What do you do with your rats when you go away?

Just curious, what do you do with your rats when you go away?

We had planned on asking friends to come in and spend maybe an hour petting and feeding them, every day. Its only 9 days so we figured it wouldn't be a problem.
But now my daughter is getting nervous about it, none of her friends(except the one away for the whole summer ) are that confident holding or handling them, and we have no family nearby.
Turns out many people aren't fond of rats.

I'm going to Majorca for 7 nights next week, and my girls are being looked after by a friend of mine (who used to keep rats) I had another offer to take my girls from another girl on this forum too. I'd take care of them for you but I live quite a distance from you. Maybe someone closer to you might be able to take them.

If it's 3 days or less I just pile up their food, add an extra water bottle or bowl and set up my security camera so I can spy on them and make sure they're okay.
More than 3 days and I send them off to someone else who has rats. None of our friends or family would even open the cage to feed them, so although the people I'd send them too might only get them out once or twice in a week I'm happy that they're at least getting fed and they will notice if they're sick.
I'd recommend sending them to someone else who has rats if it's 9 days, because at least they will get out a few times and they will notice if they are unwell etc.
If you can get them to me and can provide food, bedding and a small fee I can take them.

We have all sorts of methods! my mum drops in to feed them, I have friends that do too... the last time we were away my brother and his girlfriend house-sat for us. If I have any that need real medication or are on babies, I send them to very rat savvy friends etc

We also take in rat-sits for people (and do rather a lot of it!), and we operate the way we and everyone else in the UK seemed to - we certainly don't charge, but it's nice if people bring gifts back (and we do the same, bring gifts for people to say thank you!). We also happily provide food and bedding because we have heaps here anyway, but we're happy to use the rat's own diet if it's different

xx

I'm in Carlow Town and would be happy to mind them for you if needed??

Thanks for all the kind offers, redrach you're a bit far away, but Carlow isn't far, so essdubya I may get back to you.
Currently waiting for someone to call in tomorrow and see how it goes. Will let you know.
Was just curious, cats and dogs go to kennels and cattery, but haven't had smallies since my teens in the UK, and all my friends had them too. Here small animals aren't that popular, only know 4 people with GP's and a couple with rabbits, none of them are keen on the rats!

Hi !

I have the same problem, that's to say I am going abroad for a bit more than two weeks (from 17/08 to 4/9) and am looking for someone close to Cork city (where i am living) to take care of my baby (male of almost one year)

It's a bit late to ask, but I have been asking my entourage, confident... And it seems to be more difficult than i thought.

If someone could that be that person to bring him the affection i use to give him every day... I would be very grateful.

Titi

Just to update, we're back and all is well.
Returned to two fat little ratties!
My daughters friend came in every day and gave fresh water, dandelions, pods of peas from my garden, home made brown bread, bits of veg and pasta etc left over from her dinner, plums, and lots of other delicious foods. She also gave them their dry mix, but they only ate about half what they normally do.
They seemed perfectly happy to see us and just as if we were only gone a day.
All in all a great success!