Ive never had a pet rat before, but PetSmart sold us a pregnant hamster. I was so excited to see the babies but everyone I told was like, you should get your money back from PetSmart that's bad.
Welp, accidents do happen though, it's not really their fault?? It's hard to sex the little buggers.
My friend also had some pet scorpions and they had babies, but they have big litters haha so he was over run with them. He kept most of them and gave the rest to our local college.
Oh god, SCORPIONS?? I'd run away. They look so freaky with their babies on their back! And there's sooo many! aaaaaaaaaaa, I hate scorpions and tarantulas and ;;;;;;; freaky things of doom and death
They're pretty social so you should be able to keep them together without fear of fighting, but they'll start breeding again soon.
Yeah, Juney and Spooks got together really well, but we all see what happened. I've had nothing but female rats, so Spooks was a surprise. He's more friendly than Juney, but it makes keeping them difficult because I don't always have the time to play with them. I'm hoping to give them away before they get too big.
Like I said, I've raised dozens of baby rabbits, but the mother is usually pretty much docile. She only sees them once a day to feed and clean and otherwise will just leave them alone. She doesn't even care if I pick them up, which I usually do everyday to check on them and handle them, but rats are different. I know it's going to be a challenge to feed, water and clean her cage for a few weeks! Especially when I gotta move her into the bigger tank because of how many babies she has. Spooks has it right now just because he's bigger, but now that I got a plastic ball for him to vroom around in, it should be better to put him in the smaller one.
Edit: sidenote: once our ham gave birth, she didn't want to be picked up anymore, even after the babies were gone. So we had to slowly reintroduce her to us and get her used to be handled again. I don't know if your rat will be the same.
That's not really a problem with me... Juniper doesn't really like to be handled to begin with. She loves to be petted and talked too, but she's not the 'pick me up and play with me' rat. While I hope she doesn't turn more aggressive or introvert, it also wouldn't be the end of the world, I suppose. She'll be paired with a daughter.
In general though rats are far different from mice and hamsters and smaller rodents. I can pick up a 'feeder' rat generally right away even if it's never seen me before. When I went to the petstores to get my rats, they climbed right onto my hand and all over my shoulder/chest. If it didn't wanna get near me, it definitely wasn't the rat for me, but I only encountered one that wasn't having any of it. They're more gentle and docile and easy going. You can do just about anything to my rats and they've never bit me. They spook easily from noises such as coughing, sneezing, things like that, but they're just run into my shirt or hide in my chest. Spooks once got out of his rat ball and was harassing one of our chickens and I just snatched him up and while he freaked out, he calmed down once he realized it was me and was like 'oh okay, i did a bad.'
I had rats in the past and want them again so badly. They are nicer, smarter and more snuggly than hamsters. I love them so much.
Aha, you should see my male! Spooks is such a goober. I got them a plastic ball to exercise in and I didn't realize I adopted a very strange looking, very small dog. He follows me around the house in it, he almost comes when I call (mostly it's hand gestures and clicking my tongue) and while I'm cleaning or just sitting in my bed, he'll bump into my leg or a piece of furniture to get my attention. He simply LOVES his ball, he gets to go chase the other animals and explore and he just gets a big ol' kick out of it.
aaaaa this post is so long! ;;; but i love talking about my children, all of them. ;;;;
