http://www.mylovelyrats.com A diary of a human owned by rats. Fri, 14 Nov 2008 16:07:15 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I took Rocky to the vets yesterday, because over the last few days he appeared to be losing condition. His fur looked odd (kind of fluffed up and messy) and three days ago I noticed he was an odd pear shape. When I picked him up he felt really bloated ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/rocky-shock Here's a few more great mugshots of my six handsome bucks! Rocky, 19 months old Jinx, 5 months old Shy-Shy, 19 months old Stripe, 19 months old Dublin, 5 months old Pip, 19 months old Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating apple slices http://www.mylovelyrats.com/handsome-chaps I made another attempt to reintroduce all the rats on neutral ground with the following results. Shy-Shy accepted both the younger two rats, and even groomed Dublin affectionately. Pip wasn't so sure but seemed to tolerate the new boys for the whole duration, and he actually sniffed them a few ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/rats-reunited A little post all about the new boys. Dublin the Bold Here's our lovely big buck Dublin. I think he's going to be a big rat - but he's not fully grown so it's hard to tell. He's more laid back than his brother Jinx, and more outgoing. After all the ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/dublin-and-jinx It's Day 27 of the rat introductions and lots of sniffing rat bottoms going on! I've been putting the new boys and older rats together every day (the more often you do this the better) on neutral ground (a place neither set of rats normally go). Shy-Shy and Pip have ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/i-smell-a-rat Well, it's Day 10 of the rat intros. It's becoming apparent that it's not going to be as simple as I'd envisaged. Getting two strange rats to get along and play nice is one thing but trying to encourage four big bruiser bucks to be best buddies with two complete ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/the-trouble-with-tribbles After scouring the internet for gems of wisdom about rat intros and gaining some sound advice from a local rat fancier, I felt it was time to have a rat party for all the boys. In theory, it is possible to introduce any two rats together, but the age and ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/introductions Here's a few more pics of the new little boys. Also a big huddle of the older bucks with Hannah. As you can see the new ones are black hooded dumbo rats. Dublin has a longer "hood" and a stripe widening at the tail, while Jinx is smaller and has ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/more-baby-rat-pictures Oh yes! We couldn't resist! These two little 8 week old bucks came home with us on Saturday. Jinx and Dublin They were a little freaked out, but very very sweet. I think they've been handled, because they were from a local lad (accidental litter) but they've had to endure a ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/new-baby-rats All the rats seem to have recovered from the sneezing and they have put on weight (again!). I will have to put them on a diet soon. Rocky and Pip let the other two to wait on them, by sitting in the food larder, while Stripe and Shy-Shy frantically store ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/stripe