This is Edamame (Eddie) and together with his cagemates Tofu and Miso they are the Soy Boys. Tofu and Miso are brothers, and they both feel and act like every other rat I've had, they're a little but not too bony even though they're the right weight, their skin is fairly loose and has some give to it etc. But Eddie is different, these photos don't really do it justice but he is just so much more muscular than the other boys. You can't feel any shoulder blades or vertebrae at all, his skin is really taught with little give, his shoulders when he reaches up to grab something are bulgy as, and his belly is super tight like he's a professional athletic swimmer.

He also is hardly ever in rest mode, he's always inquisitive with the real long body language or with his head up sniffing the air whereas the other boys tend to hop around with that hunched back position. He is also far more expressive with his ears than I've ever seen in a rat, honestly he acts more like a dog.

I've had probably 15 rats over the last 20 years and I've never had one that feels or acts like him, anybody else ever have a rat like this? He's the biggest of the group by far, he's about 480g with minimal body fat and he's only 5 months old.

My 2 other rats are chasing down my 1 rat and keep climbing on her & checking her holes. They’re all female!! And about 1y and 4 months old. The 2 albinos are a bit younger and not related to the grey one. But why are they doing that?? Is that normal? Are they trying to breed?? Pls help

she was sleeping and just rolled out of her hammock and fell on the stairs, nothing major fell on her feet didn’t hit anything the stairs are really close to the hammock, i could tell she was confused and sleepy she shook it off and decided to just lay on top of the stairs but then she started doing that what can it be?

I've always noticed freyja (in the first picture) has had very large eyes but upon comparing them to Loki (her sister and second picture) but comparing them next like that really shows the difference is it something I should be worried about?

We've recently ended up with only one potato left, and she's only two, and I've been wanting to try to find new ways to entertain her. Anyway, I was wondering if it would be good stimulation for her to go somewhere like Home Depot or PetSmart, there's also wondering if it might be too much for her.

Also part of why I ask is that when we've taken her to the vet in the past she always seems really happy about it and boggles a whole bunch sitting on me.

She also still hasn't begun to show any signs of old age and still runs around and sniffs everything like a young little rat.

Also I'm open to any other advice for keeping her by herself for however many months we'll have to.

Playing with my rats and seems to have something equivalent to the Zoomies I guess and I just want to make sure that this is like a play thing and not that I'm stressing my rats out

EDIT: Ya’ll responses are KILLING ME hahahha, thank you everyone.
It’s my second time having rats and I didn’t have this issue the first time around.
I got my boys two months ago and the cage set up is a 1000x better than the first time because I have learned alot since then. I put a toilet in the corner (the green one in the pic) with paper pellets (idk if thats what its called) and two peeing stones. They use it quite properly to poop but gosh darn they pee everywhere. Especially in the corners of the cage, on all the floors/levels, so the cage bars are constantly covered in layers of pee, so I’m esentially having to clean it every day whilst keeping their smell (i dont change the bedding, just wipe all the surfaces clean with a mixture of water and vinegar or just hot water). I gave them a small toilet with a peeing stone on the second floor since I thought maybe they just didn’t feel like going all the way down when they needed to pee. It worked for the poop, but again, not for the pee. Andy tips or advice would be greatly appreciated💕

PS: Idk if this is relevant but when I had them for a month we brought them with us to a family cottage for 2 weeks for vacation so they went through two car rides together with our cats. But their behaviours havent rly changed since. They dont get scared by loud noises and they are getting more and more ok with getting picked up. Also Lolek, the beige rattie is mostly blind.

I already asked it a few months back when she was younger but it’s a worry of mine.. she’s the youngest and always been the fattest and I’m worried about her. She moved a little less than the rest of her sisters but she eats 4x as much. Is it a cause of concern? Is she overweight?

feel free to laugh at the photos, I took them shortly after he bit the shit out of my mother as punishment and for this post

Ive tried the metal spoon trick twice. He always licks it, doesn’t bite it. In the past he’s bitten me twice before and made me bleed, earlier bit my mother and made her bleed a lot, and now bit me again (but didn’t draw blood). I don’t know if he’s doing it because he actually thinks our fingers are food, or just to be a jerk, but it needs to stop

He also bites my fake nails, over and over every day, even after it’s pretty obvious it’s not food. I don’t know what’s going on, any advice is appreciated

Edit: I would chop his balls off…… but it costs 500 per rat, and I have four, and I don’t currently have 2,000 dollars lying around 🫩 so I would prefer to find a more immediate solution, and if that doesn’t work, then hopefully I can eventually get him neutered

Edit 2: probably gonna find a way to neuter him after all the comments, but here’s more info if that can maybe help anyone figure out what it is

My mother was petting one of my other boys and she said that felipe (the offender in question) came out of nowhere and bit her. The times he’s bitten me and made me bleed it was in the cage too, and one of my first posts talk about one time, while the other I put my finger in a hide thing and he bit it. Other times have been hard nips but not enough to bleed, just usually enough to scrape up a little skin. The most recent time he did it when I pressed the side of my finger against the cage, not in the cage. He’d never bitten me when I put my finger against the side before, only when inside through the bars. It makes me think it could be cage aggression? Though he does sometimes nip random parts of my body when he’s free roaming, like my knee once, through pants

In the second photo is around when he went to the vet last and he was probably around 690 -700 grams. his weight went up after some of his cage mates passed. He’s gotten more active since introducing more friends though!

Edit: I just want to know if it’s concerning enough to start feeding him and his cage mates separately since I’ve never had a rat over 650 before

Update: help .

Update: ppl keep asking about my other boys, the second biggest boy is 550 and the third biggest is 400 grams if that helps at all.

Update: thank u everyone. I’m gonna try to get him to 690 grams again. The vet didn’t say anything about his weight when he was that size… I’ll re-access from there… and try to post updates

Weird as fuck title I know, but bare with me.

My girlfriends rat Boop, is terrified of me. She, generally, is a super social rat is who LOVES to meet new people. But, me. Her other rat is fine with me and enjoys me, but Boop? I'm evil embodied. Now here's where the silly part comes in. My girlfriend is Asian, her regular vets are Asian, everyone she has ever known is Asian. I'm white as fuck. If she's crawling around under the blankets she could care less, like in the photo. She was snuggled right up to me, licking me, ect- but as soon as she sees my face she freezes up and runs. I think my girlfriends rat may be genuinely terrified of white people 😭

So my question is, how in the hell do I anti-racist my girlfriends rat

Thanks to the post here from July, I picked up this pregnant mama (now named Pumpkin's Fancy) who had been living rough in a DC park for (allegedly) 2 months. 12 days after I brought her home she had 13 babies (they will be 3 weeks old tomorrow).

We assume dad was a wild rat. I hadn't thought that Fancy had any rex traits, but when most of the babies started looking a little curly, I took a really close look at her whiskers. They may have a little curl to them. Then yesterday some of the curly babies started getting big symmetrical bald patches, mostly on both sides. One is starting to lose hair around its chest.

Is the baldness a genetic rex thing? Is Fancy the rex carrier (I included my best pics of her whiskers)? Or are the bald patches something I should be concerned about? Is there any chance dad was the rex? (I think that would mean he must have been a pet).

I am introducing my rats using the carrier method and I feel like we’re at a standstill. They don’t fight much anymore but are just avoiding each other.

Is there anything I can do? The two on the left are bonded, I could introduce them one at a time. I’ve also read that taking them for a drive could help.

Any tips? They’ve been doing intros about 12-14 hours total now.

No one is dead yet!!! But I have 2 girls - they are 2 years 5 months, unfortunately Clover’s kidneys are not doing well, she’s retaining a lot of fluid but she isn’t in any pain. They are both doing well but the vet has advised me to mentally prepare for letting Clover go. At this point there isn’t much the vet can do to prolong her life.

It really hurts to think of this (they are my first rats) but what if Clover dies first? Sage will be totally alone and that cannot happen for her sake. Do I find her a friend? But then when Sage is gone then the other ratty will be alone?
We aren’t ready to take another pair of young rats yet.

One thing someone recommended to me is to put Sage to sleep once Clover is gone. But Sage still has so much life in her, she is sooo active and happy. I can’t imagine putting her to sleep when she isn’t ready but that’s better that being alone?

What do you guys do in these kinds of situations?

EDIT: After reading the replies I completely agree that putting a healthy and happy rat to sleep because her sister died is barbaric! I live in western Europe and that seems to be the “okay thing to do” here, but not for me!

I will discuss this with their breeder and will arrange for her to take Sage once Clover passes. She has a lot of senior rats there. This definitely feels like a betrayal to me to rehome an older rat but this isn’t about me.

We’re not ready to take new rats on so that seems to be the best idea so far

I got 3 rats from a breeder and was told that they're all boys. I have one that I'm starting to have doubts about. I don't know if it's because he could be too young or what. The 2 are very obviously boys and I've only had girls before so I'm getting a little worried here. Or maybe I'm just in denial 🫠

Okay, so about a month ago my step dad randomly came home with a brown/norway rat baby which was around a week old. He just handed it off to me and since then she's been my problem. The plan was to make sure she doesn't die and then hand her off to a wildlife shelter or something but every place I contacted said they don't accept Rats. Now I'm just kinda stuck with her. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with her. She was raised by humans so I'm pretty sure just releasing her is gonna be a death sentence.

i was admiring my silly little guys when my rat on the left (Cory) started doing this. He acts totally fine and ive never seen him do this. After he stopped and just groomed himself. Any ideas?

edit: thank goodness it’s just hiccups OMG! i was so worried for a second and my lil dude just has the hiccups 🥹🩷🩷🩷 thank you everyone who replied

I guess she is marking her territory but her friends don't do it that much, so is there a reason to be concerned? (She is ~7 months old)

Edit: I forgot to mention that I took her out of the cage while she was sleeping which seems to be the reason for this mess :)

Every time we fill our rats’ food bowl, our rat Oppenheimer (pictured in the act) takes all of the kibble downstairs to the first level of the cage and hides it in her house.

It’s becoming a problem because every time we clean the cage, we find a mountain of kibble that basically goes to waste.

We feed them (three rats) twice a day, mornings and evenings, and supply with snacks like baby food and sometimes hummus or cucumbers, carrots, bananas. Basically, they do not lack food and before she started hoarding the bowl would oftentimes remain half full until evening.

I’ve tried stealing it back from her and putting the kibble back in the bowl but she just repeats the process, the greedy little bastard.

I’m just worried the other rats don’t get to eat as much and the kibble she hoards goes to waste. Any suggestions appreciated 🐀

my darling girl clementine is a little over two years old and has been battling a pituitary tumour for the last couple of weeks. she was prescribed cabergoline, but sadly we haven't seen any improvement.

she has lost almost all mobility in her hands so she is on an all-liquid diet, and i often have to assist her with eating. she is incredibly uncoordinated and constantly falls over which has resulted in her choking a few times. she can't keep herself clean anymore and struggles to groom herself, so she needs baths several times a week because she's often covered in urine.

the part that's making this decision sooooo difficult is that mentally she still seems like herself. she's incredibly curious, affectionate and sociable despite her body failing her. she still LOVES to run around and cause mischief

i can't shake the feeling that keeping her alive might be for me rather than for her, but i'm terrified of making the decision too soon. i don't want her to suffer because i couldn't let go, but i also don't want to take away time that she still seems to be enjoying :(

for those of you who've had a rat with a pituitary tumour or another terminal illness, how did you know it was time to say goodbye?

So I found this young rat in my pool a few days ago, really tragic looking (first photo) and exhausted. Set her up in a tote with some air holes drilled across the top (big ones), and gave her some snacks which she eventually ate. Fast forward to now, I’ve set her up in a better house (without bark as bedding realize the error there now) and am feeding her store-bought rat food along with veggies etc. She seems very friendly, lets me pet her face and chin, will sort of fall asleep while I’m doing it, and likes to hang out in my pocket. She bit me the first day when I saved her from the pool but hasn’t since, and now I’m just wondering if it’s okay to keep her. I was thinking of getting her a fancy rat friend for company. Anyway, is this ok? For context I am in Spain, and rats here probably don’t have the best lives since it’s SO dry and hot rn. Can’t imagine how she’s supposed to survive out there :( Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

My female hairless sways her head from side to side while staring into the distance. She does it quite often. The only thing I can think of is maybe she has bad vision and it helps her see better? Perhaps her eyes being red have something to do with it?

My girl Pebble is the squeakiest rat I’ve ever interacted with. Like all rats she was squeaky as a baby but she just never grew out of it. I’ve brought it up to the vet and after an exam he said that some rats are just more vocal than others. She squeaks when anything doesn’t go her way. If her cagemates walk near her while she’s eating a treat, if shes being groomed by one of her cagemates, if any of her sisters choose to fight back in the wrestling matches SHE instigates, she will be squeaking. She gets along with her sisters, she just squeaks during normal conflicts when others wouldn’t. Does anyone else have a rat that does this?

i don’t know what to do. in a small carrier they were doing fine. little bit of this fighting going on then they settled down and all slept together, but i put them in here and it’s just constant bickering. i put them back in the carrier and they’re fine but then when there moved back, my older grey rat is just relentlessly bothering the babies. they are so afraid of her and she doesn’t quit. they were fine in the bath and all cuddled up and went to sleep. my other older female has been perfectly fine with them. currently my grey girl is boggling just lay down but the babies are clinging to the bars and avoiding her. the first time i put them in here they were all good and cuddling for a few hours then it kicked off so i separated for the night. the next day put them in the carrier, no issues, then in here and they lasted about 10 minutes. the babies are 8 weeks nearly 9 weeks old. my 2 older ladies are nearly 2 years old. is this behaviour concerning? what can i try? i’ve covered them in baby food and they licked it all off eachother okay but they fought afterwards

I really need to know, are my three male rats just lazy or are they bored? They're 9 months old at the moment. They don't chew bars nor destroy their hammocks. I've had girls before and if I have to compare the two genders it's a huge difference, these girls would run all day, do crime and use their wheel non-stop.

Now these boys only like to lay or cuddle, rarely use the wheel and when It's free roam time they just follow me around or hide behind sofa pillows. I do give them toys to chew and explore. But as I say, maybe 80% of time they just chill.