A Rodent Life

Roadtrip to Wharton

2009-09-15T10:29:00.002-04:00

I woke up on Saturday morning at 8am, threw on some clothes, and got my suitemate out of bed to begin the 160+ mile roundtrip drive to Wharton, MD on the Western Shore. We left around 8:30, stopping in Centreville to pick up McDonald's for breakfast and get some gas - all while I hoped that my car would start every time I turned it off. It makes me very happy still that it started up every single time. Good car.

The drive over to Wharton was pretty much uneventful, except that an SUV in front of it was an extreme "weaver" as Andi called it, constantly moving between traffic, unable to stay in one lane for too long. The Oldsmobile's first time over the Bay Bridge was filled with uneventfulness, except for more SUV drivers passing on the bridge. Never pass on the bridge. You are hundreds of feet above a large body of water. Don't do it. You will be fine going 45 mph for a few miles. Deal.

We arrived at the pick up point at nearly the exact moment as Shylah and her family, which negated any awkward waiting around or doubt about where we needed to be. Her son was sporting a pale blonde mohawk and light-up Spiderman sneakers, and insisted on being a dinosaur, attempting to chew on anyone or anything. We were introduced to a pile of wonderful ratties - fat Melanie, who had to get an e-spay not too long ago (which explained her fatness, since spayed/neutered rats have a much slower metabolism), beige double-rex Sunbeam, and beautiful masked odd-eye Seascape, who almost came home with me as well. Andi, my suitemate, immediately attached herself to Sunbeam, as Sunbeam had literally attached herself to her arm, while I cuddled as many ratties as I could.

My attention was drawn immediately to black-capped rex Momo, who inquisitively crawled all over me and licked my fingers as much as she could. Athena also caught my eye because she was much calmer than the rest of the bunch, and because I remembered having already met her relatives at the Spring Rodentfest. If you glance at her, Athena looks like a normal standard broken-hooded rat, like any rat you see at the pet store (and what many breeders, I think, don't breed for - people like exotic-looking rats). What sets her apart are her belly markings that can be seen in the pictures I've already posted. She's technically a downunder rat, which has pretty unusual markings. Shylah and her husband adopted ALL of the downunder rats at Rodentfest, and very few other breeders have downunders in their programs. I am very happy to have one as a pet.

While playing with the rats, Shylah, her husband and I had some rat talk while Andi cuddled Sunbeam. It's still amazing to me how complicated the rat world is - the backhanded comments, nasty threats, and passive aggressiveness, especially amongst breeders, is astounding. It makes me happy that I never really got involved with the "clique" breeders, as I'll call them, and instead spent my money and time on healthy, well-cared for rats. Immaturity and meanness at the expense of the well-being of rats disturbs me and makes me uncomfortable at times even participating in safer forms of rat talk such as the forums. I'd much rather talk with fellow rat people in person, which is such a rare occasion for me nowadays.

While I can't discuss everything here (as much as I'd like to) as I tend to hear multiple sides of every issue from hearing all of the viewpoints before I jump into the conversation, I have a feeling that it might get a little ugly on the rat side of things at Rodentfest. After having rat talk time, I know that I have a greater perspective on events that occurred even a year ago that confused me. People's actions that seemed nonsensical make sense now - even if that understanding brings greater shock to me.

I'm just happy that I know my girls are safe and sound and have already been spoiled by their second-mom, Andi. After Shylah and I talked up all the pros of rats on Saturday, she's thinking about adopted little Sunbeam (and someone else) if she's still around. I'm also trying to get her to got to Rodentfest with me, so I can have someone there to control my GGMR (Gotta Get More Rats) syndrome.

Meet Momo and Athena!

2009-09-13T22:10:00.003-04:00

I will tell the story traveling to pick up the little babies, but for right now, here are pictures. Enjoy!

Athena!

Athena's belly.

Momo!

Momo crawling.

Playtime!

Fur Babies!

2009-09-10T20:47:00.002-04:00

Getting ready for two new arrivals on Saturday. Two girls. Name suggestions would be very much appreciated.

The beginnings of their new house. Hooray!

Eh.

2009-09-09T09:45:00.003-04:00

Sitting in my room, alone with the two mice. I miss rattie faces peeking through the bars, little rattie paws grabbing for treats, little rattie bruxing. The mice, instead, insist on throwing their bedding out of their cage as far as possible, littering the dresser and floor with bedding. I caught Sweet P doing it once, and, as soon as she saw me stuff some of the bedding back in, fled back in their new cuddle cup. The mice are wonderful, but I cannot trust them to roam around or snuggle in my lap or do rat things. They are mice, after all.

Scary to think it has been nearly two months without a daily rat fix, every day. Even with all of my insane business, I have decided I need rats. Really, I need them. Shylah from SNR still has some left, so I'm going to try to get down to southern Maryland this month and find me some snuggle buddies.

Along with rat deprivation comes rat drama. It's scarily everywhere, and whenever I try to log onto Goosemoose for some cute pictures, I end up reading the long threads where everyone's arguing over this breeder or another or this person or blah blah blah. Do I think it's bad that someone might have taken in too many rats and now has to rehome them? Yes. Do I think I need to spread my opinion all over a forum not labeled for opinion-giving and make them feel terrible about themselves? No. They are little creatures that cannot control their circumstances. Just help the little ratties out.

So ends the grumpy rodent-lover rant.

The Beginning of the End

2009-08-15T12:30:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday, on August 9, I woke up to find my little Chloe still as stone, lying in the first story of the mouse house. I gently picked her up, wrapped her in some towels, and buried her beneath the bird feeder in the front yard of my parents' house. While her passing away comes as no great surprise due to her tumor, I'm afraid that it's part of the line of pet deaths that have occurred or will be occurring in the next few months.

Indiana Jones, one of the two family cats, passed away mid-July from urinary tract failure at 15 years old. Yesterday, out 14 year old cat, Joe Montana, has begun acting distressed and just this morning peed on the TV stand.

Because we will probably be getting new cats in the near future, I've decided to take a break from getting new mice at the Fall Rodentfest until I have my own established place where I know I won't have to be constantly moving them. I'm sure that moving Chloe from Chestertown to York was not the best for her, but I did not have a choice in the matter.

Which brings me to the ratties. As of a few weeks ago, I now only have visitation rights. Back when my boyfriend and I started getting more and more ratties, we decided that if anything were to happen between us, the rats would not be split up. Now that this has happened, I have not really seen much of my babies lately. Even though I technically own half of them, splitting them up (which would mean me taking Peaches, MiMi, Panya, and Luffy) would cause too much friction. I've lived with that decision that was made a long time ago. I just really miss them.

And now I hope for happier rodent times.

Ratties in Trouble

2009-06-29T22:25:00.002-04:00

It's been forever!

After my two-week trip to Bermuda and Ricky's three-week trek across England and Ireland, we're both finally back in Chestertown. This means the ratties and meeces are back too.

Everyone is doing fine, except Chloe, who has developed a lump on her back in the past 24 hours. Ricky is keeping an eye on her. Hopefully it is benign and can be removed safely.

I have more pressing news.

Shylah, owner of SNR House of Rats, is being forced to give up all of her rats. All of them. The local Humane Society is enforcing this. While I volunteer at the Humane Society in Chestertown and greatly support the organization, I am greatly confused as to why someone who cares deeply for and cares very well for their animals should have to go through this. It seems bizarre to me, but there is nothing I or the rest of the rattie community can do about it. What we can do is be supportive - fostering, donating supplies and time for the rescue organizations that will be helping SNR in this time of great need.

If you would like to help, visit SNR's website for more information. Also, if you are interested in adopting a rat, contact Shylah and let her know so you can fill out an application. Adoption fees are $10.

I will let everyone know how this turns out. Wish everyone luck!

Gender Change?

2009-05-25T09:49:00.002-04:00

After Ricky visited last week, he headed back to Pasadena for dinner with his family. Around 5:30PM, I received this phone call:

"Uh, hey, I think there's something going on with Noodle."

"What do you mean? Is she okay?!" <-- me thinking its cancer

"No no no, she's all right, it's just, we think she has a thingie."

"You mean..."

(Ricky's mom heard in the background) "It's a penis!"

I then went through the film I had taken of Noodle, trying to find any proof of her (him/its) anatomy that we never noticed before. For those not versed in rat anatomy, there are a few major differences between male and female rats:

There is not much space between female rattie parts, and
There is a very large space between male rattie parts, which allows for their scary (ok, I think they're scary) rat balls. Scary.

I have never been a huge fan of male rat genitalia, and I say this because I know people who are. After cuddling many large squishy male rats, I also can say that I rarely notice anything unusual, as they are so big nothing really sticks out.

However, when not in my hand, I can still see them. Icky.

This phone call let to a panicked review of rat anatomy and me scouring the message boards about a similar situation. Ricky reported to me that Noodle did a) have a larger-than-normal space between her female parts and b.) at least 4 nipples, which is the way you can tell immediately that a rat is female. Or so we thought.

Noodle went for her vet appointment on Saturday, and the vet told us that there was a 75% chance that Noodle was female and that there was a 25% chance of her being a he, either because she/he was very slow in developing or was younger than we thought, and because male rats can have nipples. Hooray!

So, here's to hoping.

Rattie Visitors

2009-05-21T11:00:00.009-04:00

Ricky came up to York earlier this week, bringing with him Peaches and a molting Noodle. Peaches is still her squishy self and Noodle looks like a demented baby bird/balding hyena.

Ricky and the Noodle.

Hewwo?

Yep, I look like a demented hyena.

Grooming my skin/fur/fuzz.

How do I get back in?

Time to groom your skin fur, missy.

Later, we drove over to Lancaster to visit That Pet Place, a wonderful, independently-owned store that has the best selection of great pets and supplies I've ever seen. We went over to the small animal section and chatted for the better part of an hour or two with the workers there about everything rattie. Us and the staff there then helped inform a terrified mother and her very enthusiastic daughter about rats as pets, each of us cuddling a big squish of a male, including a russian blue dumbo english irish boy who started to groom the girl as she was holding him. After about a half-hour the mother finally reached out to the blue boy and petted him for a while, deciding that there would probably be rats in her home in the near future and that she should start getting used to them now.

Unfortunately, most of the people that came through the doors were much more excited about the baby guineau pigs (which, because I have friends who've traveled to South America, I view more as something you pick up at market than keep as a pet) who chirped incessantly the whole time we visited. When an inquisitive child went up to the rat cages, their alarmed parents would pull them back and insist that those things were certainly not the pet their child wanted. A nice hamster, instead.

Okay, hamsters are not nice.

I have only ever possessed one nice hamster named Kuzco, who acted more, now that I think about it, like a rat than a hamster, and was probably mixed with something else. There was no way that hamster was what the pet store said he was. I am still the most nervous to pick up a hamster, as, most of the time, they do not want to be picked up. Now, I'm not blaming this entirely on the hamster, as a well-bred and well-handled hamster probably likes people, but, considering that hamsters are thought of almost like a "starter pet," if I was a nice hamster and was suddenly being poked and grabbed at by small children, I would want to knaw off their fingers too.

And guineau pigs, well, they're loud. Loouuud. Chirp chirp chirpity chirp meepmeepmeepmeep. I have met very nice piggies, but I think having one would drive me a little bit crazy.

Anyway, we had a great time snuggling some squishes. What I like about That Pet Place is that, like most of the pet stores I go to, they get their animals from accidental litters and rescue cases. Five of the male rats there had a previous owner who gave them up (why I will never understand), and the other three females in there were all accidentally pregnant. All were in good health and looked like happy squishies/babies. If you would like to adopt a rattie from there, I highly recommend it, as the staff in the small pets section are all small pet (usually rat) owners and have a lot of experience. The woman working there on Tuesday evening owned a neutered male and spayed female rat, along with other small pets and birds, and was great talking to.

And here's a cute picture of the rodent-obsessed pup, Chloe. She tried to befriend the meeces one day by trying to jump up on my dresser, and the meeces tried to bite her face off. Good thing she wasn't (and couldn't) get very close. Here she is sniffing around the backyard.

Can't Get to Sleep Without the Sound of a Wheel

2009-05-13T16:53:00.002-04:00

Although it's been only five days since I returned to York, I feel like I've been snoozing on the couch and browsing the forums for weeks. Now that the meeces have returned to hyper activity while I sleep at night in the same room rather than the room next to me, the sound of their wheel turning nonstop throughout the night, I miss my rattie babies even more. I do love the meeces a lot and play with them every day, but they're not just as interested in me as Peaches is when she cuddles next to me, or the twins who desperately want to lick my fingers for any remaining foodscraps.

Ricky reports how the girls are doing every day, and I get to talk to Peaches while she licks the phone. Hopefully, I will soon be able to see Noodle and Peach next week when Ricky visits next week.

Noodle is shedding off her fur again. I'm told that she looks like a baby bird with its feathers growing in. Cute.

Which brings me to why I should never get wrapped up in the rat forums, as they always somehow end up getting me upset. Forums, in general, tend to upset me, but when I found out about one for rats I thought that it mostly consisted of people giving sound advice and commenting on cute rat pictures.

While I read the forums every day, I rarely comment, mostly because everything that can be said has already been said on the topic, and that keeping up on a thread becomes nearly impossible when you go off to run an errand and return an hour later. By this point, the thread becomes people reiterating their opinion as strongly as possible, in the hope, I think, that their sheer persistence will convince the other person that they are, of course, right. While I have no problems with debate and good conversation (as usually that's what most of it is), when I saw a thread about the Spring Rodent Fest and a separate one about what makes a good breeder I become interested.

The first thread started off with a lot of excitement about the fest, but then the post-fest conversation turned into an accusatory hodge-podge of comments calling most of the breeders there "sketchy." When one of the ratteries I had met at the Fall fest came up, I raised an eyebrow and wondered if that person had even bothered to go up and have a conversation with the owners, as they are very nice people and very willing to talk with you about what they do and what they planned to do with the rattery. I had played with their rats previously, and all were very sweet and looked healthy. The people could afford to keep the amount of rats they owned and were very passionate about rescuing as well.

In fact, the majority, minus maybe one or two stands, were all breeders and rescues I had previously come across and talked to extensively. The woman who owns the apparently "sketchy" rattery/rescue recognized me from the Fall and we had a nice conversation. The other rattery and mousery people also recognized me and we talked for a while and handled the rats and mice.

The fact that some people feel that a decent rattery never sells their rats at a show I found interesting. If anyone had even talked to most of the people there, especially the people with more rats, they would have discovered that most of the rats there were already reserved and those people adopting had already filled out an adoption contract. Anyone observing the adoptions of the animals at the fest would probably have assumed the breeders were practically giving away their rats without any prior knowledge of the adopter, but, in reality, many people who were picking up rats (and mice for that matter) had previously filled out adoption questionnares. They then paid the adoption fee and filled out a contract there. The rats that did not already have homes were up for adoption by the attendees, but those people were also informed about rat care and asked the same questions they would have been if they had made a previous reservation. I think that meeting an adopter face-to-face and asking them questions there, allowing them to see and handle the rats, and informing them there would be the better idea.

I myself encountered many a suspicious mousery owner who questioned me about my mice and asked if I had owned mice previously etc. etc. It was a not a free give-away fest. And by claiming that none of those rattery (and, I assume, included mousery) owners are not legitimate, to me, just seems accustary, rather than informational to the those interested in adopting rodents.

Up next: Ratteries vs. Rescues
and the hybrid rattery/rescue

Introducing Noodle E. Monkey

2009-05-11T11:12:00.007-04:00

Now that finals are over and I am back in York with only the meeces, I finally have the time to post some pictures of our newest rattie aka the rat that Ricky said we were never going to get at Rodent Fest.

Ricky, myself, and a friend from college got up early Saturday morning to take the 2 1/2 hour drive up to Reading, PA for the Spring 2009 Rodent Fest. We got lost, our directions instructing us to drive through the beautiful town of Reading instead of heading north to the Leesport Farmer's Market. We stopped off at a Valero where the woman working there informed us that we, in fact, did not need to go through the entire town and up a mountain, and then commented that we were not the first group of people that morning inquiring about directions. We decided not to tell her what we were doing there to avoid the strange looks.

We arrived at Rodent Fest to the sound of an annoying rock caught up underneath the car and us frustratingly blaring the Mars Volta in order to drown out the sound. As soon as we entered, we were crushed by an overwhelming crowd of people and a space twice as big as the Fall festival. Children were running around everywhere with their new pet mice and rats in Critter Keepers, and breeders and rescues overwhelmed with crowds of people surrounding their rodents. Our friend bolted off to say hello to her friends from the New York Rat Meetup, while I tried to talk to Mike of Mikiodo Mice, who was surrounded by at least 20 people trying to buy his already reserved mice.

So, instead, Ricky and I headed over to Shylah, owner of SNR House of Rats, to see the two ratties our friend had reserved, Angel of Mercy and Nemesis, the former being a very large and silky-furred gray hooded female and the latter a rex chocolate berk. As Ricky entertained himself with some of the big male rats that Shylah's husband let him hold, I set out to find available female mice to add to the Project Runway crew.

In the entire showroom, all but three were reserved.

Kicking myself for not making a reservation before the show, and also surprised, since there were many mice available at the Fall show, I acquired the cards of the mouseries there and decided to wait until the fall to get a few more girls. I then headed over to a rattery from Michigan and fell in love with a four-week old dumbo russian blue patchwork hairless kitten (yes, baby rats are called kittens), and begrudgingly walked away when Ricky beckoned me over to the SNR table. He had suddenly decided that getting a two-pound miniature groundhog of a male rat was the new thing, and while I tried to hold the lazy boy, called up his parents. His mother, who had the watch the girls while he was traveling around Europe for three weeks, balked at the idea of watching boys too, and the idea of getting boys was put on hold for another season.

However, I think we are still very interested in the possibility of having two big lazy fluffballs to watch TV with, so the possibility of males in the future, especially neutered males, is still around.

I then wandered over to Haskell's, where Ricky and I both saw our little Noodle, a dumbo russian blue agouti (same coloration as Peaches) fuzzy hairless, a hyper four-week old kitten that jumped right onto my hand and demanded my warmth. We snatched her up in less than twenty minutes of deliberation. By the end of the show, we had accumulated a new baby for us, two girls from SNR for our friend who couldn't come, and our friend got two babies, a beige and a chocolate rex, to keep her girl Trill company.

Laden with five ratties, we tumbled back into the car and began to drive away, when the annoying rattling from the car turned into a full-out scraping sound. Annoyed, I climbed out of the car and laid on the parking lot and looked underneath the car.

Now, I have had experience with roadkill and dead things, especially on Pennsylvania roads, getting up into cars, but I have never had the experience of seeing something that had obviously crawled up into the car and died fall back out, with certain car parts attached to it. I half-screamed and Ricky dashed out of the car, thinking that the worst has happened ie engine was about to fall out. I picked up a random board laying near the market building and beat the dead skin and fur thing from a loose non-essential covering, but failed to pry the dragging cover off from the car. Withat least a part of the dead animal off, we continued to drive away the screeching car part that finally fell off somewhere in southern PA.

Ricky refuses to take the car to an auto shop. I think part of the dead thing is still in there.

Besides that, we had a wonderful time at Rodent Fest. I caught up with some of the people from the Fall show, pet the skunk, and talked Project Runway for a while. And now, here is Noodle E. Monkey:

Rodent Fest Tomorrow!

2009-05-01T21:18:00.006-04:00

Tomorrow begins the journey up to Leesport, PA for a day filled of rats, mice, ferrets, and hopefully a snuggler of a skunk we met during the Fall Rodent Fest.

I just wish I could find out more information about the vendors and breeders who will be there (like the info they had for the fall fest).

Due to the busy end-of-semester workload, I found the link for Mike's adoptees after all of the females had been reserved, which is good and bad, as getting new meeces sounds more and more tempting every day. This means I'll be on the prowl all day making up my mind on more babies. I'm thinking about either a siamese or some kind of rex if I do end up adopting some.

In order to deter the adopting of more rats, I asked a couple friends if they wanted to tag along. We'll be picking up two girls from SNR for my friend Bekah who can't make it, and our friend Olua is coming along to get a friend for Trillian, as Marvin and his poor back legs can't keep up with her anymore during playtime.

Because of time and everything else, I don't have many new pictures, so here's a pick of Mimi on the keyboard for piano lessons:

And the Peach:

And, of course, an old pic of Ron Howard:

Rodent Fest pics to come!

Rattie love during a busy week

2009-04-22T09:01:00.003-04:00

Despite the insanity that will soon overwhelm me, the babies continue to do things that make me smile:

I also think that we will be bringing them over to campus more often, as the majority of people have not freaked out over little fluffballs crawling on them.

Two weeks ago, we moved the little girls (Panya and Luffy) in with the big girls (Peaches and the twins), restoring the large cage back to its full height. Pumpkin and Bridget get to stay in their own cage, as Bridget will escape through the other cage's bars no matter how many books we stack on top of it. The meeces know have the little girls cage.

Rodent Fest Countdown: 10 days to go!

Many Pictures! (because I am so late in posting)

2009-04-18T13:28:00.011-04:00

Since it is such a beautiful spring day, I decided to get out our Easter baskets and take some pictures of the girls. Ricky has also cuddled Peaches into submission by holding her on her back and giving her tummy scritches.

She stopped squirming!

The famous "durr" face of the Peach.

And EVERYONE managed to sit still enough for me to capture decent still frames during the Easter Basket photo shoot. From youngest to oldest:

Panya

Luffy

Mimi

XingXing

Pumpkin

Bridget

Peaches

Chloe and Leanne (Sweet P was in hiding)

With the craziness of the end of the semester, Ricky and I are looking forward to Rodentfest, which will be in a few weeks. This year it is being held at Leesport, PA on May 2. I hope to catch up with some of the people I met at Rodentfest in the fall, help my friends find some great rats, and maybe get a few more meeces for myself along with the tons of rat goodies we will inevitable be getting for the girls.

Rodent Fest pics in a few weeks!

So so busy

2009-04-02T21:33:00.002-04:00

It's been nearly a month since I've updated on anything, which has been due to a ridiculous spring break and the ridiculous amount of work that piles up during the second half of spring semester. This weekend I hope to take some cute pics and video that I'll upload. Here are some quick updates:

Panya has gotten HUGE. Huge. As in she's almost twice the size of Luffy and almost half her age. Ricky and I are amazed at her ability to eat everything in her path and fluff out more every day.

Ever since I began rewarding Pumpkin and Bridget with yogies every time they wandered out of their cage, they've actually been eager to get out and play when everyone else has playtime. The power of a yogie.

Peaches is, of course, still the queenie, despite Pumpkin's attempts to overthrow her adorable dumbo regime.

And....

could it be?

Another baby?

Due to the fiasco of false pregnancies that occured at the beginning of this year, we ended up adopting Panya instead of a girl from Blue Heaven Rattery. Now that BHR will be breeding Stewie (a wonderful dumbo Russian Blue self), I have slowly been convincing Ricky that we need a dumbo blue self. We will see.

Playing with Baby and Volunteering

2009-03-05T16:16:00.005-05:00

Panya is determined to snuggle inside Ricky's shirt while he plays Resident Evil 4 on the Wii. Due to the fact he thinks that she, too, is a zombie bent on eating his flesh, she has now taken residence on my shoulder as a snuggly fluff ball against my neck. I love rat heaters. =)

In other (not quite rat related) news, Ricky and I began volunteering at the Kent County Humane Society, which included socializing cats and walking adorable doggies. While the Humane Society is very active in Chestertown, I had never yet visited its location, an easy 5 minute drive on 213, until Sunday afternoon for volunteer orientation. There, we met all of the cats and dogs, and I even got to take out a malnourished Boxer named "Slim Jim," while Ricky walked an energetic Pitbull named "Diesel."

When I visited this morning, I played with cats and walked pups for a few hours, first playing with the quarantine kitties, my favorite being an adorable young male named "Farm Boy," who meowed incessantly (in a cute way) and instantly cuddled up against me.

Next, I walked my favorite pup, Slim Jim the boxer, and was delighted to see that he had acquired a glossy coat and some more flesh on his ribs (even though he was still skinny). He snorted and frolicked during our walk in the snow, but was less than happy when he discovered he was waist deep in a snow drift we stumbled upon. Here's the adorable pup:

My two favorite kitties have to be four-year old males Loki and Thor, the sweetest kitties ever. Loki is super energetic and loves weaving around your legs, while Thor loves tummy rubs. Here are their pics:

Loki

Thor

If you or someone you know is interested in adopting any of these sweeties, please visit the Kent County Humane Society website. They all deserve loving homes!

Playtime on a Snow Day

2009-03-03T16:32:00.002-05:00

Over Sunday night Chestertown received almost a foot of snow, ensuring that Ricky and I would not leave the apartment on Monday, instead opting to snuggle with rats (and procrastinate on papers) for the remainder of the day. Introductions with Panya and the girls went smoothly - meaning Pumpkin did not try her annoying humping dominance behavior on the baby. Her and the older girls sniffed and groomed, and now her and Luffy are sharing a cage and cuddling in the cuddle cup on top of the igloo in Luff's cage. Strangely enough, even though she is only around 2 months old, she is already bigger than four month old Luffy. Good thing Luff doesn't realize how small she is. A few minutes ago she pounced on Mimi and demanded a toppling battle (which Mimi of course one, being twice her size).

We also finally brought in the humidifier, resulting in less sneezy rats who have been curling up in the corners of their cages where the majority of steam floats up to create fog on the windows. Pumpkin loves jutting her nose in between the bars and snorting as much as she can, resulting in her being closer to the door of the cage and more playtime. Bridget has been hiding in the hammock-turned-cage-liner, making it a very lumpy lining. She now emerges only to sniff at steam, chow down on grapes, and demand the occasional attention.

Playtime is good for the ratties. =)

Baby!

2009-02-24T09:35:00.003-05:00

(Finally I have the time to post this.)

On Sunday, Ricky and I traveled over the bridge to Pasadena to pick up little Panya. Even though the night before, we attended WAC's Birthday Ball, a fete of great proportions in which we and our friends danced badly and watched drunk people make bad decisions, as well as taking silly pictures beforehand, we still managed to get there at a pretty early hour.

Ricky's gonna kill me for this. =)

Okay, no more human pictures. We, after all, are subservient to this new adorable fluffball:

They're a little blurry (still frames from video), but still cute. =)

Diana at BSS is so nice and produces beautiful babies, so Ricky's mom has decided to get (or for us to pretend to get her) two babies from BSS. Happiness!

Waiting and waiting

2009-02-18T09:40:00.002-05:00

This week has literally been insane for me and Ricky. With tests, essays, and applications of sorts due, at Wednesday we are very, very tired. In order to keep me from sleeping through all of my classes, Ricky has lately gotten into the habit of putting Peaches or the twins on top of me in the morning, which this morning had the opposite effect of me curling up with the ratties and promptly falling back asleep. Oh well.

What really has me excited, though, is the fact that this weekend we'll be picking up little Panya from BSS. After weeks of waiting, this is finally it. We also changed our BHR reservation from the Justin/Taylor litter, as she had a false pregnancy, to the Chevy/Quest litter. I also made a hopeful reservation on the Stewie/Skyye litter, as I prefer the dumbos and Ricky prefers standards, but there will be no guarantee for babies from that litter because breeders are getting first choice.

A few weeks ago I took extensive video/pictures of all of the girls, so I hope to take the time today and upload them so I can post a few things. There are currently no pictures of Bridget and no fantastic pics of Luffy or Pumpkin (oops).

Weird/cute behavoir side note: 1. The meeces have begun nesting in the hamster potty on the second story of their house. Chloe likes to stick her head out and rest her chin on the side like a puppy. 2. Bridget is obsessed with the demented sushi fabric cube I made over the break. She rarely leaves it now unless we determine she needs playtime. 3. Pumpkin is getting...nicer? She doesn't mind a few cuddles now and then.

And, of course, the twins are up to their usual "Give-me-that-treat-oh-now-I-lost-that-treat-can-I-please-have-another?" routine. It's like a house full of manipulative adorable puppies. =)

Valentine Rat

2009-02-15T19:56:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Ricky and I had a wonderful Valentine's Day, full of sushi and good movies. Around 11, I received an email from Blue Stone Siamese, a rattery specializing in Siamese rats in Glen Burnie, MD (right next to Ricky's hometown of Pasadena). We stumbled across the website about a month ago, and soon become interested in getting a companion for Luffy from the rattery. Luckily, she had two females still available from a recent litter, Panya, a Siamese rex, and Shai-Nefer, a standard Siamese. I immediately fell for the rex and got myself on the waiting list. However, there were a few complications in adopting Panya and also a rattie from BHR (Blue Heaven Rattery) that went something like this:

1. BHR had first dibs on the rex if she was a blue point Siamese, so I had to wait and see if they would take her first. Meanwhile -
2. I was also on the waiting list for BHR's Justin/Taylor litter, hoping to get an American Blue girl. But -
3. Taylor was a week late, meaning a. very few babies or b. a false pregnancy, so while I straightened out the details on that
4. I waited to see what Panya's coloring would look like, eventually leading to
5. The email last night finally telling me she was available.

Yay! The world of ratteries.

If you would like to see baby Panya, or are interested in adopting from a future litter (which include Siamese dumbos as well) check out BSS's Myspace. If you're into blues, I would recommend looking at Blue Heaven Rattery's website.

And, as a plug for adopting rescues, SNR House of Rats (where we got Mimi and Xing Xing from) just got in a TON of adorable rescue babies. Check out their myspace as well.

Meeeeeces

2009-02-11T20:15:00.003-05:00

While most of my time is spent entertaining the rats, I do try and make the time every day to spend time with the three Project Runway meeces: Chloe, Leanne, and Sweet P. As they are all around 5-6 months at this time, I thought I'd post some pictures to commemorate their half-year birthdays. Happy birthday babies! (All of these pictures were taken when they were around 1-2 months old by my friend Insley and her wonderful high speed camera.)

Chloe:
Peekaboo!

So tiny.

Tubey.

Peering over the edge.

Leanne:
Even tinier.

More tubey!

Sniff sniff.

Sweet P:
Eh?

Meece attack!

Fin.

Rats Lovers in a Panera Bread

2009-02-10T14:55:00.003-05:00

Sunday afternoon, Ricky and I adventured into Baltimore for our first Baltimore Rat Meetup monthly meeting. After the initial awkardness of walking up to complete strangers and asking "Is this is rat meeting?", we settled down with four other people for a three hour discussion of anything (and everything) rat.

Danielle, the meetup organizer and her friend Julie brought books by Debbie Ducommun, also known as the "Rat Lady," including Rats and The Complete Guide to Rat Training (both of which we already owned), along with some adorable snuggle scarves for sale which, not possessing one, we immediately snatched up. Much of the initial talk focused on the World of Pets Expo held a few weekends ago, and introducing all of our ratties. I brought my video camera and played some clips I had taken the previous evening. Along with talking about the rats themselves - not being there themselves we had to provide a personality overview - we discussed breeders, rescues, and rattie tips.

As I could spend all day recapping the lengthy conversations, here are a few highlights:

- Discussing favorite type of rats (dumbo, standard, hooded, etc.)
- Pros and Cons of female and male rats, and male genitalia (Ricky and I seemed the only ones squeamish about their gigantic balls. They're huge. Ew.)
- Vet Care
- The life and death of each individual rat

Needless to say, Ricky and I left ridiculously excited about the next meeting and very much wanting to go play with the girls.

We also realized that compared to some rat owners, we are very, very normal. When discussing genetics with my fellow rat lovers in the library, I receive plenty of weird looks from my friends. When someone is discussing the aesthetic appeal of intact male rats, I'm the one who is (slightly) weirded out.

Weird topics and all, I cannot emphasize how much ridiculous and nerdy fun we had. You probably could've let me loose at the Faerie Festival and I would't have had as much fun. And now that the extent of my dorkiness is revealed, here's some info about the meetup:

The Baltimore Rat Meetup has been running for a while, but will shortly be shutting down its meetup page simply because of the costs. If you are interested in joining, let someone know on the webpage so you can get on the email list for future meetings, or just ask me for the email.

In other news:
Still waiting on baby Panya's coloring. Her name means "mouse" in Egyptian, which I find awesome. So far she looks like an adorable ruby-eyed siamese rex.
No more news on BHR Justin and Taylor's litter. Will post as soon as I know.

Happy nice weather!

Mini Rattie Roadtrip

2009-02-07T21:38:00.002-05:00

All right, so it wasn't so much a roadtrip as it was driving across the Bay Bridge into the land of concrete and gas stations that makes up Pasadena, but for Peaches and Luffy, I'm guessing it was a roadtrip (of sorts).

Why make this 1.5 hour excursion to spend the weekend when Ricky and I both have papers due?

Why, The Baltimore Rat Meetup Group, of course!

I stumbled upon the group during one of my obsessive-compulsive "must search the entire internet for new things about rats" fits a few weeks ago. When we found out their meetup for the month was gong to be in Baltimore, we decided to attend and check it out. Knowing that Luffy would probably get lonely, as we have never been away from her for a night, we decided to bring her and Peaches along.

Upon arriving, Ricky's mom fawned all over the girls. We discussed our plans for the day, and then decided on a whim to call the rat's vet, Dr. Reggie Cox, who recently opened up her own practice in Glen Burnie. We went for a quick visit, chatted rattie, and made sure Luffy's lack-of-eye was doing all right.

And so, tomorrow we attend the meetup. I am dorkily excited.

Clean clean clean clean

2009-02-05T15:25:00.007-05:00

Along with the story of any rodent(s), comes the story of cleaning their cages. In order to get a sense of how often and how much we use to clean with, I'll be trying to keep a tally on this blog.

Sunday (February 1): Rat Cage Day
In order for you to get a sense of how much cleaning we do on a weekly basis, here is our general cage setup for 6 rats (the 3 cages in the corner) and 3 meeces (the smaller two-story cage on the bookshelf). The lower bottom white cage is actually only half of a much larger cage we used to house all the girls in (excluding Ron, she had her own cage, the blue one on top), but due to Pumpkin's continuous and obnoxious harass/hump behavior toward Peaches, we decided to separate her.

Blue Cage (on top): houses Luffy and occasionally Peaches so Luffy has company
Includes: One envelope hammock from Chelsey's Cozies and a regular hammock from Petsmart, along with a climbing rope and medium blue igloo and random cardboard boxes.
Black Cage (Martins R670): houses Pumpkin and Bridget, who prefer to be alone together
Includes: Two hammocks from Chelsey's, two from Stars Rat Rescue, and one demented cube I made, along with a climbing rope, chew blocks, and cardboard box(es).
White Cage (Prevue 4-Story): houses Mimi and Xing Xing, and also Peaches
Includes: Two hammocks from Chelsey's, two climbing ropes and a chew log.

The Mice Cage (Critter Universe): one small igloo, one hamster potty used as a nest, a wheel, and many tubes.

THE RAT CAGE-CLEANING PROCESS

Because I am obsessive compulsive about cleanliness, this is a constant daily activity in my life, whether it be vacuuming around the cage or cleaning up poops that are somehow flung to all reaches of the apartment. They are like monkeys sometimes.

The Process:
1. Unstack all cages. Remove all hammocks from cage into the wash.

2. Remove the twins from their cage. Empty out bottom of cage into trash can. Vacuum up leftover poops and bedding pieces. Spray with organic/non-rat killing cleaner and wipe down with paper towels. Wash food bowl. Replace bedding. Put back pissed-off rats who hate everything being clean. Watch them poop and pee all over everything again.

3. Somehow get Bridget and Pumpkin out of their cage. Repeat.

4. Remove Luffy and repeat again.

5. Remove Meeces from their cage - either scrub out cage with cleaner or soak in the sink, depending on how ambitious I feel. Meeces have the worst stink, as they poop everything 3.2 seconds.

6. Get the stink eye from the rats while hammocks are in the wash. Feed them treats.

7. Place hammocks back into cages. Happy rats!

8. Now, repeat 1-3 times a week.

And there you go! Whoo cage cleaning! I actually don't mind it (Ricky does).

Remember, when considering cages, bedding materials, and toys:
- NEVER put in anything where your rats have a risk of injuring themselves. For some strange reason, hurt rats do not have a tendency to call attention to themselves, leading to a major freakout by their owners.
- ALWAYS use bedding such as Carefresh, EcoBedding, and Yesterday's News, NOT Pine or Cedar shavings. I cannot emphasize this enough. If you use soft wood bedding, be prepared to have rats with major respiratory problems down the road.
- If you use newspaper, change it out very often, as rat pee on newspaper makes a stinky ammonia that's not good for anyone's noses
- And remember, the more hammocks, ropes, and chew toys, the happier (ie less bored) your rats will be.

Happy cleaning!

Over a Month Later: New Rat, New Semester...New Puppy?

2009-02-02T16:15:00.003-05:00

NEW PUPPY:

My winter beak become suddenly busy when I began babysitting an additional pet while everyone else was at work/school: a new puppy. My sister managed to convince my parents that a puppy from her friend's accidental litter should permanently stay with us. Now, while Chloe (two Chloe's now!) is adorable and altogether a smart, well-behaved puppy, you can imagine the chaos of watching an 10-week-old puppy while cleaning out a Martins R-670 and brand new but hard to assemble mouse cage. Most of my days went become a monotony of this:

1. Wake up to puppy whining
2. Sprint downstairs to alleviate puppy whining - let dogs out
3. Clean up puppy mess in the puppy kennel
4. Entertain puppy for about an hour until she passes out
5. Grab rat from cage and cuddle while making food while reading while puppy sleeps
6. Rat happily grooms puppy until puppy wakes up - puppy is terrified of rat's sniff attack - put rat away
7. Play with puppy again - shut all doors so puppy cannot harrass rat
8. Puppy sleeps - pet half-asleep mice and feed meeces and rat/change water
9. Puppy wakes up...etc.

On top of this, I was trying to make plans with friends for times when I wasn't puppy sitting, or letting the puppy in and out every 20 minutes, trying to make sure she didn't run out into the street.

NEW RAT:

Ricky visited York during the break, so I decided to to take it upon myself to expose him to a five-week old litter of adorable kittens (baby rats) at the local pet store. I had visited the day prior and the lady knew I possessed more rat knowledge than her, so she readily let me reach into the tank and pull out a black-hooded girl. Except…

Me: “Ricky?”
Ricky: “…what?”
Me: “One-eyed rat. One-eyed rat. One-eyed rattiiieee.”
Owner: “She only has one eye? I can’t really sell her then. She’s free if you or anyone else wants her.”
Me (now terrified one-eyed rat is going to be snake food in the next 5 minutes): “Ricky. Call your mom.”

And he did. Now, Luffy, named after a character in One Piece (we are nerds) is now Ricky’s favorite rat and he dotes upon her like nothing else.

Although I DO NOT recommend buying rats or any other small pet from a pet store, especially large chains like Petco and Petsmart (I'm being a complete hypocrite here - 4 of our 6 rats are from a pet store), here are some tips if you decide to do so.

1. Check out the pet store first. Ask the owner or an employee if they buy from a reputable breeder or take in rescues. If they have no idea – bad sign. Peaches and Pumpkin were from a local breeder (who I think used to have a larger rattery), and Bridget was a rescue at the local petstore in Chestertown. Luffy was also a rescue, as she would have been snake food.

2. Ask what the pet store uses for bedding and what they sell rodents for. They should only be selling rodents as PETS – NOT FEEDERS. My rant about that will come later.
Good Bedding: Aspen shavings, Carefresh, Eco-bedding, Yesterday’s News
Bad Bedding: Pine and Cedar Shavings, using nothing at all
Good Food: Harlan Teklan lab blocks, high quality dog food, high-quality grains, minimal amount of seeds, fresh foods like fruit and veggies
Bad Food: Most of the pre-made mixes you see at Petco (Fiesta, etc.). No no for the rodents.

3. Approach the rat cage. Do the rats come up to? Are they interested? Will they let you pick them up? Do they have runny eyes? Runny nose? Lots of sneezing? Sores and bitemarks?
Remember: A healthy rat means less vet bills. A typical check-up can cost $30-50. Save your monies for other things, like hammocks and toys.

This is not to say that all pet stores are bad ones. That Pet Place in Lancaster, PA (they also have a web site www.thatpetplace.com) is FANTASTIC. I could hang out there and play with their baby rats for hours. So cute.

On a sad note, Ron Howard, our oldest rat, passed away on January 7 in her sleep. She had steadily been recovering from the worst of her pneumonia symptoms, but after being taken off medication slowly faded once again. She was the last of the original pair Ricky rescued from Petco, and will always serve as a reminder that loving rats can come from the feeder tank, but are also riddled with many health problems.

Because I don’t want to end this post on a sad note, we have more good news!

…We’re getting a playmate(s) for Luffy!

We recently discovered Blue Stone Siamese, a rattery in Glen Burnie which, as the name suggests, specializes in Siamese rats. We are on the wait list for either a standard or rex coat Siamese female, and we are ridiculously excited.

I also have a reservation on a female from Blue Heaven Rattery, another excellent rattery and rescue in Philly. Once the babies are born, we can pick her up at the end of March.

Babies! Yay!

Babies and Babysitting!

2008-12-10T15:47:00.002-05:00

...Another rattie arrived today.

Last night Ricky and I picked up a friend's rat for me to babysit over the winter break. She's having surgery over the break and already has an ornery old himmy to look after, so I said I could babysit (since Ricky has the other 6 girls...). She came into my friend's care based on my suggestion - someone had dropped off a poor older female rat at the pet store because her cagemate had died and the owner decided that they didn't want to take care of her anymore. I decided to tell my friend about the white rat in the pet store, and, sure enough, three days later she was roaming around her room. When she asked me to take care of Trill, I couldn't stay no.

For all of the rat nerds out there, Trill is a beige capped girl with a white blaze. She's maybe a year a half old and has some hair loss on her tummy (I think from overgrooming) and around her ears. She spent a good amount of time curled up on my lap while I scritched her ears. Having a rat that is, for five weeks, mine, is ridiculously exciting to me. Having a lone rat (especially a girl) is hard work since females have the tendency to get bored easily. That means lots of toys and playtime every day. As a bored college student on winter break, this is perfect for me. I plan on spending most of my time playing with Trill and the meeces along with lots of reading and relaxing.

Besides Trill, I soon might have some more babies in my life. The pet store also breeds sweet fancy mice, and they currently have a pile of already-spotted pinkies. I've already gone over a few times this week to hold the babies, and hinted to Ricky that maybe a larger cage and some more babies for Christmas would be nice...

My Rodent Wish List:
- more blue berkshires...
- some adorable meeces
- a new mouse cage
- rattie and mousie toys
- a maze for playtime
- lots and lots of Carefresh and Regal Rat!

A Meece Story

2008-12-07T20:49:00.002-05:00

Before I begin on the long story that is my relationship with rats, I thought I should comment on my 3 mice, Lehanne, Sweet P, and Chloe (all Project Runway designers, yes...). I ended up aquiring these "mini rats" when my boyfriend and I traveled to Rising Sun, MD, a hour or so drive from Chestertown, for our first ever rodent show. Having never been to a rodent convention, I had no idea what to expect. What ended up happening, however, was an insane cuteness overload of chincillas, rats, ferrets, and, of course, hundreds of little mice. Even though Ricky had sold me on the cuteness of rats, I was still hesistant about the cuddle-factor of a two-inch long fluffball.

To my great surprise, I received a refreshing welcome and introductory lesson on mice from Mike Chiodo of Mikiodo Mice, who let me hold a miniscule fuzzy male mouse who decided to "purr" while I pet his head and giggled to myself, much to Ricky's amusement and horror. After holding another Siamese female (yes, there are Siamese rats and mice) and resisting the pull of two half-sister ratties, Ricky and I decided the best course of action was to purchase three mice, two from Mike and one from Whiskers N Tails Mousery.

While I can say I did have a momentary pang of regret for implusively buying three little mice, a travel cage, and many, many treats, today I am extremely grateful for my little fuzzballs. Rats can be fun, but they tend to be much more moody than the mice, who will gladly be held and pet at whatever time for however long a time.

Another plus is that mice have personalities too. Lehanne, a tiny variegated grey and white rex, always runs up to people first and loves sitting still in the palm of your hand. Chloe (aka Spike), a satin blue tan, obsessively runs in her wheel like no other rodent I've seen before, and almost always never sits still. Sweet P, an imperfect tricolor (it's why she was sold) is the largest of the three and thinks everything is food. Luckily, mice nibbles don't hurt at all. Back in October a friend came over and took lovely pictures of all of the girls, and when I get some pictures back I will be sure to post them.

If you are thinking of purchasing a mouse, please do your research. Although I used to be terrified of rodents, I still had experience taking care of hamsters, gerbils, and rats for many years. Go to Google and type "mousery listings" and you'll find some great websites which list all of the mouseries in your area. I recommend the Mousery Database. Or, check PetFinder to see if there are any rescues in your immediate area. If you know your local pet store breeds nice mice (mine does), then talk to the owner and see if you can reserve some babies.

Some more tips: If you want more than one mouse, I highly recommend females. Male mouse are fine by themselves, but females should be purchased in pairs or in threes (in case something happens). Think about the cage you want: many wire cages are inappropriate for mice. If their head can get through, so can the rest of them. Think about the plastic cages, or better, glass aquariums with mesh lids. Provide one or two wheels for your babies and places for them to hide. Also, NEVER use pine or cedar shavings. While mice do have small noses, some still react negatively to these kinds of bedding. Only use hard wood, such as aspen. Personally, I used either EcoBedding, Carefresh, or Softsorbent for my babies. And, when it comes to food, get some high quality grains and cereals to make a mix as well as a nice quality dog food. Those seed mixes at Petco are not what your rodent needs.

Alyse and Ricky's Rat/Meece Mix:
- One cup of puffed wheat
- One cup of puffed rice
- Two cups dry oats
- Two cups Total cereal
- One cup muesli
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds - my mice loooove them
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries (or any other dried fruit)
- One cup of any other yummy cereal we find at the store
- Equal to previous amounts dry dog food

Snacks for Ratties and Meeces:
- grapes (every day!)
- yoggies
- brocolli
- dog biscuits
- carrots
- fresh yoghurt
- apples
- dried banana chips (Healthy Toppings)
- any other whole food that looks yummy...

Most people may think the above lists are a bit much, but I've learned by following these healthy food guidelines that in return you have happier, healthier rodents. Trust me.

- End of the mouse story (for now)

And the saga begins...

2008-11-22T21:31:00.006-05:00

After having experienced the joy of little rodents running around for about a year now, I've decided to write about the many little girl ratties and meeces that have somehow crept into my life. I never really decided to start the venture into rodent land, I just somehow ended up in the middle of it. Here I intend to record my history with the tiny poofballs and how they have changed my outlook on little furry things.

Before I begin, I thought I'd introduce my favorite girl, Princess Peach. She came to me and my boyfriend by the chance of making adorable faces at us while we were making our occasional petstore visit. Ricky, my boyfriend, already owned two ratties, but the sight of her ridiculous face made him (and me) pace around the apartment all weekend and decide to snatch her up the following Monday. She is the friendliest rodent I've ever met and never ceases to do ridiculous things every day. Here she is in all her glory:

And now, our story can begin.