Ratscallions

This thread can be closed.

Contact/organisation details: PM Ratscallions or email [email protected] Does the animal have rescue back up?: Yes Location: Staffordshire Number of groups: 2 Please read all before contacting me. Group: 1 Number of animals: 2 Type/Breed/Variety: Dumbo Hairless Rats Sex: Male Age(s): Approx 4 - 5 months Name(s): Jigsaw & Squeak Colours: Jigsaw has a pale hood, and Squeak has a dark hood Neutered: No Reason for rehoming: Unanted accidental litter. Temperament: Nervous but friendly when settled Medical problems: See info below please. Neutering: NA Will the group be split: If going to experienced owners with other rats. Transport available: Can be arranged. Group: 2 Number of animals: 6 Type/Breed/Variety: Dumbo Hairless Rats Sex: Female Age(s): Approx 4 - 5 months Name(s): Unnamed as yet, apart from Pumpkin. Colours: Some have slight hoods. Neutered: No Reason for rehoming: Unwanted accidental litter. Temperament: Mostly friendly, slightly nervous. Medical problems: See info below please. Neutering: NA Will the group be split: If going to experienced owners with other rats. Transport available: Can be arranged. Other Info: - These guys aren't ready for rehoming yet, but I'd like to get homes lined up as early as possible. They are still in quarantine, but also some of them have wounds that need to heal. - Evidently these rats had been fighting in their previous home, probably over food; as a result many have bite wounds, mostly around their neck and ears. - Because of the fighting I would prefer them to go in pairs than as a large group. (Nb, they have not actually fought since they've been here) - Pumpkin (female) had many bite wounds. She has a lot of scar tissue around her neck. She will need to go to someone who is prepared to moisturise that area frequently so that she has no problems with it. - Jigsaw (male) has a very damaged ear. He may need surgery on it before he leaves here. The ear is in such a way that it might or might not get caught on something at some point in his life. (Pictures will help when I take them). He needs to go to someone who is prepared to have the ear surgically repaired if he should get it caught later on in life; so you will need to have a rat savvy vet. - Squeak (male) has two encapsulated abscesses on his lower abdomen. They are causing no harm other than soreness, but my vet wishes to remove them before he finds a new home. As such he will not be available for a few weeks. - All have been health checked by two of my vets; apart from the bite wounds and Squeaks abscesses they appear to be in good health. - If anyone is interested in any of the hairless I would like to hear what you know about caring for hairless. - I will be seeking donations for these rats, as they're already costing us a fortune lol. Incidentally, I am not an expert on hairless rats. My own hairless have no fur at all except for facial whiskers. The rats I am advertising here have a slight fuzz on their faces, and fuzzy tummies .. I am therefore not 100% certain that they are hairless, but they are not double rex, so I am not sure what they are. Anyone?

Oh ok. Didn't realise that. (Surely it should still come up in a google search). Yahoo appears to be down at the moment so I'll try and join again later.

I can't find a website for K9-999 .. when I google it it comes up with a lot of Japanese stuff. Can you give me the link?

Okey dokey. I'll take a look in a bit ... having computer problems atm, sorry. Give me a kick in the bum if I've not updated the thread by this evening.

Contact/organisation details: MNM Rat Rescue [email protected] / 07858096506 Does the animal have rescue back up?: Yes Location: Telford, Shropshire. Number of animals: Approx 100 Type/Breed/Variety: Rat Sex: Males and females Age(s): Vary from 10 weeks to 5 / 6 months Name(s): Some are names, some aren't Colours: Vary. There are a lot of himis, a few agoutis, some interesting blazed rats. Neutered: No. (It is not standard practice to neuter rats). Reason for rehoming: Confiscated by the RSPCA and put in the care of MNM. Temperament: Vary. Many were skittish when they arrived, but most are friendly and curious now. Medical problems: Most are healthy, a few have health problems. The rats are severely inbred, so anyone taking any on should bare that in mind. Will the group be split: Yes. Transport available: Possibly; best to enquire. Other: Most of the rats at MNM were rescued in one bulk group. We picked up 124 rats in one go from a man who had been inbreeding them. You may have read about them on forums or in the news. The conditions they were in were appalling. Crammed into tiny hamster cages, living on piles of faeces, mouldy food, and were terrified of handling. If you're anxious about rehoming a rat that's inbred, they do have other rats too. They have rats coming in all the time! I am not MNM myself, but I work closely with them. You can contact me, but I will forward you to them if you do so; their contact info is at the top of this post if you wish to contact them directly. A few pics. Some of the rats in the pics may have been rehomed already. It's very hard to take individual pictures of 100 rats lol.

It was being scanned for a microchip when I met the lady who found it. She had informed the police and the dog warden, and obviously the local vets are aware of it. I checked K9 and Dog Lost straight away. I've been ill over the last few days so haven't checked again yet .. and haven't checked whether the dog has been claimed yet either. Will do so tomorrow. The Dog Lost coordinators have the description. Don't worry, I know no rescue people would claim a dog that isn't theirs; it's the scary public that do that. I'll have a look at Lurchersearch and K9-999 too; hadn't heard of either of those .. unless K9-999 is the same as K9 I'm surprised at the number of dogs that appear to be missing.

Sorry I couldn't post this sooner, I've been ill, so only turned my computer on today. It was in The People this Sunday. You can read the article here: http://www.people.co.uk/pets-animals/stories/2010/05/30/rodents-causing-havoc-for-rescue-centres-102039-22294764/ The rescues features are MnM Telford and Raunds Rat Rescue. I would just like to say that they've been misquoted all over the place and are very dissapointed with the article. They did NOT recommend that size of cage for rat; if any rat rescues on here would like to complain to the paper about that bit please do so Other than that I'm glad there's a little bit of PR for rescues going on Nim

A dog was found this morning on Hednesford Road in Rugeley, Staffordshire. If you think it may be your dog, or you know someone who's missing a dog let me know. I'm sorry, but I'm unwilling to describe the dog as I don't want people to simply contact me and say it's their dog when it isn't. So if you think you know the dog please can you describe it to me. Thank you, Nim

We have pictures!!! Some of these people already have homes to go to already, but I thought you might all like to say hello anyway: Here's the album: http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn247/soshonika/Rescue%20Rats/Tipton%20Rats/ And some samples: It's so good to see them looking so healthy, in clean surroundings, and gathered around a bowl of healthy food. You cannot imagine the huge journey these little guys have been through to get where they are. Nim

Thanks Kathy. NFRS is indeed my next stop

Hi there, I've just been contacted by a journalist (some of you are probably familiar with Alan Breeze). He's managed to sell an article to a paper about rats, but they have some further questions which have him stumped. I'm hoping that you guys may be able to give me some ideas as to how to find out this information. 1) How many people in the UK own a pet rat? 2) How many pet rats get abandoned each year? My first port of call was to see how many rats Simons Rodents sell to pet stores each year, as it'll give a rough guide. They're going to call me back with a figure. I'm now going to see if I can find out from the RSPCA what sort of figure they have for rats being surrendered. But obviously there are sooo many small rescues; I know how many I had last year ... anyone else want to share figures?? (Please)(You can PM me). He's hoping for this info by tomorrow, but I'm guessing it can wait an extra day. Thank you everyone Nim

The thing is, that they will always argue that the fox is a problem. My argument is that fox hunting is cruel and barbaric. If their argument really is that foxes are a problem (as oposed to 'oh but it's such fun ducky'), then why not use less cruel methods?

Woohoo ... they're in the paper!!! http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2010/05/04/homes-sought-for-rescued-rats/

Thank you Yeah, I'm very glad the RSPCA were there too, as I had images of us coming away with just a selection that he no longer wanted .. again!