The Rat Lovers Club! ~MODS PLEASE LOCK!

[Lierre]

If I ever get rats I'd want to get them from a breeder/rescue, but unfortunately there's none that I know of in my area. :c There's a nice pet store(not a chain one) nearby, but I'm not sure if they have rats. I haven't been there in a while.
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(On an unrelated note) One of my family's friends have these adorable rats and they asked if I could make them some little costumes for their blog(located here). Feel free to tell me any ideas I could do. I'll be sure to post pictures. :3

[tanner]

Question; Why is it sooo bad to buy rats (or animals in general) from Petsmart or other big, commercial pet stores? From what I have heard and read on this thread, everyone seems to be against it and nobody likes to buy from there.

[LadyLunatic]

i tried making rat costumes for my (big) boys for halloween, but i failed xD...epicly
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i've gone to petsmart and petco, the rats aren't tended to properly, and the staff acted like they knew stuff about small rodents, but from experience, i think they only know about cat's and dogs. they were BSing me, i could tell.

[shadow.wolfdog]

Question; Why is it sooo bad to buy rats (or animals in general) from Petsmart or other big, commercial pet stores? From what I have heard and read on this thread, everyone seems to be against it and nobody likes to buy from there.

Just wondering, did you read my huge rant-post? I explained it there. c:

I'm not against it. All of my rats were from Petland. It's not as big and commercial as PetCo. and PetSmart, but it's close, and they get their dogs from puppy mills and rats from rodent mills so they're just as bad.

Most rat owners do not advocate buying rats from pet stores, because they say that the money you spend buying those pet rats supports the rodent mills, and therefore, rodent mills grow, putting more and more rats through that horrible life. Well, yes, the more money the pet store gets, the more money the rodent mills get. However, the rodent mill industry is supported almost entirely by snake owners who need to regularly buy rats as snake food. The number of people buying rats for pets, when compared to those buying them for snake food, is so incredibly small that you could say we don't even contribute to rodent mills.

And imagine what it means to each individual feeder rat that a kind soul rescues. My girls would've died long ago had I not rescued them, and it honestly seems to me like it should have been a crime if they'd ever been eaten by a snake. They're so full of love and personality.

[LadyLunatic]

I love snakes, but i am against them being pets. I can never feed a snake mice or rats. *shivers* in the wild, i'm alright with it because the rattie or mousie has a chance to escape. in the pet store, the snakes are in tanks. there is no escape for the poor mouse.

[tanner]

@ Tuesday;

I haven't seen it.

I guess it's like advocating not using rats for genetic testing. Now, I knew that a lot of petstores got their dogs from puppy mills, but I had never heard of rodent mills, but I guess it makes sense if you have to feed snakes, I mean, everybody has to eat... right?

[iHolli]

@ Tuesday;

I haven't seen it.

I guess it's like advocating not using rats for genetic testing. Now, I knew that a lot of petstores got their dogs from puppy mills, but I had never heard of rodent mills, but I guess it makes sense if you have to feed snakes, I mean, everybody has to eat... right?

{While that's true, it doesn't make it right. Rats need love too, they're not all bad and don't deserve to be eaten. Don't get me wrong, I love snakes myself, but I can't stand the thought of one eating a rat. I'm glad I got my two; I don't think they're feeders, but I can't be sure, and anyway, I'd hate to have seen them eaten, they're full of so much personality, and I can't imagine a day without them anymore. I don't know how I got along without them to begin with x3}

.Holli.

[LadyLunatic]

does anyone else's rats like music?

[shadow.wolfdog]

Okay, let me explain.

Yes, snakes have to eat. I don't even advocate having any cold-blooded animal as a pet, but that doesn't change the fact that people have snakes and they DO have to eat. I don't understand why no one's invented some kind of meat-based snake food yet that doesn't directly involve the snake killing something. You know, something for snakes like dog food is to dogs - the dogs are still getting the meat they need, but not by killing. If ANYTHING, the rats should be peacefully pre-killed and frozen. People say that they feed live mice and rats because it's more natural, but there's nothing natural about trapping a snake and a rat in a tank.

Let me show you something:



This pet snake got its injuries from a single feeder mouse who fought back when the snake tried to eat it. Imagine what a rat could do.

And it's not entirely like advocating not using rats for genetic testing. I wish this was a world where I could be completely for animal rights, but it's not, and it's necessary to have rats and mice for medical testing (not really genetic, definitely not stem-cell or anything like that, I'm talking more like cancer or AIDS research). Feeding live rats is completely unnecessary.

I'm not at all accusing you of not believing that rodent mills are real, but I'm going to post some pictures of a rodent mill so you can see how horribly the rats live there.


An overview of the room. In this room, there are guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, mice, and rats.


This is where the rats are kept.




Their water bottles appear to be soda bottles with a piece of paper or something similar to slow down the flow.


Look how many ratties are in this small space, living here every day. As you can see, their food is a basic rat block and something else I can't identify. Doesn't look very healthy.


I'm going to note now that these rats are kept in wood chips. Aspen is the only safe wood for rats and I doubt very seriously that rodent mills buy aspen for the rats because pine is much cheaper (and much more dangerous). And look how filthy this tank is! Can you imagine how bad it smells in there to those little rats?

This is the worst one.

Look at this. That poor mother, barely even able to stand, having to nurse all of those babies. Look at the pain on her face. Look how tightly packed she is in there with those babies. Female rats in rodent mills are kept as continually pregnant as they can be - they're nothing but breeding machines.

In 99% of pet stores, this is where every rat comes from.

[LadyLunatic]

tshh..ouch...poor snake (that mouse got GUTS and one h*ll of a will to live)
i am personally squemish about feeding a living creature another live creature...
my local petstore raises their own rats. A pregnant female gets a tank (they have a huge tank for the ratties to socialize -- a bit crowded during breeding periods) to hersefl (may be another female if there is no extra room). they breed and if they have too many and it is crowded, they sell it.
once, there were three females who gave birth put in on tank (surprisingly big). One female took all three litters (her''s and the other two) under her control. I saw her sitting on her, and when the rat expert (that's what we call him) flipped her over to show me, i saw a bunch of almost-completly-furred rat babies snuggling together. the other two females were eating in the corner om noming on fruit. The two helped with feeding, but everything else the one female did (cleaning, etc.) with the occational help from the otehr two. i nearly died from laughing.