Lost my furbaby today. He was last of ten years of lineage. He jumped out of his cage and could almost get on my bed so I helped him and then he died. Hurts. Done with helping bring lives into this world by breeding them or pet store. Please adopt. These are the sweetest animal you will ever meet. Thanks. Thanks to the late Shadow

Mad respect for admitting that you didn't do enough research when getting your first rats! We've almost all been there. I made the same mistake with my gerbils. Did some research but not enough and ended up with a broken bond and big mess. I did learn though and ended up really enjoying them for the years we were together. I now research every potential pet to death. Videos like this really help shed light on the mistakes that can be made, but also the progress that can be achieved through a willingness to learn. Thanks for sharing!

Thank God for your mother's support. My first Guinea Pig it seems I failed in almost every way but love. My family immediately was unsupportive because he reminded them of a rat and perhaps the first time I heard the word "repulsive". He did live a reasonably long life but when he died and I was devastated I thought I might never have pets again. Many years later I suffered severe depression over Alex, but built a rocking horse in his honour who I hoped to be a companion forever. I had the strength I felt to have another pet and saw a rat up for adoption on the tv. I had never seen one before there B4. I didn't know if I could go through with it so I didn't even have a cage for her when I brought her home. She had the good sense to stay put in the squirrel den I had built for the squirrels where I lived while I went up the street to get a modest aquarium. Later I got a bigger cage. I just wanted to save a life, and surely I did a better job than with Alex and I found a vet for her and she was a wonderful pet who had just learned to jump from the floor onto my lap in my chair. Then my dad threw myself out and I had to spend one night with her in a homeless shelter against the rules before returning her to the humane society where I was in tears as I filled out a form on which I was told to refer to her as a cat. I named her Devin Rose which in my study of names I much later learned that "Rose" can mean "horse". My new place informed me it would probably not be a problem to have a rat, but after I purchased one made me also take her to the humane society. So eventually I got guinea pigs again. I am forever thankful for my rats and guinea pigs. I feel guinea pigs and other rodents benefit from the undeserved stigma of rats. I pray that rats might one day receive their rightful respect and love and that all rodents may receive the love and respect due them. I've now sworn off pharmaceuticals because of animal experimentation while my food stamps won't even pay for tea to help my insomnia. God bless you. I greatly value the beautiful painting Donut made and I was sorry to hear of Donuts passing. Thank you for all you've done to bring awareness to these wonderful creatures.

I have had rats for almost 30 years. It's always sad when they pass, but always worth it to get more. Thanks for your great channel. 🙃🐁🐀

The difference I have seen in the 6 pet rats from the pet store and the three dwarf rats I have now from a breeder is incredible. The dwarfs have had practically no health scares and are already two years and four months while still acting like only year old rats. I wouldn't ever go back to getting them from the pet store.

My rats are such a massive source of joy and yet they stress me out so much :') just like you said, the medical emergencies are absolutely heartbreaking

The little slideshow showing how all your rats were comnected fo each other in some way really got to me, thats so sweet

I'm so sorry about Ninja. I had a similar situation with one of my groups. I got 4 boys and one of them was really sick after coming home to me. All the rest was fine, but Ghost was sick and weak for quite a few days (I also took him to vet after a day cause I thought those were just sneezes), and for a good while after that he was much smaller than his twin brother. Fortunately he made it to full recovery and later on grew to be a huge beautiful chunk of a rat.

I am so sorry for Ninja. And you! You must have been shocked! I lost one of my rats on his 21st day with me on New Year's Day!

I got my two rats from a rescue place and I agree all the breeders and rescues are on Facebook no idea why

Thanks for sharing this with us.. I had a similar experience with pet shop rats, in that they really do not know what they are dealing with as they deal with them very infrequently. I started out actually with a very young wild rat that I had reovered from a glue trap - he was stuck with his nose in the trap and I'm sure he hated me from pulling him out of it as his whiskers were stuck in it.. I had to pull him very slowly out and wait for him to separate from the trap without ripping anything out, it would have been painful, but he survived it, rather than dying horribly in it. He was a classic brown rat that you see out in the wild and around the house. The land lady Sarah was receptive to him as she used to keep rats before this, I had not. She said he had to have a friend as they are social animals, I ended up getting a white boy rat [Albert] as company for the escapist - who I called Houdini, it turned out to be an excellent name for him as he was always escaping.. so many hours fretting over where he was and then trying to catch him - the wild never left him. Albert unfortunately ended up getting Mycoplasmosis which I knew nothing of, nor did Sarah as she said she'd never seen anything like it, it took his life very quickly, but Houdini ended up being unaffected as it probably was in his wild dna to resist this disease. I got another rat - this time a black one named Oscar, but this time from a breeder.. Sarah also got two rats, girls... one night after a few glasses of wine Sarah let the boys and the girls play together.. Now mature aged Houdini wasted no time at all in jumping Daisy's bones and then Rosy's bones too.. the little devil was going for it!! Out of that Daisy ended up with 9 brown ratties, and Rosy had none. Then another night after another few glasses of wine Sarah let Oscar play with the girls along with Houdini.. my god.. they do not waste any time with flowers and other trivialities... straight at it.. so another 6 rats... this time hooded ratties and two beautiful black girl rats. All of them were great but the brown ratties were a little older than the hooded ratties but they were happy to be with each other.. it was a big mob. What I found though was that the brownies were more resistant and the hooded ones - which seemed to have got infected from Albert's condition - had persistent visitation from Mycoplasmosis, treatment was required frequently for them with Doxycyclin and Enrofloxacin... it was expensive, what was frustrating was to get a vet appointment in time to nip the problem in the bud with them, as the Mycoplasmosis seemed to rip into them so very quickly and if you did not belt it on the head the second you detected it then it was hard to kill and hard for the rats to recover from it, timing is critical and you should always have drugs on hand, administered immediately if you hear persistent sneezing, coughing or if the rats start audibly talking, most important!!. Surprisingly though the oldest in the end was a brownie girl named Jewels.. she lived to 3 years where the others got mammary tumours or succumbed to Mycoplasmosis, I cried with the death of every one of them - me, a then 59 years old man.. they make space in your heart and then leave a huge hole when they leave. Despite this and about 6 months after the last of the boy ratties had died - I adopted another rat of a friend named Zap and he lived for another month after Jewels died, I'm sure he missed her, he was a good deal older than I was told as he'd gone boney despite good feed and medications as and when required, including a vitamin B shot administered by the vet. He in the end succumbed to Myco as well. I waited 6 months after Zap passed to get another mob of rats, this time 9 of them, 5 boys and 4 girls from a breeder located 3 hours away.. she said she'd bred the Myco out of them... nope.. they may have had some resistance but not enough.. it took about 6 months and they too get coughs and talk audibly, the difference now is I have the meds on hand and immediately dose them if I think they're affected. Another thing I am doing is feeding them cut oranges and mandarins, which they love. They don't eat the skins and neither the boys nor the girls seem to be affected by it.. I was told they should not eat citrus allegedly due to cancer of the kidneys for the boys, but that is falsely based on lab testing results for citrus oil which is in the skin of the fruit - they do not eat that, ever. So, yes, rats from breeders are recommended, but make sure the breeder has a good reputation before you get rats, lest you have a lot of bills and heartache to go with it.

that was rad sad and rat beautiful thank you for sharing, i loved the implication that shadow the rat is named after shadow the hedgehog, incredible lore

theres a pet shop i go to because they have a area for rats that have been given up to them and i always take them bc i cant leave them there and i know they may not be best temperment but i want them to have a better life

And so it began...thanks for the history of the beginning. I am getting 3 girls in December. They were born Oct 15. Names will be Lyric, Rhythm and Harmony. Keeping with our passion for music.

Rare footage of Shadow the Rat cursing. Also, who is Geral Diamond?

Shadow was so cute. She knew you loved her and was fighting for her to live.

I always get two males and when I lose one, I get two new babies and let the older lone one raise them up. I choose the first male to come to me and be really friendly, and I also take the most skittish and scared and trying to avoid me one I can find. The friendly one shows by example, and the skittish one eventually comes around. My skittish boy Raylan was afraid of everything, cowered shaking. Now, he is a lap rat and shoulder rat and loves me. I always feel like the scaredest one will be overlooked, and never find a home. So its like I rescue it in a way. I know its a sweet rat inside, but its afraid of people because of mishandling at some point. When they gain trust, its beautiful to see the true personality come through.

This video made me cry lol it was so sweet and informative. It also made me so excited to recover from my break of owning hamsters because they face so many similar problems to rats (short life spans, minimal exotic vets in the area, easily stressed in a detrimental way). There's so much to learn about keeping rodents and its such a case by case basis. Thank you for sharing your stories and experiences xoxo :^] wishing you and all the girls well

I think all of us make mistakes with our first mischiefs! I know I did, I am doing much better now.

Since we lost 3 old girls in the last month or so, we rescued 2 babies from the feeder bin. They are still in quarantine and Chuckie is so lonely waiting for a new snuggle buddy. But one of the teenies is super sneezy/coughing idk?? She's on Baytril and Doxy but it's so hard to administer since she is not used to being handled and she won't take it from the syringe or eat from my hand yet. I hate to force it when she doesn't even know she can trust me yet, so I am as gentle as possible and give reassurance after each dose. I just hope she can learn that I give good love cuz I am hoping one of these ladies might be my new ❤.

Dude same!! I got pet store rats and throughout their 2 years of life (maybe not even that long) one of them NEVER warmed up to me no matter how hard I tried to socialize her, to the point of where I couldn't even take her out during cleaning unless I had a lucky day, and she ended up getting a tumor that was half the size of her body and I had no idea for the longest time because she always hid from me and tried to bite me. The other one wanted to be a good rat but was also nervous and died pretty quickly also. Thennnn I went to a breeder after almost being discouraged also, and LOOOOVE my super smart and sweet cuddly bred rats and they are in MUCH better health too ❤

I’ve just started breeding pet rats and they are so much fun! I’m hoping to find enough homes for them all! It’s a new side projects because I breed lab rats for feeders, but I’ve taken up the passion of fancy pet rat breeding and don’t want any to end up as feeder from that certain group

My first rat is from a pet shop called pet works and my second is from a breeder I still have them almost 3 years known there boys and healthy so I'm glad for that

I'm new to rats, all are probably from pet stores as they were given to me by ppl that nolonger wanted them. I now have 7 all since August 22. I love your posts so much. I wish my ratties had the life you give yours. But I lack confidence around them, stupid I know.

I've had mice since I was a kid, but only ever had one rat. It was given to me as a gift, and neither myself nor my parents knew better on how to properly care for a rat. He ended up mean as hell and didn't live very long. It's been around 26 years since I had that rat, and after hundreds of mice, and channels like yours I'm ready to try again, this time with 3 rats a much larger holding area and a lot more research. With rats and mice, I always kept in mind: 1) They're only going to live for 2-3 years. 2) As they have shorter lifespans; you're not getting a friend for just a few years. You're their friend for their entire life. 3) It's your job to make sure their time on this earth is the best possible and to pass on your love and what you learned with them to your next generation of rats / mice.

One of my littlest rats sneezed a ton, but it was only the first few days in their new cage.

Shadow is a beautiful rat and your other rats too I'm so sorry the first three all got sick; that must have been awful We rescue our boys and lady rats because of that they come with a lot of health issues that is so sad getting to see some video of Shadow the rat too Thanks for your great channel god bless all your rats and you too

Please Buy from reputable rat breeders, Most my girls had Mycoplasma from the stupid pet shop even though they had a "vet" on staff. Ive lost 7 girls and one amazing fawn boy because of this. Shadow is the best and I will always take her advice.

just curious have you heard anything about Meatball after you found him a home ? ❤

T^T ... omg shadow showing her belly looks so much one of mine , and i'm shocked to hear you first experiences with rats for sure it was not an easy one

pet store rats are fun and funny, and i know the difference between well bred rats and PTStore rats. My first two males from PTStore smelled like Dorito chips and loved to play hide and seek. rATS FROM Breeders are always wanting to come out and interact with their owner and playmore.

My first two rats are my first pets overall. I got them from my cousin who works for some lab and takes care of their lab rats, so i knew there shouldn't be much problems with their health. However, they were very shy and skittish. Being worried constantly about everything i do, it did lead to me not bonding with them, cage set up being bit eh, as well as me putting them through more stress than i should. Especially when i was going home from uni for like a week and had to take them with me, they really didn't make things easy back then (as well as said cage setup) Currently they did learn to tolerate me more or less, won't really let me handle them but i think they are more or less aware i'm not there to hurt them. There are some systems i've worked out with how they are, like when i need to get them out of the cage i just wait for both to be in sputnik, then i can gently take it out with both of them inside. While it is a stressful experience and i wish i could've done more for their lives to be better, they are my first rats and first pets, so i think i've still done better than most people who wouldn't even put much research into it in the first place. I did learn from my mistakes and when i get a new rat or two next month (my cage is up to 4 rats) i really hope to give them all best life i can

Great video. I had rats as friends (I won't use the term 'pets') since I was 15. My first was Tim, and my last was Nibbler. Nibbler was 4 years old before she passed on (dammit, the tears are flowing now). It's amazing how such a small lifeform can have so large an emotional impact on us. Rats are adorably cool animals. Too bad my girlfriend eschews them (and cats). You totally _rock_ girl! 😊

Thank you for sharing this! I loved hearing about your first experiences with rats, and getting to see some video of Shadow. I'm sorry the first three all got sick; that must have been awful. I'm so glad Shadow recovered and rhat you continued to own rats! I have learned so much from your channel and gotten so much joy from watching your rats iver the years ❤😊!

Remarkable Ratty Mom 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

I’ve had rats off and on since the mid 90’s. The amount of information on rat care today is astounding compared to what there was back then, I probably would have been able to spare myself a lot of trouble had I known then what I do now. Not all of my rat groups were connected, I had a couple in middle school (90’s) and then a whole slew of them in the 2000’s. That group pretty much was an unbroken chain over several years, all of them petstore rats. Had a few more around 2012, then took a break due to a lot of moving and life changes. My recent group was only 4 boys that my husband and I had between 2019 and 2022. These were my first rats from an actual breeder and they definitely had great health and temperaments. I don’t currently have rats but I’m hoping to talk our landlady into allowing them once we’ve been here a while. I have been watching videos and looking at pictures of other people’s rats and lastnight I even dreamt about them. lol Soon hopefully!

I'm glad you shared your first ratties with us The reason I have kept rats 4 10 years now is because of my first two, Phillips and Nugget. They were amazing and I'm glad I they found me. They brought so much love to me I will always love those two New I couldn't be without them 🐀💙🐁💗

Thanks for sharing your origin story with us. ❤

Your mom is awesome! Sorry about ninja.

If i saw this vid before I got rats I would have freaked out cause one of my rats sneezed a ton when I got her she still does a bit but not nearly as much and its been ages so shes good :3

My first rats were pet shop rats and I had seen them a few months before...then they were on clearance which is never a good sign for the animal. When I got close to the enclosure, the larger male who would go on to be Philly recognized me. From the first week he was pretty much my shoulder rat and we'd go outside/ to the trails and even some stores together. Went on to live 4 years, but that's totally atypical I hear.

I HAD THAT SAME CAGE FOR MY RATS!!! I hated it 😭 I desperately wanted the critter nation but my mom said it was too expensive. It made me swear to never buy anything other than critter nation if I ever get rats again. My story with rats is kind of tragic so I won’t get into it (I completely understand your bad first experience). But I think I’d also love to try having girls, as I only had boys before. Anyway Esther, I love your channel and have been here for years, even before I got my rats. Thanks for always making good ratty content and for teaching people about rats!

Sweet snuggly beans.

Awe I love Sonic’s color❤️

I agree with you but last time I got my ratties from a breeder was a horror story she told me the were from her but homed and given back she lied about their ages by a year my vet said they were already 2 years old or close to it my one nibbles I only had two months he passed away we had a necropsy done he has leassions on his lungs that of an old rat plus other health issues did rt have his brother much longer contacted the breeder she said my vet was lying and offered to sell me two more 😢

I tried to go to a pet store and couldn't find any. Found a breeder near by and my rats are sooooo friendly have had them since 6 weeks old there about 7-8 months now and love attention lol

My gf and I got 4 rats at a family owned pet store Tulip(6weeks) is fine she's a dog but pocket sized, lilac(5weeks) is a love bug but has come down with the sniffles her medicine has been helping, (in our separate cage) Chow(4weeks) has been very skiddish since we got him and he had a pretty bad sneeze that came on 2 days after we got him, the meds are helping but hes at 120 breaths pre minute, while the other 2 girls are sitting around 90-100. We lost Bean(4 weeks)30 grams less than chow) a week and a half after we got him and it was crushing, we woke up and he was at 260 breaths per minute i had to count off a slowed down video I took. Brought him to the vet within hours and gave him medicine from the vet and I stayed up till 4am with him cuz he wanted to sit on my neck when i set him down in the cage to go lay down for bed i did more research and came across someone saying there rat was dying and only wanted to be held, and i got a bad feeling so i wanted to stay up with him i was back to the rat room half an hour after setting him down and he was on the net motionless but still warm, i fucking hate myself so much for leaving him in his final moments its a week later and im at work crying typing this out because it feels nice to share it, but the loss is still so hard we got some closure burying him but i still cant forgive myself for leaving him alone, I feel sick to my stomach every day that i have to go give medicine to the other babies because of my anxiety with bean. I posted the video of Bean breathing heavily for awareness because i feel like there is a serious lack of rat health help online, and its a hunt to find anything helpful online.

Ive owned a lot of rats. ( I prefer male rats) Ive had my best luck at reptile stores. They raise healthy rats. Best rats will pick you when you stick your hand in the cage. The least fearful rat will come check you out. He or she will be a better rat than one chased down.

Your girls look so sweet. Thanks for sharing your experience.

What do u use for liquid treats in your rat training videos???

My rats are way smaller than those, am I doing something wrong? They’re about 2 months old btw

Just got my first rats! Rosemary my Albino from petco, and Thyme my black and white from a breeder. Except on day 3 I was filling their food bowl like I do everyday and Out of NOWHERE rosemary just bites me. Not mouthing, draws blood kind of bites. Thyme saw that and is now doing it too. I tried treats and talking, I've given them their space but everything i do for them they'll lunge at me and bite me! Its making me frusterated and I'm trying to be gracious since they're still young but I don't know If I can do this much longer. Can you tell me any possible sollutions? I'm guessing rosemary is just scared or something, since she does it way more than Thyme does. (Thyme only did it twice) and she's shaking and jitterey and breathing quickly a lot. I want the best for them, but I also want to give up and return them. What am I doing wrong?

Woaw impression j ai des rats et j essaye de les dresser c'est fascinant

🥹So sweet.

IAM so sad I asked for 2 girls rats .for my other 2 sisters rattail and claw..the new girls 8 months to I realise 3 weeks later I realised my rattail and claw is pregnant and the girls are boys and the boys one brother attacked his brother and I separated each other he so secard griffindor of ravenclaw and griffindor won't let me hold him he secard IAM secard are they brothers

I live rats i actually have four pet rats

❤❤❤❤❤❤

After this kind of experience I think I would never have rats☹️

Huh. Owning pet rats is completely illegal where I’m from.

Animal lovers are not supporting breeders.

Good video. I get mine from the chicken coop

Perfect