Pet-Advice.net - Hairless Pet Rats

In this article I will let you know the trials and tribulations I experienced raising my Hairless from when he was only days old.

I love rats and I always laugh when the first comment I hear from people when I tell them what kind of pets I have, is: "Ewwwwwww! Their tails! Their tails!" Although I laugh I also feel sorry for them because their tailaphobia has cut them off from one of the best pets to grace our humble planet.

I like all kinds of rats but I am especially partial to Hairless. To me they look like little pigs running around my livingroom. Out of the half dozen or so rats I've had over the years, there are two which I loved the most: Monkey Boy [Hairless] and Wally Bird [Dumbo Rex].

This tale you have stumbled upon today is about Monkey Boy.

Moneky Boy was born in my home, son of my first Hairless, who I appropriately named Piglet, for unlike most Hairless which have a darker complexion, Piglet was truly pink like a piglet, except for her eyes which were black.

When I found her in my local Pet Store, she was scratched and scarred from numerous fights with other rats vying and bullying for domination in an over-crowded fish tank. I guess finally someone got a clue and moved Piglet to her own tank, but it was too late. She was a scared and nervous girl for the rest of her life.

In all honesty, I had never even heard of Hairless rats until I saw Piglet. She felt strange to the touch and I was going to bypass her and make a choice from the furlings, but when I found out Piglet was earmarked for snake fodder because she was too nervous and too ugly to sell, I just had to buy her. One week later she had a litter of 8 and thus begins the story of Monkey Boy.

He was fuzzy black, ugly and the size of a peanut. He was one of two runts in the litter. Try as he may, he could not get to his mother often enough to suckle. He was turning cold and getting bluish in colour. He was so tiny and I felt so sorry for him and already his siblings outsized him. I didn't know what to do. I felt that I should just let Nature take its course. But then the other runt died and my heart just broke. It was so cute. I think it would have been an albino.

Moneky Boy on the other hand had spirit and didn't want to die, but I knew better. Already a day had gone by without him getting any nourishment. I made a decision. He was going to die anyway, so I figured I'd give it a try. Phooey on Nature. It was in my power to help.

I pulled out an old fish tank, lined the bottom with a heating pad set on low, covered the pad with a thick piece of flannel and made a small nest for him out of more shredded flannel. I zoomed to the store and bought the mildest baby formula and the smallest eyedropper I could find. Not easy. Those eyedroppers are not very small when held up against a peanut sized critter.

I mixed up the formula, brought it to a warm temperature, just like for a human baby and made my first attempt to feed him. Needless to say, I thought that even the mildest formula might be too strong for him, but he was a fighter, no doubt about it, and there weren't any other options I was aware of.

It's very hard to hold such a small thing because it is so fragile that even the slightest pressure could hurt him, so I lay him in my warmed palm and brought the eyedropper to his mouth. HUGE EYEDROPPER! It felt hopeless. He would never be able to suck on it. I dipped the edge of a cloth into the formula and he tried very hard to grab hold of it, but no luck. About this time I figured I had blown it. Then I noticed he was licking my skin...I put a tiny bit of formula on my skin and he licked it up. YES! This guy was a fighter through and through.

I kept feeding him this way, but the next morning he didn't look so good. Was he just too small? Was the formula too strong? What did I do wrong?

I had missed something.

I went over to Piglet and watched her with her young. She kept grabbing them one at a time to groom them. Or so I thought. Turns out she wasn't grooming them, she was stimulating them. I don't know how I knew this, I just did.

I immediately got a warm wet cloth [I cut them into 2" x 2" squares] and started to wash Moneky Boys "privates". Whoa! He started to pee and poo. Turns out he was getting clogged up. So, now that I was his "new" mother I was responsible not only for feeding him, but for stimulating his digestive system as well.

When I was home from work, I fed him every two hours [even through the night] and after he was done eating I stimulated his privates to make him go. I also washed his face and ears; just like his mother was doing to his siblings. Since he was a Hairless, and probably because he wasn't getting proper ratty nutrients, his skin was very dry and leathery, so I started gently rubbing him with baby oil. He loved that. He would lie straddled over my index finger and just suck it all in. He must have thought he was Royalty or something.

His eyes weren't even open yet, and days had gone by and I just couldn't believe he was still alive. Every day I thought I would wake up and he would be dead. But every morning he would be chirping away for his breakfast.

He eventually was able to lick drops from the eyedropper, but he seemed to have a choking problem. He would lick, lick, lick, then his head would wobble around and his mouth would open very wide and he would definitely be in distress. I took a wild guess and figured maybe a bubble was stuck in his throat, so whenever he would "choke" I would blow sharply into his mouth [about 2"-3" away] and this worked. He would go back to eating and it would start all over again. I think his mother knew there was something wrong with him and that's why she didn't bother.

When he started walking it was hilarious. I'm not sure if it's because they don't have any fur and it's just an illusion, but hairless rats seem to walk higher up off the ground than furlings, and this makes them look rather creepy. Not to mention that they also trot a lot more than furlings do, so that doubles up the creepiness.

Moneky Boy not only walked higher off the ground, but he was wobbly. He would shaky walk, shaky walk, shaky walk, shaky spurt of running, then plop. He looked like a little black bug more than a rat crawling around the flannel.

When his eyes opened it was me he saw and thus I became his mother and he became the best pet I have ever had. I switched him to a more substantial diet but he had a hard time eating anything hard, even though his siblings were already eating hard food. Monkey Boy was slow in this respect and kept eating the formula, now mixed with cream of wheat and drops of vitamins.

Problem was, his teeth were getting too long because he was not shaving them down with hard food or with instinctual grinding. So I had to take him to the Vet and get them trimmed. Once they were trimmed he got the hang of it. He started eating hard food and grinding his teeth. He was growing into a healthy boy.

The bits of fuzz he had over his body fell out and he was completely hairless except for sprigs on his tail and around his snout, which made him look like he had a perpetual five o'clock shadow. I just loved him with his fuzzy face and curly whiskers. [Hairless usually have curly whiskers as opposed to straight long ones.] He had this thing going with my friend. She would hold him up to her face, and he would gently nip her nose as a greeting. It was their "thing". He only did that with her.

He loved curling up and going to sleep between my boobies and people would get all grossed out and I'd tell them, "It's only gross before he warms up because he feels like a cold, clammy potato." That made them screech even more.

Moneky Boy was a clever rat. I never had any problems with him peeing or pooing when he went for his runs. He was cage trained. He'd run around playing, then jump in his cage, do his business, then jump out and keep playing. Even when I would have him on my shoulder while doing chores, he would let me know he had to go by running from one shoulder to the next. I guess that was his version of the pee-pee dance.

For some reason, Hairless are prone to getting cancer and a year and half into his life, Moneky Boy started having a hard time breathing. X-rays revealed cancerous tumours growing on his lungs. The Vet said to bring him back when his quality of life went down. About a month later his breathing became more laboured all he wanted to do was curl up between my boobies and sleep, and I knew the time had come.

He's buried in my mother's backyard with the rest of my ratty friends. I will miss him forever.

I hope my experience with my Hairless helps you with yours. I'm sure everything I did to save Moneky Boy can be applied to all types of rats.

WORDS OF CAUTION AND ADVICE

Use Aspen shavings for their bedding. Pine and Cedar have oils in them which can really harm your rats.

They don't like loud noises, so take it easy on the stereo system

Make hammocks for them and make sure to give them a blanket they can go under.

Rats generally don't like sleeping in the open.


< Back To Index Hairless Pet Rats In this article I will let you know the trials and tribulations I experienced raising my Hairless from when he was only days old. I love rats and I always laugh when the first comment I hear from people when I tell them what kind of pets I have, is: "Ewwwwwww! Their tails! Their tails!" Although I laugh I also feel sorry for them because their tailaphobia has cut them off from one of the best pets to grace our humble planet. I like all kinds of rats but I am especially partial to Hairless. To me they look like little pigs running around my livingroom. Out of the half dozen or so rats I've had over the years, there are two which I loved the most: Monkey Boy [Hairless] and Wally Bird [Dumbo Rex]. This tale you have stumbled upon today is about Monkey Boy. Moneky Boy was born in my home, son of my first Hairless, who I appropriately named Piglet, for unlike most Hairless which have a darker complexion, Piglet was truly pink like a piglet, except for her eyes which were black. When I found her in my local Pet Store, she was scratched and scarred from numerous fights with other rats vying and bullying for domination in an over-crowded fish tank. I guess finally someone got a clue and moved Piglet to her own tank, but it was too late. She was a scared and nervous girl for the rest of her life. In all honesty, I had never even heard of Hairless rats until I saw Piglet. She felt strange to the touch and I was going to bypass her and make a choice from the furlings, but when I found out Piglet was earmarked for snake fodder because she was too nervous and too ugly to sell, I just had to buy her. One week later she had a litter of 8 and thus begins the story of Monkey Boy. He was fuzzy black, ugly and the size of a peanut. He was one of two runts in the litter. Try as he may, he could not get to his mother often enough to suckle. He was turning cold and getting bluish in colour. He was so tiny and I felt so sorry for him and already his siblings outsized him. I didn't know what to do. I felt that I should just let Nature take its course. But then the other runt died and my heart just broke. It was so cute. I think it would have been an albino. Moneky Boy on the other hand had spirit and didn't want to die, but I knew better. Already a day had gone by without him getting any nourishment. I made a decision. He was going to die anyway, so I figured I'd give it a try. Phooey on Nature. It was in my power to help. I pulled out an old fish tank, lined the bottom with a heating pad set on low, covered the pad with a thick piece of flannel and made a small nest for him out of more shredded flannel. I zoomed to the store and bought the mildest baby formula and the smallest eyedropper I could find. Not easy. Those eyedroppers are not very small when held up against a peanut sized critter. I mixed up the formula, brought it to a warm temperature, just like for a human baby and made my first attempt to feed him. Needless to say, I thought that even the mildest formula might be too strong for him, but he was a fighter, no doubt about it, and there weren't any other options I was aware of. It's very hard to hold such a small thing because it is so fragile that even the slightest pressure could hurt him, so I lay him in my warmed palm and brought the eyedropper to his mouth. HUGE EYEDROPPER! It felt hopeless. He would never be able to suck on it. I dipped the edge of a cloth into the formula and he tried very hard to grab hold of it, but no luck. About this time I figured I had blown it. Then I noticed he was licking my skin...I put a tiny bit of formula on my skin and he licked it up. YES! This guy was a fighter through and through. I kept feeding him this way, but the next morning he didn't look so good. Was he just too small? Was the formula too strong? What did I do wrong? I had missed something. I went over to Piglet and watched her with her young. She kept grabbing them one at a time to groom them. Or so I thought. Turns out she wasn't grooming them, she was stimulating them. I don't know how I knew this, I just did. I immediately got a warm wet cloth [I cut them into 2" x 2" squares] and started to wash Moneky Boys "privates". Whoa! He started to pee and poo. Turns out he was getting clogged up. So, now that I was his "new" mother I was responsible not only for feeding him, but for stimulating his digestive system as well. When I was home from work, I fed him every two hours [even through the night] and after he was done eating I stimulated his privates to make him go. I also washed his face and ears; just like his mother was doing to his siblings. Since he was a Hairless, and probably because he wasn't getting proper ratty nutrients, his skin was very dry and leathery, so I started gently rubbing him with baby oil. He loved that. He would lie straddled over my index finger and just suck it all in. He must have thought he was Royalty or something. His eyes weren't even open yet, and days had gone by and I just couldn't believe he was still alive. Every day I thought I would wake up and he would be dead. But every morning he would be chirping away for his breakfast. He eventually was able to lick drops from the eyedropper, but he seemed to have a choking problem. He would lick, lick, lick, then his head would wobble around and his mouth would open very wide and he would definitely be in distress. I took a wild guess and figured maybe a bubble was stuck in his throat, so whenever he would "choke" I would blow sharply into his mouth [about 2"-3" away] and this worked. He would go back to eating and it would start all over again. I think his mother knew there was something wrong with him and that's why she didn't bother. When he started walking it was hilarious. I'm not sure if it's because they don't have any fur and it's just an illusion, but hairless rats seem to walk higher up off the ground than furlings, and this makes them look rather creepy. Not to mention that they also trot a lot more than furlings do, so that doubles up the creepiness. Moneky Boy not only walked higher off the ground, but he was wobbly. He would shaky walk, shaky walk, shaky walk, shaky spurt of running, then plop. He looked like a little black bug more than a rat crawling around the flannel. When his eyes opened it was me he saw and thus I became his mother and he became the best pet I have ever had. I switched him to a more substantial diet but he had a hard time eating anything hard, even though his siblings were already eating hard food. Monkey Boy was slow in this respect and kept eating the formula, now mixed with cream of wheat and drops of vitamins. Problem was, his teeth were getting too long because he was not shaving them down with hard food or with instinctual grinding. So I had to take him to the Vet and get them trimmed. Once they were trimmed he got the hang of it. He started eating hard food and grinding his teeth. He was growing into a healthy boy. The bits of fuzz he had over his body fell out and he was completely hairless except for sprigs on his tail and around his snout, which made him look like he had a perpetual five o'clock shadow. I just loved him with his fuzzy face and curly whiskers. [Hairless usually have curly whiskers as opposed to straight long ones.] He had this thing going with my friend. She would hold him up to her face, and he would gently nip her nose as a greeting. It was their "thing". He only did that with her. He loved curling up and going to sleep between my boobies and people would get all grossed out and I'd tell them, "It's only gross before he warms up because he feels like a cold, clammy potato." That made them screech even more. Moneky Boy was a clever rat. I never had any problems with him peeing or pooing when he went for his runs. He was cage trained. He'd run around playing, then jump in his cage, do his business, then jump out and keep playing. Even when I would have him on my shoulder while doing chores, he would let me know he had to go by running from one shoulder to the next. I guess that was his version of the pee-pee dance. For some reason, Hairless are prone to getting cancer and a year and half into his life, Moneky Boy started having a hard time breathing. X-rays revealed cancerous tumours growing on his lungs. The Vet said to bring him back when his quality of life went down. About a month later his breathing became more laboured all he wanted to do was curl up between my boobies and sleep, and I knew the time had come. He's buried in my mother's backyard with the rest of my ratty friends. I will miss him forever. I hope my experience with my Hairless helps you with yours. I'm sure everything I did to save Moneky Boy can be applied to all types of rats. WORDS OF CAUTION AND ADVICE Use Aspen shavings for their bedding. Pine and Cedar have oils in them which can really harm your rats. They don't like loud noises, so take it easy on the stereo system Make hammocks for them and make sure to give them a blanket they can go under. Rats generally don't like sleeping in the open. Trackback URL : http://www.pet-advice.net/article.php?aid=56
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