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.