never gets scummy or bacteria infested. Worth it for even just one bin if you ask me.

[mykee]

I'm with you Roy, Veri-flow for AG and you'll never have to change a bottle again. All that goo sittin' at the bottom of the bottle, can't ever reach it, must taste like poo. Auto or semi watering system; closed off from the air, never gets scummy or bacteria infested. Worth it for even just one bin if you ask me.

[sapphire_moon]

yup, totally true paul! don't treat them like pets, don't name them (besides breakfast lunch and dinner), don't play with them, give them ONLY the basics, mazuri, maybe some extra dog food for protiene/fat if needed, and water.

No "special" treats, no hidey boxs, no special big cages (especially the superpet cage, as they will probably shove babies out the side and small rats can walk right out).

I know I could NOT kill the mice I breed if I were attached (and I have a super hard time now :rolleyes: ).

And on the other hand, yes they are all very adorable, smart, and always little trouble makers ;) lol

[CHRISANDBOIDS14]

Mykee/Roy,

I've been using the auto watering system from Freedom Breeder for my mice, the resevoir needs an air hole to let air come in as it empties, how does that system not need air? I cant see bubbles sucessfully making it back up to the resevoir from the drinking tips. So how do you operate the system without air access?

C.

[Auskan]

Originally posted by paulsreef
Don't watch them, you'll get attached and won't have the heart to use them as feeders.

I don't have a problem. My rats and mice are also pets (and yes, I have multi-level cages for them with lots of toys, etc), but when it comes time to kill off the babies for food, I just do it. I use a gas chamber and since I don't think they really suffer, it makes it easier for me to do it. Also, I treat it like a business - I got the mice and rats to save me money on snake food, so that's what they're going to do. Since I'm not planning on killing off the adult "pets" for food, I allow myself to get attached to them, but I even have fun watching the babies (esp the mice as they turn into hoppers and start using the wheels etc). I don't handle the babies that much as I figure there isn't a need for them to become used to being handled, but I do enjoy watching them.

[Shad0w]

I dont have a problem with treating the adults as pets and killing off the babies either :)

[sapphire_moon]

wow, your stronger than I am! I couldn't do it if I thought of them as pets! I would feel 10 times worse than I do now!

Though I do have one female mouse that I'm about to retire after she shows the other 2 how to be mom without killing the litter ;) lol.
After she raises this litter, she will be retired, maybe to her own tank, it depends on whether or not I feel she likes company.

[Auskan]

Will you get her another female for company? A couple of weeks ago I killed off and fed a large female that I had retired. She had been kind of a pet, had a name etc, and I used to handle her a lot. She took ages to get going with breeding and was about 5 months old before you had her first litter, then had 3 in quick succession, was a great mom. The other mice in her colony died off (of old age) and I had to set her up with new cagemates and it never really worked. She had another litter and ate them all, so I decided as she was almost a year old and apparently not going to be a good mom, she may as well be useful for something LOL.

[sapphire_moon]

if I got her another female it would just be one from her own litter, she is a great mom, and this female has NEVER ate one of her own babies.

I say her OWN because I had one mother that just plain sucked, was obsessed (litterly would throw herself at the top of the cage if I took it out) with the wheel, and when she had her babies left them in the "nest" (she didn't even construct one) when I found them they were cold and near dead.

I put them in with this mother and she killed more than half of them, but about 6 of them lived (the other female had a litter of about 15, she killed 2, so 13, then the other mother killed the other 7 off (but I also think something was seriously wrong with them that she could sence but i couldn't). But she took care of the other babies and her babies great, and is currently living with one of her own daughters and a baby from the litter she raised.

I was thinking she might enjoy getting away from all the other mice, but they are also "colony" animals and it is probably instinct to want to stay with a group.....so still not sure, either way she won't be bred again.

It wouldn't matter if I killed her off or not, my snake is not big enough to eat her (she is huge anyways, lol).

[Stockwell]

Michael... Yup, even for one cage, veri-flow valves are the way to go... People assume they are expensive but they are cheaper than water bottles at 3.95 cdn. The tubing is cheap from home depot.
I have a holding tank that uses one valve, and its fed from a gallon pickle jar that was free from the local Pizza joint. I have a tube going in to fill it and one coming out to the valve. You can run the system on a siphon principle, so you don't even need the usual barbed fitting coming out of the reservoir
I use a humidifier T valve which is on my cold water pipe. I just open it to fill the reservoir, so I don't even have refill water from a bucket or garden hose like some do.
I fill my water system only once every two weeks, and I add food about once a month, and clean every two weeks.. Now that's low maintenance.
The maintenance interval for food and water is simply a function of the reservoir size.

[Stockwell]

Originally posted by CHRISANDBOIDS14
Mykee/Roy,

I've been using the auto watering system from Freedom Breeder for my mice, the resevoir needs an air hole to let air come in as it empties, how does that system not need air? I cant see bubbles sucessfully making it back up to the resevoir from the drinking tips. So how do you operate the system without air access?

C.
Christian, bubbles do not occur unless you have a vacuum like in a water bottle.. Bubbles must backflow into the bottle to replace the water that leaves it.
In both the variflow system Mykee and I run and your freedom system, the water flows out without any backflow of bubbles.. It's simply a gravity feed system with the reservoir always higher than the nipples.
Our systems are not entirely sealed, and would not work if they were, but as long as the reservoir has a lid on it it keeps dust out.
The important difference is that water only flows one way and that is out.
In a sealed water bottle, with ball bearing type sipping tube, air must replace water, so as the rodent licks, air, and rodent spit, shavings, and god knows what gets pulled up into the bottle.
This doesn not happen with variflow valves.
The mouse pushes a small rod which opens a valve and water flows only one way, as it has positive head pressure.