Blog Categories
Hormonal Aggression in Male Rats
Your boys got along great when they were babies, but all of a sudden they’re fighting.
Maybe they’re growing up, maybe an old rat passed away, or you introduced new rats, and a previously chill rat has become increasingly tense and combative, fighting other rats and maybe even biting people. Maybe they’re grooming everyone really intensely, scent marking like crazy, maybe they suddenly get really tense when you pat them, and have to be on top of your hand instead of below it (if so, you may be in danger of being bitten!), or maybe they have a lot of orange grease on their back these days that you may have thought was mites, and smells oddly of toasted corn chips.
If this sounds like your rats, you might be witnessing the effects of hormonal aggression, or ‘HA’ for short. It’s one of the most common reasons for distressed owners to reach out to us for advice or rehoming. It’s a heartbreaking, sometimes avoidable situation that causes so much stress for owners, puts rats in bad welfare situations, and can cause a lot of damage.
Newsletter - Quarter 3, 2025 - Rebooting after the break!
Let’s design the next chapter of RRH together!
Now that we have taken some time to look after our amazing team we are ready to explore the next chapter of RRH.
There is a community meeting planned for 5th July 2025. Please complete this form to register your interest in attending!
Community Meeting Registration Form
RRH is taking a break!
To you, our wonderful #RRHFamily,
We have a big announcement: the rescue is taking a break.
It's been an enormous 6+ years, and we've done so many brilliant things, but as we all know the animal rescue world is rife with burnout, and RRH is not immune to that challenge. The only way to manage burnout is to take genuine space away, but for those in positions that look after a large part of the rescue's functioning it's not so easy to set up alternatives while running the show, or to find people to take things on. We've tried many things over the years to make the rescue the best space it can be for everyone involved, and we've come to the realisation that the most responsible thing to do is to take a break, and come back with fresh eyes and fresh brains to build something sustainable and targeted, instead of overextending to try and help so many people in so many ways. In a practical sense, this is all happening quite quickly due to our lease ending on the 13th of May.
The Ethics of Rescuing and Releasing Wild Rats
If you find a wild rat, what should you do?
In this blog post, Vollie Lydia gives a bite sized introduction to the ethics of rearing, releasing or rescuing wild rats. This is a difficult topic, but one that the rescue believes is important to understand.
- #VollieLydia, RRH Writing Team
RRH Pay What You Want/Can
A new model for Rachie’s Ratirement Home, following the best practice research from ‘Human Animal Support Services’.
Rat Feeding Series: Part 2
Now that we have covered the two main types of base diets, let's discuss how you can introduce or increase feeding enrichment for your mischief. These are approaches to feeding and ways to feed that you can do regardless of base diet.
As we learned in the Enrichment Series (written by Alison Campbell), the bedrock of enrichment is natural behaviours, this means that facilitating naturalistic enrichment is one of the most important tasks a rat parent should undertake. Below I will be quoting directly from Enrichment for Rats Part 5 - Seeking, Pleasure, and Reward.
“…rats (in common with all mammals) have four top-level emotional systems as described by Panksepp. These are Fear, Rage, Panic, and Seeking…
Rat Feeding Series: Part 1
We have a new blog post that begins a 3-part series all about feeding your rats!
If you want to read about base diet types, methods of feeding and diversifying your food offerings - make sure you tune in over the next three blog posts to find out everything you can about feeding your rats for health and enrichment!
Part 1 is live now, all you could want to know about types of rat diets!
Written by #VollieLydia, edited by #VollieJas
Help! I think my rats’ eyes and nose are bleeding!
We have a new blog post all about porphyrin!
Porphyrin is some red gunkies that can build up around a rats nose and eyes that can scare new rat owners, who mistake it for blood.
If you want to know more, come give the new blog post by #VollieLydia a squiz!
New COVID Strains Can Transfer from Humans to Rats
The world continues to grapple with covid-19, and unfortunately this also applies to our rats. Helpfully #VollieRoe has written an in-depth blog post on how omicron can be passed on to our pet rats, how it affects them, and the importance of a plan of action should you need to be separate from your rats while you have covid.
Keeping Rats Cool in Summer
It's hot over here in the rescue, and we're doing our best to keep our rats cool and comfortable. Over on the blog, we have written a handy guide to keep your rats cool during the summer, and what to do in heat emergencies! Go take a squizz, while it's still hot.