r/Shadowtherat_

Ok guys, so I know some of you also have rats, and I thought it'd be interesting to share some of what I think are my more controversial rat opinions. Now I've been part of the rat world for over 12 years and generally think there are many ways to care for rats properly, but I still have my preferences as I'm sure everyone does, and I thought it would be interesting to share a few.

Starting off easy, I think standard ears are cuter than dumbo ears and should be selected for more often (you can rarely even find them in my area anymore, its all dumbos...and they are still very cute, but I love my perky eared rats! Also no, ear position doesn't effect personality or intelligence, I just like the standard eared look more.)

I don't think the carrier method is the best intro method, and I think it actually leads to more stress and fights in the case of difficult to introduce rats (sadly personal experience speaking here - carrier method has given me my worst intro injuries ).

I think bin cages are fine for housing rats, and while I love the critter nation cages I don't like that people now often seem to think they are the only good rat cage.

I think vertical space should also count when judging a cages space and deciding how many rats it can realistically support (that being said I do think you need a good sized horizontal base as well, but vertical space is still space and should count!)

I think lab blocks are an appropriate main food - making your own diet is fine so long as you do your research and make it nutritionally complete, but lab blocks are totally fine for those of us that can't or don't want to do that.

I think feeder rats make good pets, and while I rarely get them anymore due to mine having more health issues and shorter lifespans on average, all of mine have had fantastic temperaments and were so sweet (not always the case, but more often than not feeder rats have fine temperaments and are good pets).

I think dwarf and standard rats can live together safely, and that any standard rat with a decent temperament should be safe with dwarfs.

I think that wheels are appropriate for rats and are fantastic enrichment as long as they are an appropriate size (12+ inches for dwarfs, 14+ for standard females, 15+ for standard males...and all of mine including the dwarfs love the 16 inch ones!)

I think burrowing opportunities are essential for rats, and that a cage either needs bedding that can be burrowed in or an appropriate sized dig box with substrate to dig in.

I think its fine to free-range separate rat groups together (same sex or altered of course!), provided you introduce them slowly and free-range them together consistently (and I have done this MANY times to upkeep bonds when for whatever reason I couldn't have 1 combined group).

Ok I think that's it for now - I'm curious what peoples opinions on these things are, I think the pet world (including the pet rat world!) tends to have a lot of passionate people who often have strong preferences and I think its interesting how we develop those (for me its mainly been a combination of personal experience and what I've seen work for other people over the years).

And yes Chickpea is judging you (I kid, I kid!)

r/Shadowtherat_

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