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 :)