My Lovely Rats

I can’t believe it! The boys are one year old today! It doesn’t seem very long ago when they were whizzing wee fuzzies!
Maya and I made the birthday bucks a delicious cake each. Here are the rough ingredients:-

self raising flour
margarine
1 egg
a little milk
crushed walnuts
grated carrot
a few dried cranberries
sweetcorn

We also made little presents of treats wrapped up in paper.
My 3 daughters helped me deliver the ratty gifts, and here are the pictures of Shy-Shy, Pip, Rocky and Stripe’s first birthday:-

Birthday Boy cuddles with Hannah

If I look cute and adorable, will mum give me that cake?

Rocky demonstrates the lunge-grab-bolt-backwards manoeuvre

“He he he ha ha” (Stripe laughing in a Remy-like way)

“Sniff and look pitiful, maybe she’ll give us some more cake”

“This is intriguing and smells frightfully good!”

Rocky has silent food haze moment

“Please mum, can I have some more?”

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating lovely birthday treats.

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My four boys have come through another battle with myco, and I’m doing all I can to build up their immune systems, by adding vitamin drops to their water and garlic powder to their dry food mix. The dry food is replaced every so often so that there is a constant supply in their cage. I use half Burgess Super Rat Excel and half my own mix which is based on the Shumanite diet (see links below). They get fresh food every day, including green leafy veg (not too much as this may cause diarrhoea) and I try to vary their fresh food every day. They can eat nearly everything we do, except that they mustn’t have too much protein (from nuts, eggs and meat) as this can cause skin problems. Too much fat or sugars in a rat’s diet can have the same effect as it does with us, the rat can become overweight and may suffer ailments associated with this including diabetes. The odd sprinkle of sunflower seeds between a few rats always goes down well though!

I’ve found the following sites to be very useful for information on many aspects of rat care:-

Ratz
Shumanite Rats
The Dapper Rat

Beautiful Rocky

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating rocket salad and cooked beans.

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Here’s some cute photos of my lovely rats. Click on the thumbnail to see the larger picture.

The Bucks

As Babies

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It’s been a while since I posted, what with home decorating, kids’ birthdays and a weekend visit to London (ie. Camden Lock). As we only went away for two nights, I put in enough provisions for the rats (extra food just in case and a large water bottle). When we got back, the rats were so happy to see us! They were chattering and hopping about all over me, and all seemed well - there was still plenty of dried food left over and half a bottle of water. Then I noticed that Shy-Shy had a bump on his back which I could feel when I picked him up for a cuddle. It turned out to be a scab, probably caused by a scuffle with one of his cage mates (most likely Pip, since he is asserting his dominance at the moment) or possibly from a scratch from his own sharp claw. I haven’t plucked up the courage to clip them yet (I’m too scared of hurting him). The scab looked clean, so I left it alone, and decided that it would probably heal by itself.
The following evening Shy-Shy still looked okay, but Rocky was making weird “foofing” noises through his nose. It was quite comical at first, until it dawned on me that it might be murine Mycoplasmosis again. Myco is an insidious disease affecting rats and mice (we can’t catch it), which is carried by virtually all pet rats. See my post Sneezing for a brief list of the symptoms of mycoplasma pulmonis. The next evening my guess was almost confirmed when I heard Rocky sneezing. I made an appointment with the vet the same week and she prescribed 0.3ml of Baytril per rat for all of the rats for 10 days. The course of antibiotics is nearly finished now, and Rocky is much better, and I haven’t heard any more “foofing” or sneezing from him or the other boys, thank goodness.

Pip and Rocky With Healthy Appetites!

All the Boys Tucking In

Today my rats have been mostly eating raspberries in yoghurt

Tags: Health // 2 Comments »

Yet again I’m having to modify the rats’ cage! Recently one or two of the rats have for some unknown reason decided to “tidy” all the poos in their cage from their toilets to the large “Acroplatform” which is supposed to be a kind of general run around area. Not only that, they have been diligently urinating over the same platform/shelf, so that when it comes to cleaning time, I am almost reduced to tears with the sheer stench of it! I must add that I give their cage a thorough clean every week religiously. The main culprit is Shy-shy, who among other things, has obsessive nesting instincts, and territory issues! An example of this would be the time I tried to remove some spoiled bedding to replace it with new stuff, and Shy-shy lunged at my fingers, mouth wide open and teeth flashing! He didn’t bite me but I didn’t give him much chance! He’s the only rat that is defensive about is home, and is never aggressive outside his cage or to his cage mates, but I give him a healthy respect, and “knock before entering” the cage (let him sniff my hand - and never try to move bedding/food/stuff once he’s claimed it as his!) I’m sure it’s quite common this behaviour and it’s just a natural instinct which serves wild rats very well.

Shy-shy “redecorating”

To combat the problem of messy cage habits, I had the ingenious idea of adding a couple of new levels to our huge cage, which have been filled with cardboard litter to absorb the yucky rat by-products! I have removed the Acroplatform for now and got hold of two cat litter trays which I’ve drilled holes into. The trays are attached to the cage with metal loops. So far so good, the ratties haven’t turned their home into a tip quite yet, but it’s only Monday!

Today my rats have been mostly eating their boring old rat food again!

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Yeah! 2008! New Year’s resolution 1: Stop spoiling the rats with naughty but nice food! It’s not good for them to over indulge! 2: Stop making New Year resolutions I won’t keep to!

Here’s the latest pics of the boys:

Shy-shy winning cuddliest rat competiton

Stripe pleading for one more yoghurt drop

Rocky “The Bruiser” Rat

A Pip in the Hand is worth two in the Cage

Today my rats are mostly eating my hair

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For Christmas I decided that just because my four boys were rats, it didn’t mean they should be left out of the Christmas celebrations. So I filled a fabric advent calender (one of those with the little pockets) with food treats. They soon came scampering up to the top of their cage to collect a treat from mum every day!

They also received a wopping big Christmas stocking from ‘mother’ Christmas! They got lots of treats and a few new hammocks and nests from my two favourite Internet rat shops: Acrorats and Fuzzbutt Cage Comforts. Acrorats make the most sturdy rat bunk beds which have lasted longer than any other products I’ve tried. They also sell great rat treats, cereal mixes and medicines. Fuzzbutt make wonderfully original rat furniture which has been well designed and is tested by…..rats of course!

Here are some examples of the rats’ fave beds:

Pip sniffing out new Acrorats Bucket

Acrorats Bunk Bed in April 2007 /Same Bunk Bed in October 07

Fuzzbutt’s Snooze Cube (still going strong,
with extra bolt hole made by the rats!

Today my rats have been mostly eating rodent ‘pizza’ and rodent chocolate drops.

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At last, we have completed work on the shed, which included putting in insulation, plywood, electricity, fittings and lino flooring to make the space “rat-proof”. Thanks to John Clegg for all his hard work installing the plywood, which was a huge task because of our garage sized shed. It looks fabulous, and the rats LOVE it, as do I!

The shed is split up by a four foot chipboard wall, accommodating our bikes, and general storage in one side, and the other portion is devoted just to the ratties! Now my boyfriend who has been suffering silently with his allergy to the rats, can breath freely in his own home at last! Hooray!

We have bought a frost control fan heater to warm the space during the winter months, and it works beautifully. The heater is thermostatically controlled, which is a must if you have pets outside. It gets very cold in the winter months up here in bonny Scotland, so I wanted to ensure the boys were warm enough. A rat thrives at temperatures not below 7 degrees C but I have the heater set to kick in at 10 degrees C minimum, which has proved to be just right.

In fact the rats seem to prefer the cosy space of their new home and are always waiting at the top of their cage for me, ready to come out and play. Even Pip, our shyest rat bounds around the floor and does little excitable “hops” everywhere. I found that the cardboard tube from the lino flooring is just the right size for male rats (even the fatter ones!). I have cut it into three pieces and made large holes here and there for the boys to run in and out of. It might be an idea to ask carpet merchants and fitters if the could spare a tube or two, for anyone who owns rats.

Today my rats have been mostly eating broken up rice cakes.

Tags: Housing // 2 Comments »

Here’s a quick post just to add a couple of cute videos of the boy’s antics.

1 Attack of the Corn Snatcher

2 Rat Bouncers Guard Important Pea Fishing Expedition

Today my rats have been eating me out of house and home.

Tags: Videos // 4 Comments »

It’s not necessary to bathe rats normally, because they continually wash and groom themselves (and each other) several times a day. They don’t seem to bother much with their tails though - as I noticed after the “rat print making episode” when Rocky had purple stains on his tail for about a week! Bucks tend to be a bit wiffier than does and as I have four of them slobbing out together, I thought it might be good to give them a little bath.

I got an old washing up basin and filled it to about a quarter (not too deep!) with lukewarm water and a little squirt of baby bath, which is very mild. I had a nice warm towel at the ready for afterwards.

Shy-Shy was not impressed! He gave out a loud squeak of defiance, so I just gave him a quick swish and rubbed his fur very gently, then I wrapped him in the cosy towel which he loved! I rubbed him vigorously but carefully with the towel, and he went still, and seemed to enjoy it. In fact none of the boys were that struck on the bath, but they all liked the towel drying part.

Afterwards I noticed the rats were all busily washing themselves (probably weren’t keen on the baby bath) , but at least they were all very clean and glossy furred!

Note to self and other rat owners: Don’t bathe rats, it’s a futile exercise! Keep their cage clean, and they will keep themselves clean, it’s a rat thing.

Today my rats have been mostly eating sprouts.

Tags: Hygeine // 2 Comments »