This is Walter, pronounced, "WALT TERRRR" , emphasizing both syllables. (sorry for the bit of blur, rat photography is interminably blurry. They just don't understand, please hold still.)

He and another rat named "The Doctor" joined my mischief of rats several months ago. Unfortunately, Doctor died of pneumonia, and this Sunday, we will be going to a Mainely Rat Rescue adoption event in Rhode Island, hopefully to pick up 2 neutered boys to join our mischief.

All well wishes are appreciated, as adding boys to a mischief can be risky. Male rats can be more territorial and can have more issues with introductions, but we succeeded with our last introduction.

Rats are short lived and prone to illnesses. We have lost 2 rats to pneumonia in the 2 years that we have had rats. Patches are eldest will likely die in the upcoming year just from old age. Rats are like little flames. They burn brightly, but sadly extinguish quickly. However, the joy they give while they burn through their lives overflows one cup. So, yes, we are off to the rescue to hopefully adopt a couple of boys.

Curly

I looked at my last post and thought I was so cavalier about Curly's death. The reality is that the loss of Curly has been horrible. And, well, likely was part of the reason it's been so long since I've blogged. I just couldn't stomach writing about her death.

I came home one day and Curly was struggling to breathe. I drove her to the emergency vet, but she didn't survive the night despite antibiotics and oxygen. It was our introduction to how fast a rat can be lost. We were lucky and the other rats never even coughed.

Curly was one of our first, and she was such a strong personality, bossy and threw her naked butt around a lot. We now have 7 rats, not one of which is hairless. It may be a long while before we have another hairless. Curly's life though brief will be remembered.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Back from hiatus

Lots have happened.

Here's the quick update:
7 rats
Patches, Gwynneth, Rose, Martha, Lily, and the two new boys, Doctor and Walter. Curly, sigh, died suddenly of a respiratory tract infection. We waited with great fear during the quarantine but no one else got sick.

Doctor and Walter are our newest additions, and they are living in our small cage until 3 weeks after their neuters, as the plan is for them to join the girls but we don't want babies. All of the girls are eager to meet the boys, so we expect the integration of all of them to go well.

And, what's the picture? That's Patches peeking her head out of a favorite toy: a shoe box filled with a whole bunch of tissue paper.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The cage

Curly and Patches are spoiled with a double decker Critter Nation Cage.







Top section








Very top of top section







Bottom section

And although the pictures may seem spacious. Critter nations seem to always look smaller than actual in pictures. Critter Nations are behemoths, but Curly and Patches love theirs.

http://www.midwesthomes4pets.com/category/default.aspx?submenu=2&catid=140
Midwest homes is the company that makes Critter Nations. There are several features of this cage that makes them perfect for rats:
* half inch bar spacing with powder coated bars. ( girl rats can't squeeze thru and rat urine is easily washed off the powder coating and doesn't permanently stinkify the bars.
* the whole front of the cage is the doors so you can open the cage and easily reach every nook and cranny. This means easy cleaning and easy access to the rats.
* spacious

Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Training 101

The rats are swell.

I shall need to get some photos of their training sessions. Patches loves food so much which means it looks like she'll do anything for a snack. Curly is not that far behind in love of food.

I want to get one of those clicker trainer pointers to help with training.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Veterinarian Care

One of the first things I did when we got the rats was to find them a vet. I've been planning to have them be seen by the Wilton Vet because I knew they did exotics. But, years ago I had seen them for my dog and had been more impressed with their ability to spend my money than their actual vet care. They were obviously marketing themselves for the wealthy people that live around here.

Well, I had dismissed the vet that was less than a mile from our house because I just presumed that they must only serve cats and dogs. This weekend at the Georgetown fair, I stopped by the georgetown vet booth.

I wish I had a picture. The vet had her macaw there. His name was Pogo. (He had only one leg, grins the perfect pirate parrot) And, they were handing out dog/cat/bird treats. I'd picked up a bird treat and asked if I could take it. The vet asked me if I had a bird, and I said, well.... I have rats. And, the vet grinned from ear to ear, and started stuffing bird treats into a bag for my rats, and of course, she encouraged us to have her rats see her for the annual checkups and bring some poop, too... ewwww

So, I checked out their website... www.georgetownvet.com and It looks really good. The vet apparently really is an expert in exotics. Now, I feel lame for just dismissing the nearby vet.

So,hopefully, soon I will be reporting on how their first vet visit goes.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The new keyboard and YOGIS

Although BlogPress thinks I post from my iPhone, I actually post from my iPad. And, today, I broke down and bought a keyboard to make typing easier, though, I must admit the iPad is pretty easy to type short stuff with.

One of the odd things of using a keyboard with the iPad is that you don't have a mouse but rather just poke the screen. Yip, poke the screen. It takes a bit to get used to. Indeed, I was trying to figure out how to get the cursor to the beginning of a line, and asked Skip to help while poking at the screen saying, how do i get my cursor here? Um, well, yeah, that IS how you get the cursor there.

The lousy picture today is Skip attempting to have a calm yogi treat dispensing. The rats, on the other hand, really really want their yogis. (yogurt dipped treats for rats)

By the way, our rats are still getting used to being on our shoulders, and they may run and hide if you try to just pick them up out of their cage. But, if you have a yogi, they jump six inches out of the cage just to get closer to the yogis, and they were scampering all over Skip.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone