Torchwood Rattery

20/05/2024

15/05/2024

Can anyone on NI help? please message ROARRRescue- N. Ireland if you can!

Hello lovely people! I’m here to ask for your help again!
We’ve been approached for some intakes that we’ve not had the foster space for, but want to fix that as soon as we can!
Would you be able to help?
If you can’t foster for us, even tagging a rodent living friend, or just sharing our appeal will be a great help itself!!

15/05/2024

Can you please take a moment to add your name to this petition?? It’s to ban the use of glue traps here in NI..
Thank you 💕✨

Prohibit the Sale of Glue Traps to the General Public in Northern Ireland

07/05/2024

💜💕

Be Inspired...

01/05/2024

Hi folks!
If anyone is waiting for me to get back to them for access to the homing group, please do message again!
🐀💕🐀✨🐀💕🐀

23/04/2024

💕

19/04/2024

Just some babies babying about 💕✨💕

(And the Dr Alice Roberts commentary int he background couldn’t have been more perfect if I’d tried 😂👌✨)

17/04/2024

Not out of the woods by any means, but it was too hard not to name the lil boy… this is Lenny 💕 he’s been here about 20 hours now…
Lenny isn’t a fan of formula and medicine, but he’s pushing through! ✨

09/04/2024

This poor starling must have been investigating a chimney for nest potential. It cleared some debris away from the top and fell into the chimney. It spent at least 2 days down the chimney trying to get back out but thankfully came down into the log burner and we caught it. It has been getting loads of juicy mealworms etc and should be ready to go back to the wild today after much needed rest and food.

Please make sure that all chimneys have a good cap on with small holes. Also now is the time to repair any holes in your walls or roof that you don’t want birds getting into as it is a crime to disturb a nesting bird.

07/04/2024

💕✨

Do we have any more fabulous folks who’d be willing and able to help us help more animals by fostering for us??

(Help with fundraising would be super too please!)

01/04/2024

We all need a vet like Chris 💕💕

29/03/2024

Every loss hurts, some just hit harder…
Today I said goodbye to Cascade and Hexhead… Hex was a bit of a magic baby, as
You can see from her misshapen head she was born with an open fontal/‘fluid on the brain’ issue and was monitored thinking she’d be a failure to thrive bean, but instead of shunning her, momma Screwdriver favoured her and the whole family nurtured her. She was a little slower to climb and properly dig, but she caught up beautifully and captured everyone’s hearts.
The world won’t be the same without her in it 🌎💕✨

24/03/2024

Only 15 😮
But I’m realllly hoping to make it to a show this year!
And don’t yet have a rat cam lol

A bit of Sunday fun for you all 🤣

Ebonie scored 17 and I scored 16. Drop your scores in the comments section below 👀

23/03/2024

Seems legit 🤷‍♀️😂💕

20/03/2024

With my rats I call it ‘Cheerio belly’ 😅🤷‍♀️😂💕
(Can you guess my trust/training treat of choice? 🧐😂)

19/03/2024

As many of you know, I’m heavily involved with the small, small animal rescue ROARRRescue- N. Ireland …
So as well as having many of the fosters with me, as well as my own pets and all the hand raised wildies I can’t release, I’m trying to monetise another hobby to fund this!
Jewellery!
Dangly earrings will start at £6-£8, and I’ll be posting more designs if there’s interest!
Also- fidget bracelets and necklaces!!
Made with food grade silicone they feel awesome to fidget with, and are also safe to chew for anxiety relief!
Bracelets start at £12. And the necklaces can be extended by attaching a bracelet to it!

24/02/2024

I’ve yet more new fostery arrivals today! via Just Like Home Rescues who flew to their aid when alerted that the boys had been found abandoned…
Whilst they’re currently in urgent need of some antibiotics- and probiotics- and tlc, so far they seem amazingly sweet and will make such lovely additions or starter rats for someone’s mischief I’m sure!
They’re here in my care, but will be for adoption via ROARRRescue- N. Ireland not myself directly….💕💜
Because rat folks are awesome… If you can help at all with a pound or two towards their care, the PayPal for the rescue (not currently charitable status) is paypal.me/RoarrRescue 💕✨🐀💜

30/01/2024

💕✨🐀 ✨💕

This is probably the section of the book that I did the most work on- trying to make sure I had the most up to date information available and making sure I'd covered all the major points to know about what each health issues is, how to prevent it if possible, and the different options to treat each one.

28/01/2024

💕✨💜

19/01/2024

It’s something you’d hope wouldn’t need said out loud… but please, never ever dump or release a domestic animal. A pet rat is not a wild rat- I own both, and can completely confirm their brains do work differently. For example- you know how ideally your pets won’t jump and run at every minor surprise or noise? That would be a fatal flaw in the wild.
Please please do help their rescue effort if you can! And if not, please share their story and maybe it won’t happen again 💜

I don't like to share fundraisers often because I know how tough it is on everyone lately. However. Remember the beautiful rats we helped out in the Somerset dumping recently? All 100+ of them...

Would you believe it? Someone has gone ahead and dumped more :( the amazing team of people that are doing the catching in these freezing temperatures (it's -5° here in Devon today, though I know colder elsewhere) managed to catch at least 6 more in the two recent evenings. :( there is still more, as of yet we aren't sure how many. I shall update you with numbers as soon as I know.

Please, if anyone knows anything or if anyone can spare anything, even just £1. The recent babies are currently on their way to new homes but have been eating fosters out of house and home 😅

More vet trips, more Lepto testing, more treatments incoming.

Thanks so much for reading

I'll never not share Snowys beautiful face (she was here in foster from the last lot of dumping and is currently loving her new home)

https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/912tZKdj5W?fbclid=IwAR2uRaHST2uYdxukWfFuljmpN_mkhQQyvaZpjOIRkPH0wXTHbX5yb5SwGSs_aem_AUkcdnfiTMX6wYlK1pVxkGYSZuSAyX19kHKVCFCv6ZIBldk6h6legljlBeAi3xFypxk

Update as of 21/1/24: 12 more rats have been caught over the last few evenings 😭 11 bucks and 1 doe. Strangely. There is still more :(

18/01/2024

Seriously folks, I 100% recommend this book for any experience level! 📖✨💕

You spoke, and I listened!

The kindle version of my book was on the back burner of my to do list until I had more time. But since so many of you have requested it I’ve bumped it up and been working on creating it- and it’s finally live!

You can find it on the Amazon kindle store now and it’s only £9.99- nearly 50% cheaper than the paperback!

Since I’ve been working on this I haven’t had much time to schedule social media posts or work on new articles for my website, so I’m having a bit of a rest then I’ll be back to it soon 😁

11/12/2023

I’m super excited about this book!

📖🐀TODAY IS FINALLY THE DAY!!📖🐀

You can officially buy Pet Rat Care on Amazon!

You guys are amazing- I can’t believe how many of you were there at midnight ordering when it went live! 🥰🥰

Please don't forget to review it on Amazon once you've read it! If you think it's the book that new owners need to read, then we need reviews to make sure owners know that this is the one to go for!

Find it here: https://amzn.eu/d/eBOLv7w

06/12/2023

It’s getting closer to Xmas and I’m getting more and more ‘have you babies available now’ messages…
I won’t have any babies until the new year, but regardless, I do not home rats out as gifts; they are little family members, not objects 💜

But if you’re wanting to get your child rats, I promise they’ll be content with a cute picture/toy and an IOU until well raised babies become available to you; it’ll give you time to get the cage and accessories and such ready!

(And here’s a cute cuddle puddle in an intro carrier, just because 💕)

07/10/2023

As always there’s such amazing info here 💕💕

🐀10 Most common mistakes that new rat owners make 🐀

MISTAKE 7: Using Unsuitable Litter, Bedding and Substrate (and not knowing the difference between them)

It’s common to see people using litter where they would be better using substrate, using a substrate that is unsuitable, or occasionally not using a substrate at all! The terminology can certainly be confusing so let’s go through the difference between substrate, litter, and bedding, and talk about what makes a good example of each, examples of unsuitable options, and some popular brand names you can find in the UK.

Substrate
Substrate is the stuff you put at the bottom of the cage that fills the base- it’s the thing you will use the most of in the cage. Substrate serves a few different purposes; it is there to soak up urine (this is why no substrate isn’t an option!), and substrate is also key to provide enrichment for the rats because they can dig in it, nest with it and forage for food in it (see the post on nuggets and scatter feeding for more info).

When you are looking for a good substrate you need to consider a few things. How deep is your cage base? If it’s not deep enough to keep in at least two inches of substrate then you need to consider upgrading your cage or creating a perspex base to allow for a deep enough layer. The substrate also needs to be suitable for the rats to dig and forage in, and should soak up p*e without becoming soggy thus preventing bad odours. Finally, it needs to be rat safe. In the UK, many of the (confusingly called) wood beddings for horses are also safe as substrate for rats because they are heat treated/kiln dried (to remove phenols from the wood) and dust extracted (so great for sensitive ratty respiratory systems). You can also get shredded cardboard or h**p beddings that are suitable too. You can try out small batches of lots of different substrates from Rat Rations, but larger amounts are usually most economical when you buy direct from a local horse shop (a bale is usually around £9 and will last the average owner many months).

Examples of safe/suitable substrates for rats (not an exhaustive list):
Bedmax (shavings)
Littlemax (shavings)
Megaspread (shavings)
Pureflake Extra (shavings)
Blue Frog (shavings)
Snowflake Supreme (shavings)
Aubiose (h**p)
Green Mile (shredded cardboard)
Finacard (shredded cardboard)
Eco-bed (cardboard squares)
Walmsley (cardboard squares)
Fitch (fluffy paper)
Bioactive coco fibre soil (see the group Naturalistic and Bioactive Rat Setups for more details)
Try mixing multiple of these for really great substrate!

Unsuitable substrates (not an exhaustive list):
Fleece (doesn’t allow for digging or foraging, doesn’t soak up p*e well and holds it, smells bad, rats chew it so needs replacing often and isn’t economical)
Hemcore (has citronella)
Carefresh (dusty; some types are scented)
Sawdust (dusty)
Puppy pads (no enrichment, rats can chew so unsafe)
Paper pellets (see below)
Anything scented
Anything from the litter/bedding sections below (these are great for bedding/litter but not suitable for main substrate)

Litter
Litter is what you are going to put into litter trays, specifically for the rats to p*e and poo on. Litter should therefore be highly absorbent and reduce odour. The best litter on the market is 100% paper based pellets; these are safe if the rats decide to eat them (they have to eat their own faeces to stay healthy so they may eat a bit of the litter too) and are great for controlling odour and harmful ammonia levels.

Examples of suitable litter:
Back 2 Nature
Breeder Celect (same as above just different branding)
Papelit paper pellets

Examples of unsuitable litter:
Biocatolet (has insect repellent in it)
Clay cat litter (gets dusty when wet)
Wood litter (gets dusty when wet)
Anything scented

You can use a substrate in the litter tray, although you will likely have to replace it more often as they are not as absorbent as paper pellets. If you want to litter train your rats it is also easier if you use a litter that is different from your main substrate.

Bedding
Bedding is the little bits of extras that you can give to your rats for them to poke around with and use to nest in their sleeping areas. The purpose of bedding is enrichment and added interest for the rats, not for controlling odour. There’s lots of different options you can try out, you just have to ensure what you are giving them is safe. Generally it’s things that are soft and cuddly, but sometimes the rats may surprise you with what they decide to take back to their hammock!

Examples of suitable bedding:
Strips of kitchen paper
Toilet paper
Good quality dust free hay
Straw
Shredded paper (such as bills etc- ink used in the UK is safe for rats)
Strips of newspaper (again the ink is safe, although the rats’ coats may get stained)
Safebed paper bedding
Teabag bedding
Strips of fabric
Pieces of substrate (they often do this themselves with bigger pieces of substrate like Bedmax or shredded card)

Frequent Questions:

“I heard/read that wood shavings are dangerous for rats!”
This is partially true- sawdust (often marketed for small animals) is very fine particles so much too dusty, and wood shavings that have not been heat treated have high levels of phenols. But generally in the UK horse beddings are heat treated and dust extracted, so as long as you check for those two things, they’re safe.

“I can’t store a huge bale!”
You can either order smaller amounts from Rat Rations, or consider splitting a bale with someone close by. There are also smaller options such as Eco-nest from other retailers, but these aren’t as cost effective.

“My rats kick out substrate so I took it out, it’s just too messy”
This says that your cage base isn’t deep enough- look at upgrading your cage or creating a deeper perspex base for them to burrow into! It’s also worth noting that rats are living creatures with a range of natural behaviours that are important to them, and it’s unreasonable to expect them not to make any mess whatsoever- after all, you wouldn’t expect that of a human in their own house would you? It is our responsibility as owners to provide our rats with an environment that meet their needs as rats.

“I think fleece looks nice and tidy and I just change it when it smells”
Digging and foraging is essential for rats and we should provide them with plenty of opportunities for these behaviours. Ultimately the cage should be set up and furnished with the rats’ needs in mind- not to be pleasing to the human eye (although what could be more pleasing than seeing your rats happy and thriving in an environment that is appropriate and enriching for them!).

“But the person at (well known pet shop chain) said that Back 2 Nature was a suitable substrate!”
Although paper pellets could be used as a substrate, it is really not the best choice for several reasons; it is expensive, plus as it is very absorbent using such a large amount (several inches deep across the whole base) can make the air much too dry for the rats. It is also not as good for digging and foraging as the substrates listed above. Sadly, pet shops are generally one of the worst sources of advice; we’ll discuss this more in the next mistake.

Photo L to R: Littlemax wood shavings substrate, Back2Nature litter, hay bedding.

22/09/2023

Aaa I love ! 💕

Rats generally really enjoy their food so can become easy to over feed, but also they can be cheeky and selective feed their favourite part of your mixes (so keep an eye out for this, as a balanced diet it important to the well being of your ratty!) and weigh regularly.

They are natural omnivores and in the wild would eat plants, grasses, insects, small rodents, eggs and anything else that looks appealing to them!

Here at SPRAW we like to create natural feeding so would recommend feeding twice daily with a mixed diet of good quality food (we recommend rat mix from RatRations.co.uk) with added extras like fruit, eggs and vegetables.

Feed ideally over 2 sittings if you have rats likely to scoff in one go.

Fruit, vegetables and eggs are a great daily addition to their diet, however, introduce gradually to avoid upsetting their stomach. limit the feeding of these as can cause diarrhoea and obesity.

19/09/2023

Please don’t be impatient and support a petshop. There a genuine Effort to get more breeders here in NI and ROI to join the NFRS and adhere to their Level of Standards (not that the NFRS can regulate breeders, but being a member does show interest in the community and research being done.
Please don’t let long waiting lists make you go to petshops for sp*ed… this is what you’re supporting.
If you can’t wait- please consider adopting rats who’ve been bought from shops on a whine and are now looking for new homes. There’s always some somewhere to be found.

There’s also some rats awaiting new homes via ROARRRescue- N. Ireland💕

Why I (and many, many other rat owners) don’t recommend buying rats from a pet shop!

https://azulinerattery.wordpress.com/buying-rats-from-pet-shops/