Tank and Remi

I've had Tank and Remi for some time, but wanted to get a picture up here. They're hanging out in their hammock. They were about 12 weeks old in this photo.

Pip aka Heaven, and Spot aka Johnny

Here are some shots for a family I adopted some ratties from.

Pip is a sweet little girl rattie. Currently she is in a 20 gallon long aquarium recovering from a minor tail amputation. She was wearing a collar for the first 3 days, but she looked so miserable I couldn't stand it anymore. She has been a good girl and left her tail bandage alone. She will be spayed in a month or two so she can move in with her brother, Spot and his room mate Patches.


















Spot is a little boy rattie that is more reserved than his sister. He doesn't much care for my husband because he's bitten him twice...enough to hurt, not enough to break the skin. He has been fine with me. :-) He really seems to love his hammock and he is bonding with Patches, an older male rattie that has moved in with him. Spot misses his sister but is happy to make new friends.

Sherman, Nona, and Patches aka Ace

I'm just posting some shots for families that I got some of my ratties from. Sherman, Nona and Patches all came from the same family. Sherman hasn't bonded with any ratties. Patches has bonded with new rattie Spot and Nona has bonded with her cage mates some time ago.

Sherman is peeking out to check out why I opened the door. He moved too fast because he was sleeping in his hammock!

Patches, is checking out to see if any good food is bring brought in since I opened the door. He is bonding with his new room mate Spot. He's a playful little guy that likes to play tag. He had mites when I got him. I treated him with Revolution and he has been doing great! Mites are common and rats may live their whole life with them and never give off any real indication.

He also had frequent loose stool, but now that he has been put on a pretty restrictive diet, he has been doing great. Rattie IBS. :-) I have a cat that suffers from something similar and he is on a restrictive diet as well.

When Spot's sister Pip is spayed, she'll be moving in with them. That will be in another month or so. Meanwhile, she is recovering from a partial tail amputation due to a degloving incident prior to my acquiring her.


Here is Nona with her room mates--kind of reminds me of the more bars campaign from the ATT commercial. From left to right, Precious (hairless), Nona, Shäst, and Lucy. Open the door Mom!

Remembering Mr. Chuckles

It has been 3 months since my beloved Mr. Chuckles passed away from congestive heart failure. I miss him every day and every rattie in my house is loved every day because of him...

My post on another site on 11/15/2007:
Mr. Chuckles, age 1 year and 9 months, passed 12:59 am this morning. 4 gasps, and it was over. I have spent the last week sleeping in my recliner with him in my lap to keep him company. He seemed to be doing so well, his edema was way down and he appeared to get around easier and his breathing was relaxing. I went and picked up a heating pad for him this evening for our evening sit. Just after midnight, I could hear the rattle start in his chest. Damn it all to hell. Closest 24 hour vet is over 30 minutes away. Stress him out to die in the car or just sit with him where we've sat for almost 2 weeks working on getting him better.

Afterwards, I brought him to his brother so Tickle could say goodbye. Tickle touched his brother sniffing and nudging. Tickle then kept kissing my hand.

His body is wrapped in clean tissue and is prepared for me to take to OHS for a private cremation. I'll drive to work tomorrow and bring him in. I have to say this officially sucks. I've only had him since July, but he was so sweet, my little gentle giant...and that would make sense if you knew him.

May Mr. Chuckles be roaming in open spaces with as many sunflower seeds and grapes and bananas he can wish for.

Peace all.

Jack the Gerbil and Kashi GoLean Twigs

Jack the gerbil loves Kashi cereal. I get the GoLean kind with 13% protein. They actually have a piece in it they call "twigs". I look up as I am feeding the ratties right into Jack's big eyes. He is staring at me as he consumes a Kashi "twig." I should take a picture and send it to them and say they have an appreciative customer. :-)

Cheers!

Critter and Room Updates

I sold off all of the other cages I no longer wanted to use. A rescue bought the one Pip and Spot came in and the one I had. Worked out well, they drove to Wilsonville from Salem to get it and I knocked some more money off to help out. Plus I didn't have to go anywhere as my husband works in Wilsonville and the person came to his work so I didn't have to pay to take it anywhere. It all works out in the end. I'm glad someone will get good use out of the cages.

I sold the 2 standard 20 gallon aquariums. It worked out, a kid was looking for tanks for his fish and I was selling them cheap. I told him if they didn't hold water to call me back and I'd give him his money back. They worked so he called and said he'd be keeping them. Cool. I got stuck with the long 20 gallon tank, but that is okay. I decided it makes a good hospital habitat. Pip is in it now recovering from surgery and she is in a collar so it is perfect for her. It has more floor space than a regular 20 gallon tank and it will keep her warmer since she can't really burrow in the bedding easily with the collar on. Anyway, I decided to keep this tank.

What, you ask, is on the bottom of my cage toppers then? Well, I have 3 cage toppers from Quality Cages. I love them, but hated the aquariums. They were too heavy. So I asked QC if they'd make me cages to go on the bottom of the cage toppers in place of the aquariums. Best damn money I ever spent. They are so cool. The ratties that have those cages took to them just fine. I prefer my other cage style over the toppers and faux aquariums, but the toppers are great quality and cost some decent dough, so I wanted to keep them. Besides, for the pets that are in this style, I need that lift opening as those ratties respond better when the whole lid is open, rather than just a door. The cool things about the aquarium replacements is that they have a door in them.

The room is in progress. I'm sick with a cold now so that has kind of put a damper on things. My head hurts too much when I bend down so no moving junk around this weekend. :-( I'll just try to go through my other junk.

We did get a fridge, but it is bigger than the one I thought we'd get so it isn't going on a dresser. That is okay though, it is a very nice fridge and we got it at a very good price. It was posted on CL 10 minutes before I found it and it was just a few streets up from where we live so that worked out great!

Decided not to get the boys neutered. Instead, I am going to get the little sister of Spot, Pip, spayed when she is old enough. After she recovers from her surgery she'll move in a cage I actually made for the late Pepé. She'll enjoy it since she is spidey rat. I'll set her cage right next to her brother's cage so she and Spot can visit and Patches can get to know her. Then in a month or two, when she has been spayed, she can move in with them.

Pepé, my senior mouse, passed away a few days ago. It was not unexpected, he started to look peaked. I spoke with the vet and since Pepé appeared to be eating, drinking and running around, there wasn't much they could really do for the fellow. Pepé was over a year and half old, which is pretty good for a little mouse. He had a hernia, but that doesn't appear to be what caused his death. It was either liver or kidney issues. He didn't seem in any pain and was very active until the day he died. He is in my freezer awaiting cremation. I take my babies to the Oregon Humane Society for private cremations. They are reasonable and considerate.

I think that is about it for now.

Cheers!

Update: Final Results!

Mr. Snuggles

Mr. Snuggles didn't have a picture until now. I still need to get a picture of his son Popeetka, but Popeetka is a cranky rat, so unlike his father Mr. Snuggles. Mr. Snuggles and Popeetka live separately from the rest of Vermin Village as both ratties suffer from respiratory illness and must be medicated twice daily. These were the little guys someone had kept outside in a small cage with 6 other ratties of mixed genders. I won't go into that here. But thankfully, someone with a real love for animals took them in and found them homes.

Broccoli Ticks

Ok. The list of forbidden foods say do not feed wild insects. I am so lucky I was cutting the broccoli for the ratties and not me though. I cut it very fine for them otherwise they argue over the pieces if they are too big. (If I was cutting it for human consumption...I would have not seen the bugs.) As I was cutting, I noticed a bug here or there. I kind of expect that, it's organic. Then I really started looking. Up right under and into the florets these big bugs that I think were grayish/black that clung to the floret as if they were ticks! I could not rinse or spray them off, I had to use my nail and scrap them off. If I had a sandblaster I might have gotten them off of course the broccoli would have been gone too. :-) After looking at how many there were, I packed it up and brought it back--the store is really good and gave me my money back..the guy was really horrified. The babies got something easier to clean tonight in its place...baby bok choy.

Has anyone been seeing a lot of this? This is the second time I found stuff on my broccoli within two months. I swear I'm going to frozen. :-( Really irritates me too...what self-respecting native Californian transplanted to Oregon likes to eat out of rigor broccoli? Yuck!

Although...I guess it is better than broccoli and friends. ;-)