The BRODENTS! Rodent Enthusiast Thread!

[cardboardteeth]

@rose gold,
I had adopted him from a Petsmart less than two weeks ago, and I know that they're fairly young,, around six months, maybe? I don't know his exact age but I'd guess around six months, he seemed young and healthy and active.

I just don't understand. Before last night, during the day, he was happy, running around and eating, drinking,, I just miss him so so much.

[☆ Lincoln & Grover ☆]

I have just stumbled across this thread, but it seems awesome already! I love rodents! I used to own a rat named Skipper. He was my best friend! I held him as he died due to a collapsed lung. I was heartbroken. I loved him so much! Rats are the best! He was loyal, friendly, and funny! He watched me do everything! I wish I could have done more about his lung, but I still don't know what caused his collapsed lung. May you rest in peace Skipper! I love and miss you so much :'C

[w0ah]

@eggnoi : When you buy an animal from any brand-name pet store, it's always a risk you have to be willing to take. Animals from there, especially mice, are horribly inbreed and grown in terrible conditions. There are many cases of young mice from pet stores dying young. It is because mice from those stores aren't bred for being "pets", even though they are labeled in stores that they are. Most mice will only get adopted out to be snake food, as feeders. It's extremely depressing and sad for me to think about, but this is a risk I have taken, and am taking as of now. All three of my females are adopted from a Petco. I would have much rather bought from a breeder, but I had no other choice. There are no breeders around me, or in any of the neighboring states/cities. Rescue shelters rarely even get pet mice, for they most likely die before they even make it there. It's really, truly heartbreaking that as humans, we treat animals as items, and not as living and breathing animals much like us. :c

[jengatower]

It's a dream of mine to own a rodent, especially a rat, but we have three cats in the household... yeah

I totally agree with the thing about name-brand pet stores. Pretty much all of the animals there don't come from good places and die pretty early.
In my area they sell mice labeled "fancy mice" so I guess that sets them apart from feeder mice? They're really colorful, unlike the feeder mice I've seen.

Something that really makes me uncomfortable about pet stores is that they don't have a policy against tapping or banging on the glass. Last time I went to Petsmart to get cat food, there was this girl who was banging really hard on the glass where the mice were. Neither her father nor the staff did anything about it!!! x.x

[w0ah]

Unfortunately, it’s just the same with name-brand pet stores that have their mice/rodents labeled as “fancy”. They only call them that because they have “pretty colors” or whatever. The only real “fancy” mice come from breeders that are experienced, trained, and know their mice’s blood lines and have healthy animals. It’s easier to find rat breeders, but harder to find mice breeders that aren’t sold as feeders, which are also much different. They mainly just bred them for the babies, and their condition or health isn't really worried about.

Although you'd expect the staff at a pet store to know what they are doing, most of the people that work there are just looking for a job and aren't really experienced or trained in the fields of the animals that are there ( although I do know that there are some people that work at pet stores and are more experienced, their higher-ups tell them they can't do anything anyways ). They don't have much interaction with the animals as you would expect, so they don't learn anything. This is probably why the staff weren't telling that little girl to stop banging on the glass.. they probably didn't know it was wrong, or that it was stressing out/scaring the mice inside. For example, there was someone at Petco that didn't know how to properly lift up mice by their tail, which could seriously harm them if not done properly. They were also very violent with lifting them up, and throwing them into a box. They seemed very nonchalant about it, and weren't even trying to be careful. But this is probably because they don't get mice bought to be pets very often, and they weren't trained how to carefully get them into a box.

[meerkat boi.]

so last weekend (sunday) i went to a pet store to have a look at the hamsters and cages n' stuff.
so we go in and look at some rabbits then we go to the area where they keep the hamsters and i didn't see ONE hamster there.
they usually only have dwarf hamsters but last time i went there were three syrians.

anyways i was looking at a few cages and is it just me or does anyone else just not like those plastic cages? you know those colorful plastic cages? yeah i just... don't like them.

- notes; i might be getting a hamster this summer for my birthday because this will be the second year asking for a hamster.

[Keriae]

so last weekend (sunday) i went to a pet store to have a look at the hamsters and cages n' stuff.
so we go in and look at some rabbits then we go to the area where they keep the hamsters and i didn't see ONE hamster there.
they usually only have dwarf hamsters but last time i went there were three syrians.

anyways i was looking at a few cages and is it just me or does anyone else just not like those plastic cages? you know those colorful plastic cages? yeah i just... don't like them.

- notes; i might be getting a hamster this summer for my birthday because this will be the second year asking for a hamster.

Please make sure that you get a cage that is a minimum of 80x50cm if you get a Syrian!
I’ll edit this with some cage suggestions in the morning for you c:

[cornspurrd.]

When rats boggle while boxing
what does it mean?

[MotherMother]

When rats boggle while boxing
what does it mean?

Boggling can mean lots of things, most commonly happiness/content but it can also indicate excitement and distress. If they're doing it while they're boxing, I think it would most likely be from excitement or distress, depending on if they are playing or actually fighting c:

[Kat]

I bought my two boys a kind of hanging hammock-tube-thing. They seem to really love it! c:



And on the subject of breeders vs pet stores: Both of my rats were purchased from a locally-owned pet store with Victor (white blaze) being sold as a "pet" while Edwin (black spot) was grabbed from the feeder bin located behind their counter. Both are equally beautiful and sweet, despite Edwin having been literally half the price that Victor was.

My mouse, Thomas, was also being sold as a "feeder".