Ughhh I totally know what you mean. I'm a new rat owner myself, and with five boys I need all the help I can get. Once I posted on a forum asking for help and I only got criticism rather than actual help.

There are certainly the gems of rat owners, but I agree, a lot of them are not very fun to talk to.

Aww Im sorry to hear your friend got chewed out. I for one think it was a very nice thing to do. Let the older one know that love is in its last years or so.

There seems to be jerks that think their way is best for every species.
Worst type for me are the ones that think the can train any animal by yelling at it.

I've seen this alot and there's only one group really worse about it and that's people on aquarist forums, they tend to be really anal :/ alot of them put me off keeping fish for a long time after my last one died. urgh.

When I had fish I never had that problem..ofcourse I wasnt into them enough to go into forums and talk about them...maybe a good thing I didnt from the sound of it.

I AM A TERRIBLE PERSON :(

xDDDD

HORRIBLE!! Dont you know you should NEVER EVER buy an ADULT male rat!! For shame!

Agreed infinitely. :l
I bought an older rat (who they said was going to die in 3 months, and she pulled through) and she's been the biggest
sweetie to my other rats. Sometimes it's even like she "breaks up" the other's fights.

Now I don't know EVERYthing there is to know about rats (I know more about reptiles), but I can't
really turn to other people who own them.
The last time I tried that, I got my head bitten off. :l

Just so you know ((aswell as anyone else)) always feel free to come to me with rat questions. I will help however I can and if I dont know the answer I will direct you to someone who does. And even when i do find someone is doing something wrong by their rats I never snap off heads. Its much nicer to just calmly explain why what they are doing is bad for the rat and tell them alternatives I find.

FLASHBACKS TO RATTIES ON LJ

Man ALL specialty pet people get like that. Especially those of the "misrepresented" pets like rats and pitbulls and shit. Snake owners seem to be the most forgiving. It's why I stay away from most communities. I don't wanna hear what a shitty owner I am. :\

I own rats and snakes. Maybe that's why Im not so messed up in the head.

Rat and snake owners united! ::fistbump.::

Oh and let's not forget CAT FANATICS who think you're a horrible person for letting your cat outside. ._.

Oh God. Don't get me started. =P

Yep. I agree, even I'm guilty of some things sometimes but it's purely because I'm so TIRED of seeing rats suffer because of inexperienced owners.

When I was about 15 I had a friend who's brother had a rat. They kept it in a TINY mouse cage, with nothing but one of those Rody Igloo beds and a food bowl. That was IT. The rat had no toys, and nothing to do in that cage but sleep. She also had a huge tumor on her side. I wanted to take that rat home SO BADLY but my mother said no. A few weeks later I found out one of the boys friends had apparently thrown it at a wall and killed it. That killed me inside. If I ever find out who that boy is, to this day like six years later, I will fucking kill him. That has really put me off of people keeping rats. I just feel that people need to do their research first and when I see people doing things like keeping rats in tiny cages and giving them no toys it just makes me so angry. How can people be so fucking stupid to not realize that rats are super intelligent, they get bored just like people do. Stick a person in a small room with nothing to do and they'll get bored, rats are no different.

I also rescued two rats a few years ago from someone who bought them for their kid. They meant well, they had the right sized cage, but the rats had very little toys in their cage, their cage was in the kitchen so EVERY time someone went in there, they'd give the rats food, any food. When I got them they were both hugely obese. They were bigger than pregnant rats, they were like little balloons. Their bed was filled with DORITOS. Seriously, not just one or two, like half a bag was stored in their bed. Those rats didn't live long. One of them was so fat her anus had actually became.. I don't know, it was warped, she couldn't poop properly, I had to bathe her every day because she was always covered in poop. It was just horrible. I'm so used to seeing people like this who don't look after rats properly that I can't help but worry about all the other rats out there like that.

Don't get me wrong, my friend came to me a few months ago looking to get rats, and I advised her on what cages to look at, what toys to get them and where to get the right bedding at a good price, and she's just fallen in love with her rats and I think she's a fantastic owner. It's just hard for us as owners not to worry, rats are one of the most ill-treated pets, most small animals are. Hell I hate hamsters but I feel sorry for them sometimes with all the awful stories I hear about hamsters being killed accidentally (or sometimes purposefully) by stupid people.

Sorry for the fucking essay there, but I just can't help but worry about rats with inexperienced owners now because of my experiences with them in the past. But I do agree those people were stupid and horrible to berate a person for taking a petstore rat. My local petstore gets their rats from breeders rather than a rodent farm, so I continually buy rats there. The way I see it, I'm rescuing those rats from being adopted by some stupid kid who'll stick them in a mouse cage and get bored of them after a week.

I understand trying to educate others. This is not what these people were doing. They were flat out seemingly wanting to attack her for bringing home an adult male rat and trying to home him with her others. Like the ONLY type of rat you should ever ever get from a petstore is a baby. She has other rats and cares for them the best she can. So I know shes a good owner, but like me she's going to run into questions or situations that are new every once in a while and I wish others would HELP her instead of going after her and acting like getting an older male rat is a HORRIBLE thing to do.

Gosh, would they rather he just rotted away in a tiny petstore cage with minimal human contact the rest of his life? What strange people! I just recently got Milo from a petstore and he's living with rats I've already owned for months and he's getting along just fine, I suppose they'd want to tear me a new one too!

Yes I have been exposed to these individuals as well, but I tend to sort heavily in the information.
Anyways, I would always always turn to experienced people, like you, for advice :)

I haven't come across too many bad ones, but I can understand how freaky some people get with them.

We brought home a couple girls from Petsmart because they wouldn't have had a home otherwise - Gypsy looks like a hobo because her fur looks weird and Hope was mislabeled as aggressive after she defended herself from a kid's stupidity. Of course, we have also brought home rats from petstores because they were just too cute to leave.

Good for your friend for providing a good home for a lonely old rat. I'm sure the old one is extremely happy.