Rex

This beautiful boy is such a sweetheart and needs a good home!

Mom Joined Flickr!

Check out all our beautiful portraits on Flickr.

Vitamin Supplements

Benebac powder, found at Petco stores for $3.99, is a great vitamin supplement that every rattie parents should have. It's a cheap and easy way to help keep your ratties from getting sick from stress that comes from traveling, being on antibiotics, moving, pregnancy, etc. Sprinkle some on top of their food each day durning stressful times and you'll definitely see a difference!

Other things that rattie parents should have in the first aid kit: Vitadrops, Nutrical, and Rabbit RX.

Choking

Apparently, along with peanut butter and cheese, ratties are also not supposed to have bread. These foods can lead to choking, as we found out with Stella just now. We knew there was a special way to heimlich ratties, so we went online and found it here. Fortunately, by the time we were ready to start doing the Rattie Fling, Stella had taken care of herself. They say ratties don't have gag reflexes, but we just watched Stella dislodge the bread by throwing it up. The moral of the story? Take warnings about foods to avoid seriously!

Naptime

They are adorable even when they're asleep!

URI- Not the School

So Roxie has been a little down lately, mom thought maybe its just old age, but she has been having a lot of red tears lately, and she's been hanging her head off of things. She might have to go to the vet soon (and if she goes, we alllll go. Mom thinks its great that Banfield in Warwick has such cheap rates, but I sure don't). But for now we're all going to keep our eye on her, and mom brought home some Marshall's Rabbit Rx for upper respiratory treatment in small animals. Its kinda like mom's Vicks Vapor rub. I think it smells awesome, although Roxie says its not as nice when its right under your nose. She doesn't like it when mom puts it on her. But it does help with her snorting. She's snorted ever since she was born, mom calls her a little piggy, and the vet said that there's nothing we can do about it.
Poor Roxie's also getting triple anti-biotoc ointment (a.k.a. neosporin) put on her scabs a few times a day. We think these are part of the URI- upper respiratory infection- too.

Abbey

Abbey helping mom write her paper


Apparently it's much easier to make progress with Abbey in Foster . . . not quite sure why exactly but we'll take it. She will actually come out of the cage onto mom's hand, and although she still doesn't like being handled she is okay with exploring a little. Mom did homework today for hours, just sitting on the bed chilling with us girls. Abbey doesn't like sudden movements or loud noises, but if we keep the atmosphere relatively calm she will come out from under the pillows and explore. She was even climbing on mom's shoulders and exploring. We don't know what it is- maybe it's the essence of Chloe- but she is quite a different rat here. Mom can't wait to move back for the summer so we can all work with her some more.

Rat Loves Cat

One of mom's favorite YouTube videos ever- Rat Loves Cat So cute!

Daisy, the Lucky Rat

Today Mom remembered why she chose to go back to work at a pet store. Watching a pet go home with a good family is always rewarding, but then there are those special pets who you end up really caring about. Daisy was one of those. She was abandoned at the front door of Petco over the summer, mistakenly put on our sales floor, then sold as a feeder two or three times. Each time she was returned because she injured the snake she was meant to feed (one of the many dangers of live feeding). As if this wasn't enough, after she was returned she was put back on the sales floor, put in with two male rats and got pregnant. She birthed eleven healthy babies. Most of the babies have good homes, including one with us. The happy ending? Today, Daisy went home with her new family and is going to have two new friends along with a really great mom and dad. We we told she'd be in to visit often. That's one lucky rat!

Flood!

Boy, have we had some adventures lately! Last Monday night our home was flooded with six inches of water. Of course, Mom had to get us out of the house because our landlord doesn't like rats (what a meanie!). So we went and stayed in an apartment on campus with our friends dad. Then, we had to move AGAIN. We liked this next place a lot better though, it was way more exciting and we always had food in our dish!
We spent the first few days sharing a room with two ferrets and a cat, which was a little scary at first. I had to be the brave one and check things out for Roxie and Abbey. I told them that if anyone tried to hurt them I'd beat 'em up! What they didn't realize was that I knew mom had put special clips on our cage so that there was no way the doors could be opened by another animal . . . but SHH I like playing brave :)
It wasn't long before we realized that the cat was just amused by us, and the ferrets were too dumb to realize we were on top of them. In fact, they doubled as our protectors because if the cat tried to get near us the ferrets scared him away. Its funny how our natural predators became our protectors. After a few days there mom and dad brought us home again, although we're in a different room now because ours is under construction. I told mom that I'd help with the demo, but she didn't seem to think it was a good idea.

Rattie Food

When it comes to feeding us, there are so many choices! We loooovvee those seed based mixes from the pet store, but mom says they are high in fat and low in protein so we wouldn't be getting the nutrition we deserve. Mom also knows us, and most ratties, by now and she knows that we would pick out only the parts we like, which also means we're not getting the right nutrition. The pet store fed us lab blocks (aka rodents blocks) but that was so BORING! You wouldn't want to eat the same thing 24/7, so why make us? Yeah, Yeah, it's nutritionally complete, but really folks, its so BLAND. Get off your butts and make your ratties a homemade mix- they'll love you for it and it'll last way longer than a store bought bag.

Our food is made with a mix of:

Reggie Rat Food (This stuff is great, and mom had us on it for a while, but we started leaving the parts we didn't like. So instead of leaving us on this, she included it in her mix)

Kaytee Lab Blocks (They're not so bad when they're not ALL you eat EVERR)

Goodlife Recepie Dog Food (Souds crazy, right? But we love it! And it's good for us)

Puffed Wheat

Puffed Rice

Total Cereal (this mix has blueberry and pomegranate in it-yum!)

There are many ways to make your own rattie food, but you have to make sure that we're getting everything we need out of it. That's why mom puts in the lab blocks, the Reggie Rat, and the Goodlife Recepie.

Fruits and Veggies are also very important parts of our diet. Mom gives us kale (Stella's favorite!) and broccoli (which we haven't been eating lately because we're bored with it). Always give your rats KALE and NOT LETTUCE. Lettuce has an extremely high water content and little nutritional value, and can lead to upset stomachs and diarrhea.

For more on rattie nutrition, check out Spoiled Ratten

Bruxing

For those of you who don't know what bruxing is, or why it happens.

2.1 Why do my rat's eyes bulge in and out? (from RatBehavior.Org)

Sometimes, a rat's eyes may vibrate rapidly in and out of the eye socket, a phenomenon called eye boggling. This odd eyeball movement often occurs at the same time as bruxing, or tooth grinding. The reason bruxing and eye boggling occur together is anatomical: a part of the muscle that pulls up the rat's lower jaw passes through the eye socket, behind the eyeball. When a rat grinds its teeth, it moves its lower jaw rapidly up and down, and the contractions of the jaw muscle vibrate the eyeball in and out of the socket in time with the jaw.

Eye boggling is associated with intense bruxing. Anecdotally, eye boggling occurs at times of great contentment and relaxation. The eyeball vibrates rapidly in and out of the socket. Occurs during high-intensity bruxing (soft, repetitive grinding of the incisors). The rat's masseter muscle, which passes through the eye socket behind the eyeball, moves the jaw rapidly up and down during bruxing. When bruxing is intense, the contractions of the masseter vibrate the eye in and out of the socket in time with the incisor grinding. Usually considered to indicate pleasure and contentment.

And finally, the point of all this, a cute VIDEO we found of Whiskey and Womble on YouTube!

From Mom

I've realized this past week just how lucky I am to have two such great girls. My girlies come when they're called, they show affection to people they know well, they're social with my friends, they're playful, they're litter trained, they keep themselves clean, and they don't chew on my things. Compared to other rats I've met, they're really not ratty at all. And thank god for that, I don't think I could take them pooing everywhere, running out of their cage when they're not supposed to, taking their food out of the bowl and hiding it everywhere, and making nasty nests all the time. If you're going to have rats, make sure you train them right! It's really not difficult, there are plenty of websites(rat guide) and even a few good books (training, the rat ). Youtube has great step by step instructions for training (basics, coming when called ).

Little Abbey is a work in progress, she's still so skittish and won't let me hold her. Sometimes she'll let me put my hand near her and she'll take food every once in a while, but we've got a long way to go. I was letting her out with the other two for a while, but she always just ran and hid somewhere and it ended in a chase. So, poor thing, she's going to stay in her cage until she's ready to come out and ready to say hi to me. I've never had a rat like this, Stella and Roxie were pretty good from day one.

Sharing

The girls have finally started sharing their cage with Abbey (yes, we finally chose a name for the new little one!). After spending most of the day Saturday in the same cage in Foster, I decided it was OK to leave Abbey in there for the night. They spent Saturday night and most of Sunday together in Foster, as well as the car ride back to NK. When we first got home there were a few tiffs in the big cage, but no one was getting hurt so I decided to let the girls establish their pecking order. Turns out Stella's the alpha, and Roxie is more of a baby than I've been giving her credit for. Abbey loves Roxie and follows her everywhere, and Roxie puts up with it. Seems like she thinks that if Stella's not going to be nice, someone's gotta show the baby the ropes. Although Stella's still not completely warmed up to the idea of having another sister, it's just a relief to have them all in one cage!

For more information about introducing new ratties, see the rat care guide

Weekend Getaway

We're all at mom's parent's house for the weekend. We hear we'll be staying here for the summer too, and we kinda remember this place from when mom first took us home from the store but we weren't here for very long. We're in a smaller cage, one thats not very familiar to us because we've only spent a few nights in it here and there. It's a lot easier to share this space with the new baby than our cage in NK, we're not as territorial here. The baby isn't spending the night with us here or anything (we don't think mom trusts us enough for that!) but she has been in with us for a little while and we can deal with that. It's easier to play with her here too, because we're not jealous and protective of our territory. It definitely seems to make mom and dad happy to see that we can play nice, sometimes ;)

The Baby in her Little House


Sizing Each Other Up

Playtime

Trapped like a rat!

This never would have happened if dad was here...

Well, Dad's out for the night, so you know what that means- we get to come out of our cage until he gets back! We've been having a blast running around, getting into trouble, and getting to know our new friend (who's still nameless by the way). We just wanted to share some pictures from our playtime today.

Accident Prone Ratties

Hi everyone, Stella here. I just wanted to let all you humans know that although we rats seem indestructible, we really can get hurt and sick sometimes. It's important for you to check up on us frequently so that you can catch things we try and hide. Unfortunately, many of us don't like trips to the vet, and so we try to avoid them as much as we can. We can't help it, it's in our nature to act like we're fine even when we're not (see Suite 101). Mom just found out today that I'm missing a toenail and she'll never know when I did it! I'm too proud to tell her...

Maximillion

About a month ago mom put a little boy rat into the Wellness room at PetCo for his terrible respiratory infection. He went on medicine (Trimeth) for his respritory problem, and thankfully it went away pretty quickly. But he still has a problem with his left eye, having a lot of prophyrin discharge and scratching a lot. He went back to the vet today to get his eye all sorted out, and he came back with more Trimeth and some drops for his eye, which has something called conjunctivitis (or pink eye, as we normal rats call it). This little boy has been sick for so long, and he's such a sweetheart that mom would love to take him home, if only he were a girl! We don't need anyone getting preggers around here.

Friends

Mom and dad went to PetCo on Tuesday to visit Daisy's babies... and they came home with one. Her first night here she was a nice calm little girl and she'd lay with mom on the bed. We really don't know what to make of her- she's kind of annoying and follows us everywhere. She's so tiny that she can walk right under us! We think her and mom have the same birthday, which is pretty cool, but we're kind of jealous at the same time. In fact, we're pretty jealous in general. Since she got here we've been a little more clingy towards mom, especially Roxie. Anyways, the little one (which is what we're calling her until she has a name) is sleeping in our travel cage for now, because we don't know her well enough to let her sleep with us yet. We play with her just fine outside the cage, but we get a little pissed when she comes near our home. We share our toys, our playground, and even our mom with her, our cage is just a little too much to ask right now! Plus, we don't know if we can deal with her 24/7 until she's a little older, right now she's so skittish- she doesn't even trust mom and dad yet! This little pups got a lot to learn....

Bordem leads to Destructive Ratties

Moms had a lot of work to do lately, and we understand that, but, we definitely don't like it. We like to be outside of our cage for AT LEAST an hour each day, and if we don't get that time to stretch our little rattie legs, we tend to go a little stir crazy. Especially us girls, we have a lot more energy than the boys. Don't ask us why...but doesn't it make us more interesting and loveable?? We love playing and hand wrestling with mom and dad! But we also more likely to get bored of that and run off and find something else to do...like finding things to make nests with (Stella's personal favorite passtime when she doesn't get enough "out" time, see photos below).

Males are more laid back and more snuggly (or so we hear)- they're content to just hang out being pet all day long. We don't understand the concept of being a couch potato though, we get bored after a few minutes in one spot! Males tend to smell too, something mom says is called "buck grease." We hear that they're much bigger than we are too, although we've never met a male rattie. Apparently they have attitude problems too, they don't get along unless they're formally introduced. Us, we're happy to play with the three rattie girls upstairs anytime (as long as they don't come in our cage!).

So please, try as hard as you can to give us the attention we deserve, or else we tend to take out our boredom on whatever we can, even our much-loved beds and toys.

"Ta-DA! Aren't you proud of me, mom?"


"Hey, I thought this blog was about ME, not my mess!"

Rainbow Bridge

Here is the Rainbow Bridge poem from Mom, in memory of her much loved and missed Chloe. RIP baby girl.

The Little Things

The girls checking out their new toys


Roxie playing in her new blankie


Mom went to Target the other day and brought us home five new toys to play with, and she only spent five dollars! The dollar section of Target as well as the dollar store are great places to hunt for new rattie toys. Just keep an open mind when you are looking at stuff and think, "if I was a rat, would I like to play with this?" It makes shopping for us much easier and cheaper than going to a pet specialty store. Mom brought home a fuzzy fleece pink-polka dot puppy blanket that we love to snuggle in, a "Spoiled Rotten Princess" bag, two pink facecloths that can be made into hammocks, and a basket to throw everything in if we just want to play with it all at once.

Keep your eyes open for cute and cheap toys for your ratties, they'll love them! Check out these Rat Toy Ideas from the Dapper Rat

TOYS!

We got a new toy today!


Mom went into PetSmart to check prices, and came home with an amazing three-story ferret condo (don't tell PetCo!) We're taking a little while to get used to it, after all, it smells pretttttyyy funny from being in the store around all those other animals. We can't help but not trust it, it's part of our survival instincts. But mom knows how to introduce us to new things- just hide treats in it, that makes us warm up to it much faster.

Roxie would like to say that Stella's crazy, she went into it after five whole minutes. Not me, uh-uh. It takes me way longer to get used to new people and things- I'm a scardy rat. I'm OK with it now though, for the most part. I just can't get over how weird it smells. I prefer my hammock that mom made by hanging a soft, fuzzy cleaning rag she bought at the dollar store by a safety pin at each corner. It's cute and cheap, and a great place to take a nap or just hang out. I even let Stella lay with me (sometimes).


Take a look at all these great toy ideas from the Dapper Rat

Jessica Florence and Bug

Since mom's pictures of Daisy and her babies seem to have refused to transfer from the phone to the computer, here's a link to give you all an idea of what they look like.

Rattie Pups- from Jessica Florence

Mom discovered Jessica Florence's photography a while ago, back when Jessica still had Bug and mom still had Chloe. Mom's been following her on Flickr ever since, its one of our favorite places to go for rattie love! We just took a look with mom today and saw the pictures of the new pups!

Mom says it's strange how Jessica's rattie experiences have mirrored her own.. first with Bug and Chloe, then Duck and Worm (and Roxie and Stella), and now the litter of pups...

Some of mom's own photography of us:

Daisy

Mom's been telling us about her rattie friend at work, Daisy, and so we thought we'd do a shout out post to say hi!

Daisy is a female rat and a complete sweetheart from what we hear. She's a beautiful beige berkshire, meaning she's all champagne except for her belly and paws, which are pure white. (For more information on rattie classification, click HERE and HERE) .

Unfortunately, Daisy was mistaken for a male and left in the same cage as some "other" males. Of course, little Daisy then got pregnant, and mom and her friends at work have been watching her tummy grow for a few weeks now. On Saturday afternoon she finally delivered nine healthy, squeaking pups.

Here are some pictures mom took of Daisy throughout her pregnancy, and finally with her litter.

(pictures to come)

If you're interested in adopting *TWO or more* of Daisy's babies, visit our mom at Cranston PetCo!

A special note from mom: Ratties should NEVER, I repeat NEVER EVER, be housed alone. They are by nature extremely social animals, living in packs in the wild, and keeping them by themselves leads to stress and sickness. There are only extremely rare circumstances when having a single rattie is acceptable- I have done it once and will never do it again. It is clear to me after having my Roxie&Stella that I NEVER should have kept just one. Chloe, however, was a rare rattie soul, who wanted nothing to do with the friend I adopted for her (and then had to rehome)! My Chloe beat up any other rattie that I introduced her to, scaring them into playing dead in the worst cases and in the best simply chasing them away from me and then "guarding" me by poofing up to twice her normal (which was quite large) size and staying between me and the other rat at all times.

A special note from us: Mom's right! We wouldn't know what to do without each other. Chloe was a weirdo :-P

First things First

Stella Bella

Roxie

First off, let us introduce ourselves; we are Stella and Roxie, and we live with our mom and dad in Rhode Island.

We're not sure about our ages, only that Roxie is about a month or so older, based on her size. The people at the pet store were selling us as feeders and didn't keep track of our ages. More to come on our mom's feelings about feeders when she finishes her essay, which we can't wait for because she barely has time to play with us lately. We need to be outside our cage for at LEAST an hour each day or else we get cabin fever (which basically means we begin tearing apart all our nice toys and beds).

Anyway, we're both about half a year old, mom says we'll celebrate our birthday as the day we were taken home from the store.

We live in a PetCo rat manor that our mom bought for us from her work and we love it! Sometimes when we have to visit the grandparents we get put in a smaller cage, which is just plain depressing. If any of you are looking for a cage, the rat manor is the only way to go! It's sturdy, easy to put together, and, most importantly BIG enough for us to have room to play, which we do, all night long. We love the fact that there is a compete second floor for us to play on, instead of just all half shelves. Not to mention we can so easily fall from the top to the bottom of most cages while we're playing, but we don't have that problem with this one! It's also great because there's plenty of room for toys and hideaways for us to play with when we get bored.

Well, thats the end of our attention span for today, thanks for getting to know us :)