Monday, December 12, 2011

So... almost a month?

Yeah, it's been a while. Frank got published in It's A Rat's World Magazine and then he passed away from a pituitary tumor and resp infection.


*boggleboggle*



Athena's babies are a few days from being separated by sex. We got a new cage for some of our larger boys and I have been working more, it's fun.

That's pretty much where we are. :)

G'morning, g'night or g'day

Afterthought: Velveteen coats are sooo luxurious! Bear made cute, healthy, curious babies with Athena. :)

Monday, November 21, 2011

Lots of Babies and Rattery Update

First off, the Athena babies.






Without knowing, I got albinos! I hadn't realized that Bear and Athena were both albino carriers, so we have one standard albino and one teddy fur (single velveteen/teddy rex for some) albino.

The one girl we had as a runt is doing perfectly now. I fed her some soy baby formula a few days ago to get some calories in her and since then she's been able to get enough food and now she's just as big as her siblings. Her name is Solace, and she's a sweetie-pie.

As of right now they are eleven days old and thriving.

Rattery Update:

Ben and I talked it over and we came to the decision that for right now, until we have established lines that we know are healthy, we're going to be a primarily private rattery meaning that we will not adopt to the public, but we will still be breeding. We're moving down to two litters per year to make it easier as far as size and because selective breeding for traits like health is far easier to do when you're working with a smaller group at more infrequent breeding cycles. So May and October will be breeding months and everything between those months will be focused on rat loving and observation of out babies.

We're really excited and the main reason for the change was the fact that we are slightly over-crowded and we need to cut down on that for the sake of the ratties first and foremost and for the fact that being a new rattery my lines are not established so I can't tell someone what the traits would be and I certainly cannot put a guarantee on health yet. So, until I can, the rattery is private and will be slowing down the breeding pace.

G'mornin, g'night and g'day

Afterthought: What is that one thing that sets rats apart from other pets?

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Babeh Update

Athena walked away from the nest for a few moments for food, her box and some water. While she was "away" I took a quick peek at the babies, Athena's very sweet and docile, not even nipping at me. She's sniffing and nosing me, but not much else. So we have eleven babies from Athena which makes the largest litter of the year! Did a quick gender check, may not be completely accurate but it looks like we have five female and six males.

I'm really excited to see them grow up. :)

Pretty much what we're looking at for colors in this litter in terms of genes are:


Expressed (what we'll see physically):

100% Non-Agouti (no ticked hairs, black rat vs agouti rat or beige vs fawn when there is a red eye dilute)
100% Top-ear
50% Blue
50% Standard coat
50% Teddy Curl (single velveteen, fluffy, thick fur that is very soft and wavy rather than curly, short and rough like a rex)
Markings will be variegated and varieberk as well as the possibility for BEW, mis-marked and masked marking and capped and bareback markings.

Carried (we won't see this physically but if bred to others with similar genes this is what they'll pass on):

100% Mink
50% Red-eye
50% Blue

Pretty much what this amounts to is:

100% CUTE BABY RATS!

Anyway, we'll see you later round here with pictures galore :)

G'mornin', g'night or g'day

Afterthought: You get what you breed and Athena and Bear are two of the sweetest and healthiest rats that own us. We look forward to having cute little faces like these to keep us company and love us for the rest of our lives. :)

So Many Babies!

Athena just finished giving birth.. good Lord, so many babies. :) I knew she'd swollen with quite a few little ones.. but my oh my I had no idea we'd get this many. She was in labor for nearly two hours, babies spaced a little less than 10 minutes apart. I don't know an exact count yet, but I know we have more than eight. So far, she's really docile when it comes to me being near the babies. I'm so proud of my Athena! I woke up and Ben had checked first thing when he woke. He comes running to me and told me she was giving birth. She's such a sweetie. Good job Athena! Momma's proud! We're gonna see what genders we have as well as getting first pictures late tonight or  early tomorrow. :)


<:3~~

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Babehs!

Athena is due to give birth any time between now and Sunday. Last litter of the year! Yay! The next litter of the new year will be done sometime in February or March and after that there will be a litter once every 3 or four months.

I haven't updated a lot lately, but I've been busy and Ben's been busy and I start a new job tomorrow! Yay! Well, to make up for lost time, here's a conga line of wet, male rats.


G'mornin, g'night or g'day

Afterthought: What do you do when you're mad about taking a bath? Well, if you're my rats.. you start a conga line while pretending that you'll be mad at me wen it's all over.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Story Time

It's nearly four am. I was in bed, I couldn't sleep. I got out of bed, I crocheted a bit and now I want to go back to bed. No, that isn't all of the story. Just most of it, heh. I took pictures of the babies today, and I will now post some for your viewing pleasure.

King Henry VIII

King Louis XVI

Huh? Oh hai.

Clover and Fée

Reia - available for adoption

Salt's attempt at escape

We glare at you, Daddy!

Sleepy during Daddy's pictures.

Lace (L) and Duchess (R)

Aurora

Alice

Gem - Available for adoption

Salt and Lana - Lana is available for adoption

Reia (bottom) and Coriander (top) - both available for adoption

Aphrodite

Lydia

Oh hai, Momma!

Ginny, the ham :)


Jannicke (yah-NECK-uh)

Winnie

Precious

Clover <3

Theresa    


Good everything

Afterthought: I have to stay awake later... today *discombobulated sigh*

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Four am is not a suitable time to go to bed...

Four.. a-frack-m. I am so tired that I feel like I could just fall asleep right where I am.. which is a public college campus with more than one things that costs over $100.. I am that tired.

Creedence Clearwater Revival's song "Looking Out My Back Door" is the most perfect song for right now. Any song with the line, "a dinosaur vitrola listenin' to Buck Owens" is worth a listen. Combine this with the fact that it was written about a man going home from work and being so exhausted that he may as well have been on LSD and, well, you see why I'm listening to it.

Ben and I went to our local Superpetz to find a cage, we found more. We found a Midwest Critter Nation bi-level cage, which is epic in of itself but we also found Siamese rats. Let me say this again, we found Siamese rats in a PET STORE. I know some of you may immediately come off with, "too bad they'll die from pet shop diseases." To all of you, shut up. Now. You have no right to belittle me or my pets because they are rescues from feeder bins.

This is something that constantly annoys me about the rat fancy. There is prejudice against rats from pet stores and there is prejudice against novice breeders. Admittedly I can see the latter because very few people stick with it because there is no money to be made in this world if you're breeding properly and for the right reasons. I should know, not because I am a novice breeder, but because I lived with someone who ran a rat mill in Phoenix AZ. They thought they could make money with the rats, but you can't. It won't happen.

But rats from pet stores? How is it their fault, I know you say you blame the store not the animal but you would not believe the crap I've seen people say when someone says something about their rat being from a pet store. Many people are scarily quick to say, "oh don't bother with pet stores, those rats are no good." Are you kidding me? What makes your pet better than mine? A pedigree? Hate to break this to you but the reason I go to good pet stores is because all of the breeders in my area are crap, they are worse than the pet stores. At least the woman closest to me is.

We rescued two boys from Petsmart yesterday, one of whom, Henry, had been in the store for months with barely anyone playing with him and he was over one year old. He didn't have a cage-mate. I couldn't leave him in the store to die alone. So we bought him and Louis, as well as buying them their own cage.

Henry was incredibly skiddish and is still a bit cautious of us and Louis has been adapting well. The girl working in the store that helped us get Henry was telling us that she was the only one playing with him because no one really considers the rats. It's so sad because he is a great squish and very loving.

I know a lot of people don't discriminate, but some do and it bothers me. We always harp on how you should always treat people equally and when one person says one thing that isn't politically correct lawyers start frothing at the mouth because they can smell the impending lawsuit. Yet when someone turns away what could have been their perfect pet for being from a rescue organization or because the rat is from a pet store and not a breeder.. a lot of people accept it.

I don't know, I needed to rant. Feeling nauseated and tired and grumpy. I'm a grumpalumpalous. Ben'll love it. :)

G'mornin, g'night or g'day

Afterthought: Rescue animals are by far the most endearing, appreciative and loyal animals I have ever had the pleasure of sharing my life with. They know what it's like to go without and when you adopt them and love them, they never forget it.