- Link Index -

Tasmanian Links and Breeders

Rodent Rescue

Great Rat Care Links

Great Mouse links

Rat Health Links

Making Houses

Breeding

Fascinating and Fun Rat Sites

Things to Build and Make

Orphaned Rats (and Mice)

Rat and Mouse Colours and Genetics Links

Tasmanian Links and Australian Breeders

Australian Rodent Fanciers' Society Tas - This club has an annual membership fee, but also has free information on basic rat and mouse care and breeding, and a nursery and rescue listing.

Mainland breeders who ship to Tassie:

Roving Sweetheart Rats - Natahl, "Breeding happy, healthy Fancy Rats". Phone: (03) 9873 5780    mobile: 0403 438 348   email: rovingsweetheartrats@yahoo.com.au  Lines: mink/cinnamon, topaz, semi-longhair, DownUnders (spotted/variegated), Berkshires/Irish. Victoria.

The Mad Ratter -  We mainly focus on Berkshire, Hooded and Self rats in mink, cinnamon, silverfawn, argente/topaz and dove. Other colours and markings are occasionally available.  Victoria. Now breeding Rexes of excellent health and temperament

Duxes and Bruxes - No website yet, email: ldux@bigpond.net.au Situated in Lutwyche, Brisbane, phone: (07) 3857 6559. I breed standard coat rats. I have a pedigree silver black line of Irish and Berkshire markings, and an Argente Berkshire line. I also have a down under variegated line which is only new so only has a two generation pedigree. QLD.

Royal Oaks Rattery - Breeding selfs and Berkshires, but usually have babies available also in hooded, DownUnder, occasionally Irish and bareback markings. Colours include: mink, dove, black, buff, champagne, blue, and the eye dilutions of these colours, also cinnamon.  NSW.

Rattie Rescue

Aussie Rodent Rescue - An online forum dedicated to finding homes for the hundreds of ex-laboratory, abandoned, and mistreated rats and mice in our country. A very interesting forum, where you can list rescues, adopt a rat, and ask as many questions as you need! Most members are in Victoria and NSW, but it's a quickly growing group.

Australian Rodent Fanciers' Society Tas - Lists rescues in Tasmania.

RSPCA Tasmania - All sorts of animals end up at the RSPCA, and it's worth checking there if you want to befriend a lonely rodent. They also need foster carers, especially for puppies, kittens and pregnant animals. The site is a bit confusing, but you need to go to "Site Map" at the bottom of the page, and then you can see all the pages you can go to. This site doesn't actually list all the animals up for adoption, it mostly has dogs and cats, but the contact details are there, and they are quick to respond.

Rathelp.org - a comprehensive website with information on what to do if you see what you think is an escaped or dumped pet rat: how to capture it and care for it. It also deals with caring for baby wild rats.

Socialising timid rodents: I found two great articles about getting your rats or mice used to being handled (called socialising), which I have included here because a time when you may definitely need this is when you have a rescue rodent in your care. I hope you find them as helpful as I have. Here they are: Risto Rat - socialising and Kismet Rattery -  Taming Skittish rats.

Great Rat Care Links

The Dapper Rat - An amazing Australian website with the best pages on making your rat's life wonderful! Contains instructions on how to make a great multi-level house (which I have used - you can see ours here), how to play games with your rattie friends and "the art of scritching", great ideas for toys and activities (like "fishing for peas" and "rattie piñata"), an informative series of articles on rat care, and lots more. They also sell hammocks and tubes for rats and mice, and other rattie things. Australian.

Fat Rat Central - an excellent website all about rats. Articles range from "communicating with your rat" to training, to medication guides. You go to "site map" to see the articles. I found the Frequently Asked Questions page really interesting.

Rat Sauce - A good site on just about everything ratty, from health, to rat toys, to clipart. With a range of links to widen the spectrum as well.

Great Mouse Links

mouse@horns - Angela Horn's fantastic website, where she has written up everything she knows about keeping mice (which is a lot!). I have used this site heaps since I rescued my first mouse, Cassie.

Dink's mice - A bit gaudy, but contains some interesting information, including mouse behaviour, birth and health, along with normal care information like feeding, housing etc.

The Mouse Haven - a good site about keeping mice, and it even has a section on naming your mouse! Talks about the signs of tumors in mice as well.

A Home for a Mouse - An article about how mice interact with the world: their posture and movement patterns, sensory world and social life; and how these considerations should dictate the design of a perfect mouse house. A bit technical, but fascinating - it taught me a lot. Like not to keep your rodent's cage near a TV or computer because of the ultrasounds they  release which distresses your pets. I never knew.

Valerie's Mice Paradise - A busy online forum for mouse lovers. I've been a member of this yahoo group, and they are always very helpful.

Rat Health Links

Ratguide - A website all about rat health, both traditional and alternative medicines. "A Layman's Guide to Health, Medication Use, and Responsible Care of pet rats".

Rat Medication Usage Chart - By the RMCA, so unfortunately its in pounds, but still an important reference site.

Ratguide: Medication Guide - Ivermectin - For treatment of worms, lice and mites in rats and mice, describes the quantities of various forms of Ivermectin for dosing adult rats. Also lists if they are safe to use in pregnant and lactating rats.

Holistarat - A yahoo group created by Sandra of SpazRats, where you can learn and talk about traditional and natural health treatments for rats.

Spaz Rats: First Aid for Rats - Good things to learn, including accident prevention. Sandra lists a first aid kit, which has some good ideas. I  keep some of these things on top of my rat cage, because you never know, and you don't want to be running around looking for tweezers or antiseptic in an emergency, believe me.

First Aid for Small Animals - by Patrick Currivan. Excellent.

Learn Ratty Heimlich - A member of Ratlist explains how to apply the Ratty Heimlich maneuver, which is something you may need to use one day, - fingers crossed you won't.

Curiosity Rats - Rat Health Links - An amazing array of rat health articles, on everything about your rat's health! From cancer to parasites to homeopathy, whatever you want to know about, go there.

Skin Parasites - Having rescued rats and mice, I researched lice and mites. These are the websites I found. In the end I found a ring-around of my local vets proved the most helpful. I found a vet who would sell me liquid sheep Ivermectin over the counter, and weighed my rats for me to prescribe the volume. For this particular brand it was 0.2 ml for every 300g of body weight. Anyway, these are the sites I used... The Rat Palace, Fancy Rats UK,  The Rat Fan Club,  and The RMCA.   Lisa Jenny's medical page shows photos of a bad case of ear mites, along with cataracts and abscesses. She also lists suggestions for a rat first aid kit.

Quarantine - Here are a few articles on quarantining your rats/mice, essential if you bring in new rats or feel your rats may have been exposed to disease. The RMCA, Suite 101, Tad P Frog, 

Making Houses

The Dapper Rats' Grotto - An amazing cupboard-style cage, with melamine shelving and walls. Thsi is the prototype I used to make my rattie palace

Andrea's Rat Cage - Instructions to convert a cupboard into a wonderful house.

How to Build a Rat Mansion - step-by-step instructions for making a cupboard-style cage.

A Simple Play-Pen - Great instructions to make a cheap and useful play-pen, so your arts can free-range without getting into mischief!

The Rat Fan Club wire cage - A cage made from wire mesh, with a cement-mixing tray as the base.

Rat Fan Club wire cage 2 - A wire mesh cage with a child's wading pool as the base.

Rat Fan Club wire cage 3 - One more wire mesh cage, with good instructions.

Alkatratz - A big wire cage with a plastic tray base, with lots of photos of the finished product.

Breeding

Should I Breed My Rats? An article to encourage you to ask yourself the important questions before you take steps towards breeding.

Ratsandmice.com - Breeding Heaps of information about breeding, including suggestions for re-homing/selling your young rats or mice. Talks about pregnancy, labour, and the first few weeks of life as well.

Spoiled Ratten Rattery - An American website, with several pages dedicated to information on breeding rats.

Rock-a-Bye Ratties - Breeding - An Australian site, where a breeder talks about why/why not to breed, and then gives some information on breeding and a few pictures of babies.

Raisin Rats - Breeding - A really excellent resource, with separate pages on mating, pregnancy, birth, and when to call a vet. The page of photos of a birth, which are of course graphic, but very important.

Raisin Rats - Rat development - From the same site, this time photos of baby rats from birth to 21 days, taken about every 2nd day. Includes a very pregnant rat - poor thing looks like she swallowed a tennis ball!

Bellaratta's Rat Growth Pages - An excellent photographic guide to the daily growth of a litter of rats. The rats are "dumbo" type, so their ears are different to what we might have in Australia, but otherwise it's great.

Jenmarie's Pinky Guide - A very good site showing the day-to-day growth of a litter of mice, with excellent clear photos and the only pictures of pregnant mice that I could find on the web! I like this site, and I love the photos! 

Finmouse Breeding - A Finnish website about breeding mice, translated to English, but a good resource nonetheless. I used this site to learn about when and how Cassie would give birth, and what to do next.

Fascinating and Fun Rat Sites

Anne's Rat Page - Anne has written a great range of articles on rat behavior and biology, with titles like: "The world through a rat's whiskers", "Why are rat testicles so big?" and "Why rats can't vomit" among many others.

Eine Kleine Ratmusik - an article on how music affects your pets! They conducted experiments, and found that rats with music played to them were calmer, more intelligent and even grew faster!

Playing with your Rats - A page of fun ways to enjoy your time with your rats, and equally good for mice I'm sure!

The Dapper Rat - the Art of Scritching - As the name suggests, this where you learn how to scratch, rub and massage your pet into ratty seventh heaven! 

Things to Build and Make

The Dapper Rat - The Grotto - Instructions and pictures of a great multi-level "grotto" (The Great Rodent Residence of Tasteful Transcendental Opulence !). I used these instructions, with my own flavour of course, to make my rattie palace, which you can see here, and also plenty of ideas for things to fill it up with.

The Dapper Rat - Spare Cage - This is just one article on an excellent page of hints and ideas. I used this to make a safe, comfy transport cage for less than ten dollars! and I've used a lot of other ideas from here too, what a great site :)

The Dapper Rat - Hammocks - One last link to this site! This is where you can order  a great range of hammocks, tube lofts and snuggle-sacks, and do a fellow rat owner a favour at the same time.

Rat Sauce - Rat Toys and Games - A lot of ideas for making things for your rats on a shoe-string. 

Make your own RatStuff - Well, this one describes itself! Particularly referring to cages, but also has links to making harnesses and toys.

Orphaned Rats (and Mice)

These are the websites I looked at when I hand-raised a litter of rats, I took what I thought was useful from each one. You can read what I did here (eventually!)

Rathelp.org - an amazingly comprehensive website, which contains all the information you could hope to find on raising both pet and wild orphaned rats. I have yet to explore the rest of this site, as its only just been created, but I'm very excited. It is an American site.

RMCA - An informative site, a little cautious but very helpful. A good table showing how often to feed the babies. 

AFRMA - A very good site for both rats and mice, with a bit more of a relaxed feel. I found this site the most useful with my babies. It offers lots of different ways of doing things, which helps a lot because every situation is different. .

The Rat Fan Club - An informative site, with a section on raising wild rats as well. I got some good ideas from here as well.

mouse@horns - Hand Raising - a little article and a success story on hand-raising baby mice - apparently a bit harder than rat pups.

Hand Rearing Mice - A single page site on hand rearing orphaned mice. A little bit too relaxed for me (she suggests leaving milk-soaked bread for the mice to suck overnight), but it shows that hand raising mice is pretty much the same as raising rats, so you can use any of the rat sites.

Raisin Rats: Rat Development- Some pictures of rat development so you can judge how old your babies are, and what to expect as they grow

Bellaratta's Rat Growth Pages - Ditto for above :-)

Rat colours and genetics links

The Bruce Rattery - contains information and links on the genetics of both colour and pattern  inheritance, with some photos. Australian.

Rock-a-Bye Ratties  - This site describes most of the colours, markings and coat types that are currently available in Australia, with close-ups of several colours. It does not include genetic information.

Rattie Rascals Rattery - The genetic codes for coat colours and markings, with an explanation of the code. American, so it includes genes not available in Australia.

Spoiled Ratten Rattery - A good site on colour, markings and coat type inheritance, with photos. American.

American Fancy Rats and Mice Association (AFRMA) - Pictures and descriptions of all the American colours, body types, coat types and markings, of mice and of rats.

Ratsandmice.com - Rat Genetics - The basic genetic information explained.

Ratsandmice.com - Mouse Genetics - as above, but for mice, which is unusual!

Robyn's rodents - Mouse Types - pictures and descriptions of the more common colours and markings of mice.