Nona Says Goodnight

Nona is the one crouched

I noticed she didn't come when I called her. :(  32 months old, Nona was an active little gem until the day she passed.  She loved her cage mates and she was very loving to people too.   I adopted Nona from someone on CL that had her and 2 boys, Sherman and Patches.

Nona is the last of my AT&T girls that I adopted, separately, in 2007.  I'm so sad that she has left but I know she is back with her best buddies, Shäst, Precious (r), and Lucy.

Nona had been living with Isabella and Joey(n) these past few months.

Nona has been prepared for private cremation at OHS.

You're hanging again with your best buds little Nona!

Matriarch Shäst Passes

Shäst passed while I was at the hospital. She was 43 months of age. She suffered from advanced respiratory illness and had started to develop multiple tumors. (She also had cataract in both eyes but that doesn't slow ratties down!) Her name is Russian for "Piece of Luck." She was the first girl I adopted from OHS in July of 2007 at approximately 1 year of age. She was found on the streets of downtown Portland--SW 11th and Yamhill to be exact. She and her late cage mate Precious were the first to test out my cage concept that later became the RT-24 http://qualitycage.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=129_231_240&products_id=2306]. She took Lucy under her wing and was a great friend to Nona and of course her best friend Precious. Shast was 41 months old.

Be united with your friend little one and stuff as much paper as you want in cage wire! Shast has been prepared for private cremation at OHS.

Ratties Move....New Cage Purchase

Libby has been moved to the downstairs BC-6. She is living next store to Bella. Bella has been moved from the home with the 5 girls. They do ok, but Bella has 4 tumors and Libby needed a friend. Bella was ok with the other group of girls but she was not so bonded that she didn't like the change. She seems to love having a part of a cage to herself and still be able to visit with Libby.

Libby also has a small tumor and she is also pretty old. :( So they are two little old ladies that hang out side-by-side in their hammocks.

Mimi and Junior were moved back downstairs into a BC-6. Junior still gets a bit nervous around a lot of noise but he so enjoys hamming it up when he knows you're looking at him. These are the 2 I hope to put the 2 spayed girls with. Mimi is also spayed of course.

Sherman and Luke are in the lower BC-6. They have lots of fun. I've thrown in lots of newspaper in all of the cages and they've gone to town with making nests. It cracks me up to see the 2 boys in their hammocks with newspaper all around them. They have blankets too but it must be something about the paper. lol

Upstairs, the BC-7s are waiting to be cleaned. Remi is currently hanging out downstairs while this is happening. Remi will be moving into a split BC-7 with Cricket on the other side. Hopefully they will get used to each other so the divider can come out. Potter and Joey are also in a carrier waiting for the BC-7 (they used to live in a BC-6). I've downsized the room to 2 stacks of BC-7 and moved all of the BC-6 downstairs. Of course the 4 custom multi-leveled cages are still up there.

Trixie, Pixie and Boo have moved into Tickle Tower! (Remember Boo is neutered.) So far so good. Since Libby has moved downstairs, she was living in the upper level of the Tower, there was more room to move the 3 in. Boo doesn't know quite what to do. The tower has lots of stuff for them to play in and hammocks to sack out in. Sadly, the matriarch, Shäst, has really slowed down. I'm hesitent to move her though. I put everthing she needs on the level she stays on. Although water is available on all levels. She spends most of the time in the hammock. I don't want to move her out because her friends Lucy and Nona are good company for her and take care of their old friend.


I did purchase a used Quality Cage, BC-11 1/2 cage from a private party. I went to Quality Cages and purchased a stand, as shown in the picture. I also had extra doors made for easier cleaning. I also need to purchase 2 more doors to cover the nest box holes, but that is not a problem! Turns out they made a new product for the chinchilla cages. It is a powder coated metal shelf. So I got 3 of those to try out in this cage. I'll see how they work and might order more, maybe even wider shelves. It's so exciting. The cage is very big, but if I keep it downstairs, which is where it will eventually end up, I can just roll it out the front door to clean. Currently, this cage is in storage.

Anyway, it has been very busy at the village.

Precious Passes

My only little lovey hairless girl, Precious, passed sometime today. The girls in Tickle Tower covered her with all of the blankets in the cage except the one she was laying on. I'm glad she got to spend the last couple of days of her life in the brand new cage surrounded by her friends. I was thinking of moving her, Shäst, and Starsky into a single level cage as they have all slowed down a bit. But now I don't think that is a good idea because one would be alone. Their lives are just too short. I have to say I'm glad she lived as long as she did, she was one of the ratties affected by whatever had swept through Vermin Village in the spring of 2008. I am guessing she was around 22 months, but she could be a bit older. She was adopted from Craigslist from a little girl that bred her to sell the babies back to the pet store. Of course that never pans out well so she rehomed her. Precious was a great girl and she and Shäst hit it off really well. They were soon joined by many other girls in Tickle Tower. It was for Precious and Shäst that I got the idea for the original design of my Quality Cage cages. So while Tickle and Mr. Chuckles get credit for founding Vermin Village, the girls get credit for my quest for the best cage.

Rest in peace little one.

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!

Precious the Hairless?

Picked up Precious, the hairless female rat, on Tuesday. She is so sweet. Right now she is in a cage next to Shäst to become acquainted. Sunday will be bath day for my 4 boys (second treatment), so Shäst and Precious will have one too. Then it is vanilla and bathtub time for the 2 girls. (Vanilla is used to mask the scent, the bathtub is used because it is neutral ground.)

Then I go to scrub the cage. I'm actually expanding it and it will be bigger than any other single cage I have, just over 5' tall! I got a metal nail file to smooth each wire cut. I also got door cards to help with that! Just fed them their breakfast. The babies are getting BIG. Baxter loves the wheel, he appears to be the only rat out of the 4 that use it.

Oh yeah, with the cage expansion for Shäst and Precious, they will get a wheel. I picked one up at Quality Cages in Portland.