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!

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....

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