ATTENTION THIS IS URGENT one of my gerbils got too stressed and started constantly salivating and then it dried and it is super hard to give him the applesauce with a powder we have mixed in that has a lot of nutrients for sick small animals. He is super lethargic and sleepy constantly. He doesn’t have stuff in his cheeks or inflamed cuts he is definitely stressed because I was dumb and took him out too much after he started being lethargic but before the saliva because I was scared. Any advice on what to do before the vet? It is on oct 23 on Friday please give me advice to help him out until then.

​@@shrekkydevito1822 Unfortunately it sounds like he's very ill - I doubt stress itself is the cause, gerbils like rats are just prone to hiding illness until they just can't anymore and so when you see symptoms they seem to hit all at once, when really the animals has often been hiding it for a while and they just finally get too sick to do so. Unfortunately this also means that when you see symptoms they are extremely ill and need urgent care - I would really try to get vet treatment before Friday (I've gone to the emergency 247 vet many times with hamsters, gerbils, and now rats) because there's a good chance he just won't last that long. In the mean time all you can do is reduce stress as much as possible, and keep him hydrated and eating. I wouldn't force any nutrient powder now, all you want to do is try to find something he likes enough to consume on his own. I'd recommend ensure, a nutritional drink for humans needing to gain weight because this is safe for gerbils (also rats and most rodents, although its very sugary so you have to be careful with dwarf hamsters and other diabetes prone rodents), its super tasty (especially strawberry), and it contains enough nutrients and calories to keep them going for a while. On top of that its liquid so easy to consume, and this also means it prevents dehydration. You can also try pedialite (great for preventing dehydration, but they don't tend to like the plain as much), or make your own rehydrating solution.

@@shrekkydevito1822 what did u end up doing? Did he make it? 🤗💜

I'm done with it all. Every time I try to move on someone gets in my way. So I'm either putting my rats down or throwing them away. I don't care anymore. Everyone else three me away like trash. Everyone else decided to hurt me over and over. Everyone else decided to bully me. So now I'll be cruel to a sweet animal. If they had a reason I wouldn't do this. But these people came after me for my past. Watched me thru what I did online

Since I don't get to be free I'm gonna hurt them and then I'm gonna hurt someone human

Spin is an awesome trick! All of my rats have favored spin over any other tricks and it’s one of my favorites as well because it’s so versatile!

WELCOME to being owned by rats! You are in for a treat because rats bond very closely to their well-trained humans! You came to the right channel because Shadow the Rat is very knowledgeable so I’ve already started expanding my own first aid kit to be exactly like hers (from a different video).

@@GuineapigGuardian Well put-- l have been owned by Rats in the past, it was WONDERFUL!! Now, just 1 bad tempered cat owns me,lol! 😱😾🐾🌈🇨🇦

🎉 CONGRATULATIONS on your new babies!!🎊🎈🥳🎈-- the fun starts now!👍🏻 Wishing you 🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻all a long happy healthy life together, quilted together with beautiful memories!!👌🏻 🤗💖🐾🌈🇨🇦☮️

In South Africa every house owns a Rat. I can ship them for you if you want, free of charge 😀

​@@sizwesithole6554 wild rats and domesticated rats are completely different bub.

Just give it time, and lots of practice. It took weeks before I could work with my skittish girls alone and even now I will occasionally have to take out a second rat if something spooks them. It’s amazing to see their progress though and awesome to see how much more confident they are when interacting with me now

Just keep at it! The more theyre socialized to you (in ref to your skittish girl) the better the training will go. Some rats will take longer than others but keep trying. Also skittish rats tend to act bolder when they're around confident rats so keep that in mind

mitsukitai2713 Thanks for the advice 😉

Sounds like the best thing to do is sit in an enclosed space and just let them become super familiar with you.

Using a pen and generally things you have at home is a great idea tbh! I have a fidget cube that makes a soft clicking sound, so I think I'll actually give that a try

Glad to hear, thanks for watching!

Thank you - training is really so doable and fun for just about any pet, and its such a great way to add enrichment to their lives!

Glad to hear!

Glad to hear - happy training!

Happy Training!

Oh man, congRATs on the new ratties! Yes, feeder rats are really the same as any other rat, its just like pet store rats you really don't know their line or background so health and temperament can be a bit of a gamble. So far my feeder rats have all had (and currently have in my girls Egg and Omelet's case) awesome temperaments, and as for health most have lived to an average age without too many health problems. They've also all been so much fun to train with, and its definily very much like training dogs - in fact i get a lot of trick ideas from the awesome dog training channel kikopup, they have some tutorials for the most obscure tricks and I've had so much fun modifying them slightly to make them work for rats!

I have so many clips of her as a baby, she was super fun to film because nothing scared her! One of my favorite clips is still from her intro where she was nomming on the older girls tails - she really was a confident little rat and that never changed.

Shadow The Rat Aww😭What a cutie

I spent quite a bit of time last year teaching certain rats to actually put the costumes on themselves (I’d put down the pieces and they would walk into them to put them on), so they were very comfortable in them by the time I asked for separate tricks. I released a video on my FB page of Espresso putting on her costume herself however I don’t think I ever did on KZfaq, so maybe I’ll get around to that as some point (I went a bit crazy and made about 50 different costumes last year so maybe I’ll do a tiny fashion show with the rats lol. Right now only Bean and Peaches have been taught to help out on the costumes so that would give me some incentive to teach the others as well.)

You are an amazing rat momma! I would love to see them putting on their costumes. Thanks again for this video and for your reply 😊

I'm glad you enjoyed - happy training!

I'm currently in college and I can tell you that you really don't have to train much time wise to teach new behaviors. I work each rat only 2-5 minutes a day on average (10 minutes at max, and that's rare), and during the week often only train every other day or two. They pick up new stuff fast and once you get the hang of increasing criteria as soon as possible they typically will be learning the basics of a trick or even the entire thing in just a few minutes. You definitely don't have to train them, but if you want to then give it a shot, they might surprise you at how fast they learn!

That's awesome - congRATs on the new ratties and have fun training!

Nope, the only really difference I've found when training any rat is that older ones tend to take longer with agility based tricks since they don't tend to enjoy them as much, but even this varies rat to rat since some stay super active even as they get older. Otherwise male, female, intact, desexed, young, old, etc. doesn't seem to have any difference for when you start, and the more experience they gain the faster they get at picking up new and more complex tricks

@@ShadowTheRat Many thanks for the info. A few final questions. How much time do you spend on daily training. Is say an hour each day enough when learning a new trick? What is a good timescale for mastering a skill such as fetch?

​@@modelmanmark An hour is pretty long - my training sessions usually last about 5-10 minutes and they can often get the main idea or even the full trick down within the first few minutes. The main exceptions are completely new behaviors like fetch which will often take several sessions but once they have those down chaining them with other tricks doesn't take long. Its better to do shorter sessions that end with the rats wanting more than to push it so I'd definitely recommend keeping sessions short but sweet. Especially in the beginning when you often won't get ordered sessions and the rats will instead be running up to you on occasion, during which you can get in a few repetitions of luring or teaching one of the simpler tricks like spin, before running off and then repeating this again. Once they get down a good 5 or so tricks though they will start to stick around for the whole session and that's when you can start working on more complex stuff like fetch or agility courses. As for timeframe for teaching a trick I always hesitate to give one because it just varies depending on so many things. Some rats have a longer attention span naturally and this can give them an edge when learning more complex tricks. Some rats have stronger stashing instincts which may hinder fetch initially. Some of it depend on their environment and how confident and focused they are in it. Some of it depends on you as the trainer and how good your timing and treat delivery is. Overall there are just so many factors that its hard to give you a time estimate. Its true that usually my rats get the main ideas for a new trick or even the new trick entirely down in a session, but this is more for the rats that have already mastered the basics of pulling things and fetching things and backing up and jumping and so forth and so they have a good pool of knowledge to draw from, plus they have an already established attention span. I'd say when teaching fetch or basketball for the first time it usually takes a few days of sessions for them to pick up the trick, and since I back-chain it they get the main idea from the start but we have to work up to the full trick. But for some rats it takes longer, and for some rats they might even find fetch to be their forte and master it right away (I had that happen with one rat - she picked up fetch on her first day home and I was just playing around with her and not even really trying to train it. She went on to be amazing at any item based trick, but her sister was the polar opposite, taking 3 weeks of on and off sessions to learn fetch (I worked other things as well with her at the same time, since I like to switch stuff up to keep it interesting) and longer to generalize it. But that same rat picked up backing up on cue right away and learned to do complex back-up tricks like weaving backwards easily - Latte on the other hand struggled to learn even a simple back up, so you can see that their individual personalities and talents do also play a role. In the end both girls became great at both tricks just due to experience alone but when you start out you can really see which rat excels at which tricks before it balances out as they gain more experience doing them). Overall I'd say just make sure you are always making progress each session and otherwise don't rush it. Often when you start out it will take longer to teach any trick especially if you haven't worked with rats before, so just go at their pace and they should get it down pretty quickly.

@@ShadowTheRat Thanks again for your detailed reply. It's our 2 children that we be doing most of the training. Our 7 year old boy is very creative and will enjoy making all the props for the tricks. Our 13 year daughter will follow your excellent training videos so I'm certain we'll do just fine. Keep up the great work and we look forward to more ratty instalments.

Hiya, its great that you're getting a rat, but please make sure to get at least 2 of the same sex, ideally 3. Rats are group animals and its cruel to keep them alone - no matter how much we interact with them it can't make up for not having a ratty buddy. I can tell you that having a group or at least pair of rats only makes them more friendly and trainable, since their mental needs are being met - please make sure to get at least 2, they really do need the company and its not really any extra work since a good cage for one rat already has to be the same size as a cage for 2. I have a video on rat care here if your interested - it goes over everything from proper caging (don't follow pet shop advise, they always recommend too small cages :/ ), feeding, playtime, vet care, socializing, and more: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/baeqlpeCtNyZpac.html CongRATs on your soon to be new buddies!

6 currently, although I’ve had 18 overall and helped care for over 25.

@@ShadowTheRat yeah thnks to tell me and I really love rates❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ i m urs biggest fan yrr❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏

@@ShadowTheRat can u plz tell me that if ours rat becomes unconscious I think if a rat feels so hot so that's a problem for him or a how many years of life for him given by god...❤️ Can u please tell me thisssssss❤️❤️❤️❤️🙏

I'm not sure I understand what your asking, whenever I post videos comments are automatically turned on. You can turn them off yourself, but the only way I know of that does it without your permission is if you label the video for kids.

Shadow The Rat Alright! Thank you so much, ❤️!

Yup, you'll almost always be combing multiple training methods when training new tricks. Clicker training compliments any training method since its ust a way to more effectively communicate exactly what you like - it really speeds up training no matter if you are luring, targeting, free-shaping, or doing a combo of all 3!

I'm so sorry :(

Their tails are actually covered in fine fur, so once you hold a few rats it helps to dispel the idea of them being slimy or such. I think a lot of rat owners feel that way before getting rats, but its a bit different when you see them using the tails to change direction or see them grooming their tail or curling up with it over another rat.

Healthy, but like any treat it should be given in moderation. I wouldn’t do more than a small squirt for a session and I’d supplement it with other treats as well

I didn't record her first training sessions, but I did show some of her first time exploring the larger playpen. She was a very cute little rat, and easily one of the most hyper and exploration obsessed rats I've had. It made her a bit hard to train at first because she easily got too excited and would dash off, but once she learned to channel that into concentrating it made her a dream to work with.

@@ShadowTheRat I envy you. All three of my rats are a pain to work with when I try to teach them tricks!

Back when I had 12 last year I trained everyone, so I’d say you can do it for sure! I will admit one reason I like having a smaller group (now 6 rats) is because it’s easier to train and work with them one on one, but it was still a lot of fun to train with so many rats!

@@ShadowTheRat Thank you for the reply never got one

Try starting with liquid treats like yogurt - these are more valuable to rats, plus the rats don't have to chew them and so they will be more willing to eat them when nervous. Other than that I'd recommend letting them have a few days to just explore at their own pace. Add lots of hides, tunnels, and so forth, scatter some small treats (pieces of cheerios work great), put on a blanket or loose hoody, and just let them do their own thing. Whenever they come up to you offer them some liquid treats off your fingers, then let them run off. Don't add any expectations yet, just give them treats freely for checking in. Some rats will take a few weeks to settle in to free-range - I even had a few that stayed nearly frozen in my hoody for over a week, before finally slowly starting to explore and then gaining confidence. Looking back I wish I had modified my pen like I do now so that I can just open the cage door and they can come out on their own, because I find this builds their confidence faster than anything else. But if you can't connect the cage to the free-range area then a travel cage with bedding from the main cage, a hide, and some water can also help. You also want to take out all the rats at once at first, just to give them that extra group confidence. Once they are comfortable walking around in the open that is when you want to start training - work on luring first, then some simple tricks to build confidence, and from there your good to go.

@@ShadowTheRat Thank you for all the tips, I'll definitely try it

Currently 5 - 4 are about 23 months old, and one is about 27 months old. I’ve had 18 total though and trained each and every one of them so many of these clips are from past rats as well.

@@ShadowTheRat that's incredible! your amazing!

They can get an idea from seeing other rats, and for example if I'm having trouble getting them to learn fetch I'll take out a few other rats that know it to give them the right idea and to make the ball more interesting, however to really master any behavior they ave to perform it themselves (and I mean the same goes for any animal because observing can only take you so far).

Shadow The Rat Yeeah, “getting the idea” is what I was referring to, it makes perfect sense that one cannot learn only from observing :) I got curious since I have a rat with a disability and he kinda does his own special thing when it comes to moving around. Thanks for your answer!

Sorry about your hamsters :(

I plan on making a video on some trust building exercises with my more timid rats, but until then I'd suggest working with them slowly and at their own pace. If they don't enjoy being picked up then you can teach them to hop onto your hand so you don't have to pick them up - some of my current rats really dislike getting picked up but because they know to hop onto my hand for food its not a big issue and they no longer have to fear me picking them up. It also helps to use liquid treats like plain yogurt, and to work wit them at the same time daily so they know when to expect you.

Ok, thank you

Training is an awesome way to build trust and voluntary interaction, so personally I'd jump right into it! The best tricks to train new rats are to hop onto your hand (leads to voluntary handling and rewards approaching & interacting with you), come when called (best trick to train any animal, really reduces the stress if a rat gets out and again rewards them for approaching you), paw (great way to reward voluntary touch, amazing for skittish rats since it involves minimal touch while also being super easy to learn), spin (teaches them that hands above their head don't mean anything bad), and nose touch (like paw this is super easy to teach and rewards them for approaching and interacting with you while not overwhelming them). I pretty much always train those tricks first, but especially work them with skittish rats to help build voluntary interaction and trust. Once they get those down then you can move to more complex tricks, and by that point they will have a firm base of experience training wise which makes training more complex stuff easier, plus they will have built trust in you and so will be more actively engaging with you and much less wary of any movements.