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....