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🩺 Your free vet-prep sheet

Your Rat Vet-Prep Sheet

Exotic-mammal vets are rare, and it is easy to freeze in a crisis. This is the one page to have ready — how to find a vet, what to bring, what to tell them, and the questions to ask. Print it and keep it with your care notes. This helps you prepare for a vet — it is not treatment.

Black & white saves ink and prints cleanly on any printer.

Not sure it’s a vet trip yet? Run the “normal, or should I worry?” check first — many worries turn out to be a husbandry fix.

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Rat — Vet-Prep Sheet

🔍 Find an exotic-mammal vet — before you need one

  • Search the AEMV find-a-vet directory (the Association of Exotic Mammal Veterinarians), or, in the UK, the RCVS Find-a-Vet tool — or search “exotic / small-mammal vet near me”.
  • Call ahead and ask the key question: “Do you see small / exotic mammals?” Not every vet does. Ask the exam fee while you’re on the phone, so the cost is one less panic in a crisis.
  • Find and save one now, while things are calm — not in the middle of an emergency.

📇 Fill this in now — before the crisis

Two minutes now saves ten in a panic. Print it and keep it with your care notes.

My vet
My rat
What I’m seeing

🚨 Is this an emergency now?

See a vet promptly if you notice any of these:

  • Raspy, clicking or laboured breathing, sneezing or sniffling — respiratory infection is common and serious in rats; see a vet promptly
  • Any new lump or bump anywhere on the body (mammary tumours are the most common tumour in rats)
  • Reddish-brown staining (“red tears”) around the eyes or nose, especially a lot of it — a sign of stress or illness, not blood
  • Loss of appetite or weight, a hunched posture, or a dull, puffy or fluffed-up coat
  • Head tilt or circling (often an ear or respiratory infection, or a pituitary tumour)
  • Discharge from the eyes or nose, hair loss, scabs, or persistent itching
  • Weakness or dragging of the hind legs, especially in an older rat

When in doubt, a vet call is never wrong — most issues are reversible if caught early.

🚗 On the way / while you wait

✅ Do

  • Keep it warm — small mammals chill and dehydrate fast, and cold makes almost everything worse.
  • Bring it in its own bedding/carrier with some familiar food.
  • For rabbits and guinea pigs, keep offering their normal hay, greens and water — a gut that stops is an emergency.
  • Bring a fresh dropping or urine sample if you can.
  • Keep it calm and quiet.

⛔ Don’t

  • Don’t give any human or OTC medicines — some common antibiotics are fatal to rabbits and guinea pigs.
  • Don’t withhold food from a rabbit or guinea pig.
  • Don’t let it get cold.
  • Don’t handle it more than necessary.

🎒 What to bring

  • A fresh dropping or urine sample, if you can collect one.
  • Photos and a short video of the behaviour or symptom — it may not show it in the clinic.
  • A note of your setup and exactly what — and how often — you feed.
  • A note of eating, drinking and toileting over the last day.
  • The animal in a secure, warm carrier.

🗣️ What to tell the vet

A general vet may not know this species. Come ready to explain its correct care:

Enclosure
A large, tall wire cage — as big as you can give, with multiple levels — so they can run, climb, and stand up on their hind legs. Solid floors (never wire mesh, which causes foot problems), with bar spacing narrow enough that they can’t push their head through (if the head fits, the whole rat follows). Rats are expert escape artists, so it must be genuinely secure, kept in a settled spot, and out of direct sunlight. Fill it with vertical and horizontal space — platforms, ropes, hammocks, ladders and tunnels — without cramming it so full they can’t move.
Companionship
Rats are highly social and must never be kept alone — a solitary rat can become depressed and develop abnormal behaviour even with lots of human attention, and rats housed together are just as friendly with people. Keep them in pairs or small same-sex groups, ideally siblings introduced young; in mixed-sex groups all males must be neutered. Give as many shelters as rats, plus one, each with more than one exit. Never pick a rat up by its tail or scruff, and never hold it up high.
Temperature
Keep them at a steady 19–23°C, out of very hot or cold rooms (not a conservatory, garage or shed) and out of direct sunlight; move them somewhere cooler in a summer heatwave. They’re nocturnal and very light-sensitive — especially red-eyed (albino) rats — so give them a room that’s not too bright by day and dark at night, and keep them away from high-pitched noise and ultrasound.
Substrate
A solid floor with a generous layer of safe bedding — non-aspen wood chips, cellulose-based chips or shredded filter paper — plus nesting material such as plain white tissue, hay or shredded paper. Avoid dusty sawdust, aspen, and fragrant or dyed bedding (respiratory risk). Never use cotton-wool or fluffy strand “fibre” bedding: rats can swallow it or get limbs tangled and lose circulation. Spot-clean through the week and clean the cage fully about weekly — keeping ammonia down directly protects their lungs — leaving a little clean used bedding behind for familiar scent.
Enrichment
Rats are intelligent and need a lot to do: daily time out of the cage to explore (supervised), plus tunnels, ropes, hammocks, ladders, digging trays and safe things to chew. Feed some of their food by scattering, hiding it, or making them work for it — foraging is a core natural behaviour. Provide untreated wooden gnaw blocks, as their incisors grow continuously and must be worn down.
Diet
A complete commercial rat food (nuggets/pellets designed specifically for rats — not rabbit, guinea pig or hamster food) as the base. As omnivores they enjoy small amounts of fresh food — vegetables, a little fruit, cooked egg, grains and seeds — but give these as part of the daily ration, not on top of it, or they gain weight. Feed twice a day (they’re dawn/dusk feeders), from open ceramic bowls rather than metal (metal creates stressful ultrasound), and provide fresh water from several drip bottles. Avoid onion, citrus, walnuts, rhubarb, grapes/raisins and chocolate, and keep sugary, fatty and dairy foods to occasional treats only.
Supplements
None needed on a complete rat food — and don’t over-supplement, as high-calorie diets are linked to tumours. Eating some of their own droppings (coprophagy) is normal and healthy: it’s how rats absorb certain nutrients, so never try to stop it.

⚕️ Small mammals are prey animals and hide illness until it is advanced, so any change in eating, droppings, drinking or behaviour is urgent — in rabbits and guinea pigs, not eating or passing no droppings for 12–24 hours can be a life-threatening emergency (gut stasis). They also chill and dehydrate quickly, so keep it warm. Tell the vet about your diet and any remedies you’ve used, and ask for exotic-mammal-safe medicines and doses — several antibiotics that are routine in other pets are dangerous to rabbits and guinea pigs.

Then note which of the warning signs (above) you are seeing, when they started, and whether they are getting worse.

❓ Questions to ask

  • Do you routinely see small / exotic mammals? If not, can you refer me to a vet who does?
  • What are the likely causes — and could my setup or diet be contributing?
  • What is the treatment plan, the likely cost, and what should I watch for at home?
  • How do I prevent this from happening again?