An Francach April 2014 Issue 2

h c a c n a r F n a

Issue 2/April 2014

Quarterly Jo

ur n a l o

a nc y Ra t As f The Irish F

sociation

Bongo Fury Zen

The Irish Fancy Rat Association

Chariperson - Eoghan Duggan Hon. Secretary - Laura Woods Hon. Treasurer - Karl Woods Public Relations - Grace Daly Webmaster - Kayleigh Keegan Editor - Darren J. Fitzpatrick

Contents 4. Pet Shop, Breeder or Rescue?

8. Our Furry Accidents!

10. Is it a boy? Is it a girl? c o ve r : Bo n g o This issue's dle.

Fury Bracegir

12. Feeding the Masses 14. Husbandry 101

Dear Members, It has arrived, albeit five weeks late. Welcome to Spring and the second issue of an Francach.

This issue has something of a theme running through it. Laura explains the pros and cons of how and where to source rats, Eoghan relates a survival story of a 'Whoops' litter (luckily for Eoghan, two only became six and not eighteen!!!) and Estelle from the NFRS gives the low-down on how to tell if your rats are bucks or does. Hopefully, we have provided enough information to prevent accidents and mishaps.

Grace gives some excellent pointers on feeding rats showing that with a little knowledge, feeding can be flexible, easy and fun. We also have a basic run down of rat husbandry, focussing on cages and substrate and as well as the usual 'A Rat Miscellany', Q & A and book review. As a journal, we would like to see more input from readers. Please feel free to email us your stories, book reviews, photos and tips and tricks, etc. for inclusion in future issues.

Until August,

Darren

16. A Rat Miscellany 17. Q & A 18. Book Reviews

Readers!

We need you!

If you fancy contributing, we are always after content. Perhaps there is an aspect of rat care you are particularly interested in, or a story you have about your rats. Maybe, you like to write short stories or about anything at all that interests you or even have a few nice pictures of your rats lying around. Please feel free to submit for the next or any issue. irishfancyratassociation@gmail.com

anFrancach | Sourcing Rats

Pet Shop, Breeder or Rescue?

Laura Woods

S

o you're looking to get some rats whether you've owned them before or are starting out with rats for the first time, there are a few choices to be made. This article will hopefully help you think a bit about where your rats are coming from and what suits your set of ethics best. I will attempt to cover the three main sources of pet rats in some detail, but honestly, a book could be written on this subject!

One of the main reasons to avoid buying from a petshop is the disease risk, rats kept in unsuitable and overcrowded conditions are far more likely to be sickly and pass on illness to any rats you may already have, or become quite sick in later life themselves. There is also a minor risk to people with certain illnesses, so that's something to be aware of too. Another major issue with petshop rats is that they are very commonly pregnant when they are bought. Because of such mis-sexing incidents, many give you a lovely little surprise a week or two after being brought home. While it may seem like fun at first, raising a litter is hard work and costly also. Homing babies is no easy feat either.

The Petshop

This is probably the worst possible option for most people. The vast majority of petshops source their rats from rodent mills, backyard breeders or occasionally feeder breeders.

Rodent mills would be the most common source, because usually they offer sale or return, which makes good business sense for the shop. These establishments are absolutely horrendous. They often breed many different species, including exotics which need highly specialised treatment and care. The disease risk is pretty high, the animals arrive to the shops absolutely unsocialised and often badly underweight and malnourished. Most rodent mills raise rats in lab tanks, often with a large number in each. They are kept as cheaply as possible for maximum profit. More information on rodent farms can be found in Estelle Sandford's marvellous article, here: http://ratz.co.uk/ .This is complete with some rather sad pictures of a rodent mill in The Netherlands. The sad thing is, that the UK rodent mills are often worse. It's also absolutely a fact that rodent mills send rats to Ireland, so they are in petshops here.

Most people go to a petshop because they can't/don't want to wait for rats from a breeder or rescue - in reality, that's a very selfish way to go about things. It is far better to exercise restraint and to avoid going into petshops that sell animals and if you need a 'rat fix' before you can get some from a breeder or rescue, join the forums and find someone local to meet up with, cuddle their rats, chat to them about rat ownership, visit a breeder and see their rats. It's never worth it to buy from a petshop just to satisfy an itch.

Another reason people buy from petshops is the idea that it's rescue. It absolutely isn't. It's funding a very poor pet trade. The pet shop industry, in truth, has a large role to play in creating rescues. They encourage impluse purchases which often end in abandonment. If you buy a rat from a petshop, it will be replaced with one or two more rats. You may 4

Sourcing Rats | anFrancach

be helping that one individual, but you are condemning more to a miserable fate.

Petshops of course do no home vetting of any kind, and so the animals could end up in all kinds of nasty situations. In short, it is never rescue if you buy from a petshop, even with the best of intentions.

The Breeder

are backyard breeders who may actually give their animals the utmost of care and attention. There are a lot of shades of grey.

Personally, I would only ever buy from a hobby breeder - someone who is breeding for the love of the animals, and with a clear goal to improve the lines they are working on. That, for me, is the most important thing.

If a breeder has no goal, why are they making more animals?

So you've decided not to go to a petshop.

Another option is to go to a breeder. There are so many breeders out there, good, bad What sort of breeder you choose to buy from and ugly. This is where you really have to is up to you and you alone. The hobby have your breeder is usually head on the only kind of properly, and breeder who will think long and be there for the hard about duration of the life what you think of the rat, who will are acceptable be willing to offer practices, and advice, who will be what ethics are there to take any in line with rats back if your own. The circumstances term breeder change. They are covers usually the only everyone from breeders who the 13 year old follow their lines Daddy, the hairless buck recently girl who's closely, know what rescued by Bongo Fury rattery. breeding a they are working couple of pet with, and can give shop rats back to back to sell in the freeyou some insight as to what to expect from ads, to the feeder breeder who sells a few the rats you buy. They usually know what pretty ones alongside the frozen ones, to the health problems occur in the lines, and can backyard breeder who just breeds whatever tell you how to look out for certain things. they can lay their hands on for a bit of extra cash, to the dedicated hobbyist who breeds It is often posted on the internet that rats with love and care to produce beautiful, from breeders are healthier. This is often not healthy, friendly rats and agonises over the case (although, it also can be!), though every litter and pairing. There are huge things depend massively on individual lines differences within breeders in each of these and what the breeder is working towards. categories too - some are better than others. Often the rats are only of average health and There are excellent hobbyists who may not lifespan, however rats from a good breeder hold ethics you are comfortable with, there are always well socialised and correctly 5

anFrancach | Sourcing Rats

sexed. A good breeder will talk to you for hours about their passion, they will answer your questions as well as they are able, and often become a friend. A good breeder genuinely cares about the welfare and happiness of each rat they produce, and will often keep in touch throughout the life of the animals in order to see how they, and you, are getting on.

The main thing about buying from breeders is to be sure that you know exactly what sort of breeder you're comfortable with, and what sort of breeder you're dealing with before you take the plunge, that way you'll know where you stand throughout the lives of any animals you purchase.

The Rescue

This is a route many people choose to go down because they want to help rats in need.

This is a very valid point, and can only be a good thing. The same care, however, should be taken in selecting a rescue as in selecting a breeder. Not all rescues are good rescues, not all rescues look after animals properly, or are at all trustworthy. Some are in it only for the glory and some are in it for the money.

Most are in it because they love the animals.

Really be sure of the rescue you're going to before you do, the same as with breeders.

Particularly in this country there are very few rescues indeed, although there are often rats that need rescuing. Some breeders take in rescues, that's worth knowing, there is nothing wrong with getting in touch with a breeder, asking if they ever have rescues, and being put on a 'list' for those. Again however, be careful that the breeder you're dealing with has good morals, and isn't using rescue as a way to palm off unwanted older rats of their own.

come with problems, mostly behavioural, sometimes health. Not all rescues have problems, and some are positively perfect from the first moment, however it's worth remembering that they are nearly always from a bad start in life and often from bad situations later on too. Some can be a challenge, and only really for people with experience and confidence, but all are rewarding. Many rat owners find that they end up owning both well bred rats and rescues, as they are both a joy to own, and that way the human is getting the best of both worlds. The satisfaction of owning rescues and knowing that they are in a loving home environment, and the joy of owning well bred rats and knowing their lineage, their likely problems and knowing that there's a breeder who will help with any problems or questions.

My own personal viewpoint is that I love to have both rescues and well bred rats, and as a breeder, I often take in and home out rescue rats, and I am there for the duration for anyone who buys rats from us, even if they no longer have rats from us. I am always there to offer advice to any rat owner who asks me for help.

In conclusion, there are more places than most people would ever think to get rats from, and in the end, only you can make your own choices. I hope this article has been some help to those who are looking into getting rats in the future.

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Rescues are not for everybody. Many rescues 6

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anFrancach | Whoops!

Our Furry Accidents!

Eoghan Duggan

She's not my brother, she's my girlfriend! Smokie and Noodles playing house.

"Ah

“Ah Eoghan, Smokie had babies!!!!!!!!!!” , Grace shouted up the stairs. We suspected she was pregnant but it was the first of April so I thought she was messing. In fact she was not and Smokie had four babies, later named Ghostie, Ralph, George and Tuffy.

out of business but that’s a different story.

When we realised that Smokie was a lady (And what a lady!) we separated Noodles and herself but alas, as we found out 23 days later, we were too late. To ensure we did not have one rat by himself we had Noodles neutered, which I made the pet shop pay for even though they offered to take the babies from us to which Grace replied with a swift “are you kidding me!” and stormed out of the shop. Anyway I digress.

Now keep in mind we got rats on the sixth of March and this was three and a half weeks later. Grace did a lot of research before getting rats, but we never looked into sexing them, although we did ask for two males when we went to the pet shop. To our dismay, we discovered that we could not have gone to a worse pet shop (they order rats like light bulbs). Thankfully, they are now

So three and a half weeks into owning rats and we went from two “boys” to one girl, one boy and four babies. After a day of googling for advice we decided to leave Smokie and co. alone and after a few days check for a 8

Whoops! | anFrancach

milk band and just keep the food bowl and water bottle full. After about two weeks we cleaned them out. Smokie was a great mammy.

Smokie outlived her husband Noodles and her four babies and lived to the ripe old age of thirty-five months, she had hind leg degeneration and a tiny mammary lump This is a common under her arm but occurrence with in the end she just pet shop rats as faded away with a the pet shop staff bad respirator would have no infection. We experience with thought it was her sexing rats unless time to leave us so The accidental ratlets. they have rats we took her to the themselves. And in vet and in pure saying that it's not Smokie style of really the staff's responsibility to sex animals doing everything her own way she passed as they would not be trained to do so. Some away in my hands before we could put her to people have reported getting a pregnant rat sleep. from the pet shop. So this goes to show that people who breed for pet shops don't care or *** monitor what pet shops get their rats and the current state of those rats.

This experience made me rather wary of what pet shops I go to in the way of food, treats and toys.

I now prefer to shop in establishments that do not sell animals. There is always rats or other animals in need of a good home and occasionally there is a planned litter from reputable breeders, whether in Ireland or the U.K., that you could get rats from. But I think we've all gotten rats from pet shops at some stage and we've all learned our lessons from it.

Ralph and Toby exploring the big bad world.

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anFrancach | Sexing Rats

Is it a boy? Is it a girl?

Estelle Sandford

At just two hours old, it is possible to sex kittens. Here, the doe is in the foreground and the buck, evident from the 'bump' in his groin region, is in the background.

The ability to accurately sex rats is an important skill. With a little knowledge, such blunders as co-housing a missexed pair and the resulting whoops litter are easily avoided.

Luckily, buck's (male rats) are not modest and so it is easy to tell the difference between adult bucks and does. With the information in this pictorial guide, it will be equally easy to sex younger rats. As a general rule, the gap between the doe's urethra and anus is much smaller than the gap between a buck's penis and anus.

At 9 days old (top), the buck's scrotum (left) is taking shape and the nipples in the doe (right) are beginning to show. Bucks don't have nipples. At 5 weeks old (below), the buck's (left) testicles have descended and at this point he is likely sexually mature.

As adults, the difference is clear.

The buck's testicles (top) are very apparent! When a doe is in season, the vaginal hole becomes dilated and after mating it's often possible to see a plug where the sperm has made a solid cork to keep it in place.

For more information, visit www.ratz.co.uk

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Bog Myrtle Gazunder, A Cinnamon Irish Rex Doe

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anFrancach | Diet

Feeding the Masses Grace Daly

F

ood is such a big part of any ratties life.

As a pet owner, I get so much enjoyment when I see that the food I provide for my girls is contributing to their health and enriching their lives. It is an aspect of husbandry that has the potential to have a direct and very visible effect on any animal, whether it's boosting an animal's immune system when they are not well, keeping them strong and fit into old age or just maintaining lovely condition. We all want to keep our rats healthy, fit and happy. With some research and a little effort we can really make a difference to our rats well being.

need to spend hours obsessing over (unless you want to!). All anyone needs is a basic knowledge of nutrition and the best interests of the rats in mind. After that, its just a case of tweaking it to suit your individual rats, availability of ingredients, convenience and financial consideration.

There are several different options available, pre­made mixes, pellets (although as far as I know these are not widely available over here), or a homemade mix. I used a pre­made rat food when I first got rats but I have moved onto a homemade mix which I'm very happy with. There are quite a few recipes for homemade mixes available online but when I spoke to other rat owners and read through a few, I chose to use the Shunamite Diet by Alison Campbell. It works for me and my rats and I thoroughly recommend her book “The Scuttling Gourmet”. There is a lot of yummy rat snacks in there as well as the recipe of her homemade mix and I found it explained the basics of rat nutrition in

I have been learning about rat nutrition since I developed an interest in getting rats. The diet I provide has changed as I have read more, talked to other rat people and gotten better at observing their condition.

It's an aspect of their husbandry that I really enjoy planning and learning about but it's not something you

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Diet | anFrancach

bit fattening and my girls are curvy enough as it is! As an occasional treat I give them nuts in the shell. I have to remind myself of the relative size of their stomachs and ignore the “starvie” eyes that they all seem so adept at. It's all too easy to overfeed our pets (believe me I know) especially as rats are such little gluttons but its really not in their best interests to be overweight and it increases the risk of a number of health problems.

They already have such a short lifespan that I feel it's important to keep them healthy, fit and therefore happy fo r as long as possible. They get so much enjoyment from their treats of chicken wings, natural yogurt and blueberries and I get infinite enjoyment from knowing I'm doing all I can to keep them healthy and happy. Overall my mix varies a bit at times but my priorities are always the lowest amounts of sugar and salt as possible, as well as obviously including what they need in terms of protein, vitamins and minerals etc.

a really understandable way. I would be lost without it.

I think the shunamite diet suits me because its quite simple, and once you have the proper ratios of base, cereal and protein its really low maintenance as well as easy to tweak for individual rat groups. I use my version of the diet because I feel it's the best for my girls and they seem to be in really good condition as a result. I can control exactly what is in it (unlike pre­ mixed food) but it's not overly fussy or complicated. I don't have to worry that I'm missing some vital vitamin or mineral which would be detrimental to the rats health. I supplement with fresh fruit and veg with the emphasis on the veggies as too much sugar, even natural sugar isn't great for them. I try to include a variety of these to have a healthy range of vitamins and minerals but I try to get kale, broccoli, carrots and blueberries in on a regular basis. As for This is just what works for protein I use fresh chicken, me, I would encourage eggs or fish but I know a lot anyone to do research, share of people use good quality aried diet. v a y o j n e , ideas, ask questions etc. The dog kibble. I use fresh protein um a n s Rats like h IFRA forum can be a really for the convenience as its easy good resource for this. We all want the best for our to include eggs, chicken or little guys, and diet can be a really interesting and tinned fish in my shopping list and again it comes back enjoyable part of rat keeping. to the fact that I know exactly what is in it. The less unnecessary or processed ingredients that can come with undesirable effects the better!

***

As for the base I use “Mr. Johnsons Supreme rabbit food”. Some of the suggestions for the Shunamite diet are more readily accessible in Britain but there are always substitutes and this works for me. I include the lowest sugar cereal I can find and I try to mix them up.

At the moment the girls are enjoying corn flakes and shredded wheat and I have had no complaints so far! I don't include pasta in every mix anymore as it can be a

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anFrancach | Husbandry 101

Husbandry 101 Eoghan Duggan

H

usbandry is a broad topic, from which cages to use, to cleaning them, to substrate, bedding, etc. Here, I will briefly give a breakdown of the main points to consider when choosing a cage and substrate.

Substrate Our many rats are currently on woodshavings, these are kiln dryed and dust extracted. In the past we tried wood sticks, hemp, tissue paper but for ease of use cleanliness and cost the woodshavings come out on top. Wood sticks or wood pellets were the first we tried.

We found found them poor to soak up urine or cover the cage base well and they tended to break apart and turn to dust when they did get wet. Kitchen towel is the best subtrate for sick, old or post­op ratties as urine, faeces or blood etc. Kitchen towel is also good for nesting material but it is expensive to get good quality.

We always used and still use “Plenty” as it was available in all shops and was the best quality we could find. Hemp is relativly inexpensive and has good soakage.The problem with hemp became apparent about a week after we started using it. Our furry friends would send it flying whilst they wandered around the cage. It was everywhere! We finished with hemp after a few bags and then turned to woodshavings.

Woodshavings are the business ­ cheap compared to hemp. Kiln dried and dust extracted are the most suitable as the respiratory systems of rats are very suseptable to irritation.

Cages Cages essentially come in two flavours, solid base or wire floor. I have always used solid based cages. They are more readily available. The solid base, whether plastic or metal is easy to clean as all substrate is contained within the base. It's simply a case of removing the subtrate, spray clean, leave to dry and add clean subtrate. Wire floor based cages are harder to clean and rats can be more suseptable to injury such as sprained ankles and loss of toenails or in rarer occasions broken legs and loss of toes. There is a common misconseption that wire floor cages cause bumble foot when, in fact, they do not. However, if your rat develops bumblefoot it may be aggravated by the wire floor cage. To avoid this you can line the wire with lino, polar fleece or newspaper. Newspaper is cheapest but requires daily removal. Polar fleece is in the middle for price and cleaning. Lino is the most expensive but it does not require replacing unless worn or chewed and cleaning simply involves a spray with cage cleaner and a quick wipe.

In the end we use Solid base cages and woodshavings for the main subtrate, with tissue as bedding and for specialist care. But I would encourage you to do your own research on cages and subtrate and draw your own conclusions.

Cleaning your ratties cage should be done as often as it needs it. More ratties in a cage, the quicker soiled substrate builds up. Male rats will go to extreme lengths to scent new subtrate as soon as possible so it may be smellier after you clean it than before. Below I give my views on substrate.

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Smokie has a sense of humour!

anFrancach | A Rat Miscellany

I know that you know that I know...

Darren J. Fitzpatrick

What does a rat and an epistemologist have in common? It's not a joke and it may seem the answer is nothing. Epistemology is the study of knowledge. It is concerned with questions such as what is knowledge, how do we know what we know and more importantly, how do we know that that which we know is correct.

This may seem like an abstract discipline concerning only tweed clad dons walking the dusty halls of the academic ivory tower. But is is not. Psychologists define metacognition as 'cognition about cognition'. Put simply, to be metacognitive is to have the capacity to think about thinking. The fact that humans are metacognitive is a possible reason why philosophy and especially epistemology even exist at at all.

So how does this relate to rats? Well, few animals are known to posses metacognition. There is some evidence that this ability exists in elephants, primates and dolphins but it is difficult to measure. In 2007, two

scientists, Crystal and Foote attempted to do just that.

They published a paper in the esteemed journal, Current Biology, with the rather brave title, "Metacognition and the Rat". I say brave, as no arena of science is as conservative than that which studies intelligence and cognition in animals. Anthropomorphism is something scientists are typically afraid of and where they suspect it, as in the case of Jaak Panksepp's laughing rats, they mock, deride and dismiss. But as Kelly Lambert points out in her book, 'The Lab Rat Chronicles', there is a fine line between anthropomorphism and anthropodenial.

Crystal and Foote designed an ingenious experiment to measure metacognition in the rat. Their model was simple.

If a rat is metacognitive, he will be able to choose amongst a range of behaviours in order to get some reward even if he is incapable of earning the desired reward. They first trained rats to distinguish between tones, either long tones or short tones. Where the rat decided which tone was long or short they moved to a specific compartment.

When they decided correctly, they were rewarded. When they decided incorrectly, they got nothing. Not all rats decided correctly all the time.

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The reserachers then introduced another task that the rats could accomplish.

But, and here's the clever part, this task was rewarded with a treat of less value than the tone distinguishing task.

The rats were now faced with three choices. Attempt task one and get a scrumptious treat or nothing or complete task two and get a consolation treat.

Remarkably, the rats proved quite sophisticated. Where a rat knew how to solve task one, they did so and relished their large reward. Where they were uncertain of the answer to task one, they refrained, completed task two and settled for the runner up prize.

This simple but brilliant experiment demonstrates that in some manner, the rat is capable of thinking about thinking. Given the tasks, he can assess his capacity to solve one and proceed accordingly. With a little strectch, the rat is practising a form of personal epistemology. So, the next time little Lulu is pulling fluff from the cushions, she may just want to make a nest or alternatively she might want to be scooped up for a shoulder ride where the chances of getting a mouthful of your dinner are so much higher!

anFrancach | Q & A

Q

I have been researching the diet of my rats and I am worried that they are not getting enough copper. Lots of information says that copper is important but I don't know why it is important and how to ensure my rats are getting enough.

A

Q

Copper is an example of a trace element that has a role in the healthy functioning of cells. According to The Scuttling Gourment, a rats daily copper intake should range from 5mg/kg to 15mg/kg. If you feed your rat a commercial diet or use a commercial mix like rabbit food as part of your base mix, it is likely that your rat is getting adequate copper. However, it is worth reading the nutritional analysis on the bag. Signs of copper deficiency include rusting (browning) of the coat, especially around the rump and the fading of pigment around the eye, creating what looks like a bald circle. These signs can occur in an old rat as part of aging. Natural sources of copper include kale, liver, kidney and sesame seeds and are worth feeding occasionally as a booster. If you are worried about copper intake, the use of a supplement like Daily Rat 3 and Dr. Squiggles Daily Essentials will ensure your rat has adequate intake of all vitamins and minerals.

My rat has been prescribed baytril for a respiratory infection. What is the best way to give my rats medicine?

A

Baytril is perhaps the most common antibiotic prescribed to rats with respiratory infections. And yes, rats will not eat it at will. To know why, put a drop on your tongue. It is vile!

Some vets will suggest to put the medicine in their water. Unfortunately, this does not work with rats. If your rat is still eating, the simplest approach is to mix baytil with his favourite moist treat and feed it to him on a spoon. Yoghurt, meat paste and jam work well. If your rat is not eating, you will have to force feed him the medicine. This is stressful so should be done quickly. I find it easiest to hold my rats in a towel and using a dropper, just put the liquid into their mouths. There will be some wastage. It is important to not use too much force to ensure the rat swallows the liquid and it doesn't go down his airway (aspiration).

Got a question you would like answered? Email it to the editor at irishfancyratassociation@gmail.com

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anFrancach | Book Reviews The Complete Guide to Rat Training Debbie Ducommun Reviewed by Darren J. Fitzpatrick

I thouroughly enjoyed this little book. Quite often, the concepts of reinforcement are explained in such a manner as to make them confusing but this book explains them simply yet thouroughly. The methods described focus on positive reinforcement and essentially, the author puts forward a philosophy of getting the most from training in the kindest possible way that is fun for both rat and human alike.

The book is packed with ideas for tricks, from spinning to walking on two legs to the more adventurous fetching and running mazes. For the dedicated amongst us, the author presents plans for various ways of testing a rats intelligence like the different forms of mazes and skinner boxes.

I haven't trained my rats to do everything in this book. In fact, I only scratched the surface but was amazed to see the range of tasks that rats are capable of. Such knowledge gives one an appreciation of the intelligent and crafty little beasts that they are. If you are looking for a simple guide to help you teach your rat to negotiate an agility course like a border collie or you just want to teach them their name, this book has many ideas and suggestions. The author seems keenly aware that all trainers need to adapt and respond as rats do not always play by the book!

The rat's insatiable curiosity makes them great students. But, they can get bored and find themselves up to no good like Monica here.

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