spazrats how about working together to eliminate poor knwledge about rat housing feeding and keeping?

Question

lets get a campaign rolling for better living conditions for our darling pets
no more tanks - cages only
no wood shavings except aspen
no sawdust at all
decent varied diet
same sex pairs or more
no buying petshop rats - your not saving them youre creating an opening for more to go in
no buying feeder rats - same as above
buy only from good ethical registered breeders or rescues
knowledge and education before deciding

there must be no better way to do it than through the internet and with both sides of the atlantic teaming up perhaps we can get it done

just to add, no rat is bad =) some of mine come from petshops now, and many more in the past, I am referring more to the concerted effort of stopping pet shops from selling all small furries not that small furries from petshops are bad[ although they are often ill and runty through in breeding and over breeding at the mills] iyswim

yay!! can you expand your second point please

but in answer to your first the idea was to bounc the idea around everyone it was entitled towards spazrats as they seem to appear to be the main person re rats

please no one get the hump over it all replies [sensible] are more than welcome otherwise i wouldnt have posted it here

Answer 1

Hey, I'm here and I love nothing better then to be surrounded by people who love and care deeply for pet rats.

>>>>>lets get a campaign rolling for better living conditions for our darling pets>>>>>Agree
no more tanks - cages only>>>>>Agree
no wood shavings except aspen>>>>>Agree
no sawdust at all>>>>>Agree
decent varied diet>>>>>Agree
same sex pairs or more>>>>>Agree
no buying petshop rats - your not saving them youre creating an opening for more to go in>>>>>Oopsie, I do buy rats from pet shops.
no buying feeder rats - same as above>>>>>Again, I buy what some consider feeders. Here in Canada rats are not labled as such. People buy a rat for either a feeder or a pet, they're still the same beasty.
buy only from good ethical registered breeders or rescues>>>>>Agree, and I certainly have bought from the only 2 breeders in my area, 1 now closed.
knowledge and education before deciding>>>>>Agree, kudos to anyone who is doing their homework BEFORE they get pet rats.

That's what I am building a website for, http://spazrats.tripod.com to gather all my learned rat knowledge in one place. Problem is, I spend so much time with giving free consultations on rat care on so many forums that I'm not doing the research for my website. Everything is on paper, or in my head, and I just need to find the time to get it on the website.

What I have been trying to do is encourage serious rat-keepers to join my group Holistarat where we can share and obtain the right information for caring for our rats. At these rat-only groups we will not have to put up with the cruel and insensitive remarks to some very serious questions. We won't get really wierd questions and absurd responses from "children". A newbie doesn't have to weed through the answers to try a pick an answer because all of the information on the rat-only forums is the right information.

Yes, I feel like I am on a one-person crusade for rat-dom when I'm here at Y!A, but on the rat-forums I am a respected expert. Something just nagged at me one day to leave the nest and spread my wings. Thank goodness I'm finding so many other knowledgable rat people here at Y!A :). Mrs. Phas your rat knowledge would be greatly appreciated at Holistarat, and anyone here, except for Mr. Warfarin, is welcome to join as well.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/holistarat

spazrats

Answer 2

i agree with MOST of what your saying, however i have bought ALL my girls from a pet store and not because i thought that i was "rescuing" them, but because i wanted them as a part of my family. i have been lucky in the fact that they have not been sick often, and all have made great pets. some people (including myself) don't have a breeder close enough to obtain a pet from them. i wanted pets after all, i did my research and take very good care of my girls. plus i'm still willing to learn what i don't already know about rats. have you ever considered that just because a pet doesn't come from a breeder, that whatever the animal can be an amazing pet.... i think that its more the education of taking care of a rat(s) properly should be the word. no matter where it comes from.

Answer 3

I'm sure Spazrats has no intention of working with you. I have to disagree on some of your "rules" your implying above. I have a rat, named Sugar, who has alomst exceeded the average lifespan of a rat. She has lived alone for 4-5 years. She was bought at PETSMART, and was perfectly heathy. (As were my gerbils who were also purchased there.) I have a debate for you:

You seem to think that we should only adopt from breeders or animal shelters. I really don't have anything against that, but are you suggesting that just because a rat was born in a petshop, we shouldn't buy it? We should let it live old and die without a caring, loving owner?

Answer 4

Sounds like a great idea. The more pooled knowledge the better for any pet and there seem to be a lot of myths surrounding the keeping of rats.

Answer 5

I know alot of people view rats as unclean animals, but they really are very clean. Not only that, but they make very nice pets. They will groom you as cat would, and they enjoy companionship with thier owner. They are playful, and like to travel (at least mine did). If people could get past the bad rep that rats have, they would see that they really aren't dangerous or harmful to humans.

Answer 6

ethical registered breeders also sell to pet shops.
have had many rats and stopped getting them due to the fact almost every single one developed problems after about 2 years of age.
tried different sources to buy but had the same results, inbreeding is an obvious problem here but there is no way to tell this.
our first couple of rats grew well and to a ripe age.
they make much better pets than rabbits/gerbils/hamsters etc

Answer 7

Bravo and good luck.

I used to have many rats, my partner had one, which I felt cruel and when she died, I insisted on a minimum of two. Well, two grew to sixteen.

My rats were not purely for show, they occasionally had run of the house, to the consternation of one of my cats, who was terrified of them. My other cat thought they were cute and would play with them..., not catty play, but really responded to the rats' games it was lovely to watch.

Let me know what you start up... Good luck.

Answer 8

1. you should have personally e-mailed spazrats.
2. she seems to be a singular poor knowlege fighter.

Answer 9

Warfarin will sort out all your queries.