http://www.mylovelyrats.com A diary of a human owned by rats. Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:09:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The last one of the infamous four. My lovely Shy-Shy has departed to the Rainbow Bridge. We had been on holiday for a week and my neighbour had kindly fed the rats for me, including dishing out Shy-Shy's baby food everyday. Shy-Shy had been eating okay all the time we ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/goodbye-shy-shy Baby Face Shy-Shy looking deceptively youthful. Aaw my poor old-man rat is losing his appetite. He refuses his dry rat food mix. He can be coaxed to eat baby oat breakfast though. His breathing has become a little more shallow lately and after the loss of his brothers I think ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/old-rat Dublin Scrutinising his Birthday Card On 24th May the boys celebrated their first birthday with home made muesli biscuits! Jinx Grabs a Biccy Dublin Gets his Teeth into it I wouldn't dream of spoiling my rats.. I mean.. doesn't everyone bake for their pets?! They also got little parcels of ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/birthday-boys On the 14th April our sweet Pip departed to the proverbial Rainbow Bridge... Since the death of his brother Stripe, Pip had been struggling against the ongoing effects of Mycoplasmosis. Although we tried an antibiotic called Septrin for roughly a month, the infection was too advanced, and his shallow gravelly breathing ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/pip-gone-to-the-bridge Just a few days after Stripes 2nd birthday, he began to show signs of being seriously ill, and sadly, over last weekend he declined very quickly. It was all so sudden and unexpected. I continued to give him soft food and keep him warm, but he grew tired very quickly ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/stripe-at-the-rainbow-bridge I have some sad news, Stripe, my sweet affectionate little rat is not well at all. Over the last two days he has suddenly become very weak and is unable to get about the cage very much. His breathing is quite shallow, and I think it is quite serious. I'm feeding ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/poorly-stripe It was the big boys 2nd Birthday today. My daughters helped me make pine nut sponge cakes for them. We also gave them rat treats and bought them a feather stick cat toy which Pip chased round the room like a kitten! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOYS!!! Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating birthday ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/happy-2nd-birthday-rats About a month ago I lifted Dublin out of his cage for his free range time and had a horrible shock - the skin on the tip of his tail was ripped almost right off and red raw. The skin had pulled off in a perfectly circular pattern, so I ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/de-gloving I've had several comments in the discussion areas about how to tame shy rats, so here are my replies, and a couple of useful links about the subject: For Nervous Rats Why not try putting your rats on a bed (with you on it) or a table or kitchen top so that ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/taming-rats Dublin and Jinx feigning innocence Yes, it's true - rats can have hormonal mood swings and teenage angst too! My youngest two rats have been doing a lot of posturing and having increasing skirmishes. Jinx has been a complete bully to poor laid back Dublin, by chasing him off the fresh ... http://www.mylovelyrats.com/rat-teen-troubles