Cariad guys & girls

Oops I’d forgotten I was updating the blog with photos! Here are the Cariad guys and girls, collected at the same time as the Aquarius boys

Cariad Fearn (Agouti Rex):

Cariad Keeley (Chocolate Rex):

Cariad Farleigh (Chocolate Agouti Rex):

Cariad Hew (Black):

Moss and Tully and a Vid

After adding the nine new guys’ pages to the website I had a thought today and realised that Tully and Moss hadn’t been added, so they now have their own pages added to My Rats.

Here are a few of their photos from the photo shoot as well:

Tully:

Showing off what an explorer she is!

Moss:

Also off exploring!

I also have a video of Rosemary playing her favourite game with mu hubby: Harrassing for choccie drops!

The Aquarius Boys….

Here are the photos of the gorgeous Aquarius boys. Will sort out and crop the rest at some point and post some photos of the cariad guys & girls & older girls and the new adoptees, so they can all have their own posts!

Aquarius Stanley (British Blue):

Aquarius Nedd (Black):

Website Update

Just a little post to point people in the direction of the Northern Lights Rats website, specifically the My Rats page as all nine new guys and girls have had their own pages added, after having a photo shoot last weekend.

I will add some of the photos here tomorrow as I got some new, quite nice ones of the older girls as well.

The newcomers

My new ratties are here – 6 new babies all the way from Gloucestershire and West Wales! I drove down to Wiltshire to my parents’ house on Friday, collected ratties from Stroud on Saturday then drove all the way back up the road on Sunday! 670 miles from Warminster to Wick.

So I now have a British Blue buck (Stanley) and his Black brother (Nedd) from Aquarius Rattery. These guys will be the foundation bucks for my blue line.

And I have a Chocolate Agouti Rex buck (Hew), his Black smooth coated brother (Farleigh) and their two sisters, a Chocolate Rex (Keeley) and her Agouti Rex sister (Fearn), all from Cariad Stud. The choccy guys will be foundations of my champagne line.

Keeley and Fearn have been moved into the top half of the aviary with Jasmine, Rosemary and Thyme and they are all getting along really well. They are a wee bit nervy still but they’re only young and have had a lot to deal with over the past few days.

All four boys are living together temporarily in the Rene 82 cage until the younger boys get big enough to not fit through the bars of the Tommy cage. They are full of mischief and up the bars as soon as I speak to them.

I will get some photos of them shortly but would like to take some in daylight and the weather is truly grim at the moment and I seem to be at work continuously and never home during daylight hours!!

Oops!

I seem to have three new additions to the ratty family!

A few days ago someone posted on our local website about 3 rats for sale, so I said they could take them back to Pets at Home (where I work) who would accept them into their adoption centre. Well the three little fuzzballs arrived on Thursday evening and immediately showed how lovely and friendly they were. My OH came in on Saturday so I got him to have a cuddle and after about 3 seconds he says to me, “so when you bringing them home then?!” so they came home today as I worked all weekend and needed time to set up their new cage.

They are three girls, 2 roans and a Silver Fawn hooded, about 5 months old and they are really lovely. They are already at the cage door looking to get out and will climb on anyone. I’ve named them Jasmine, Rosemary & Thyme, as the poor little things didn’t have names when they arrived

I will get some photos soon.

By Bye Jools – 20/09/07-02/10/09

Yes another goodbye, this time to Jools the last of my Sugar babies. He had been off his food for a few days then on Thursday didn’t eat anything not even his yummy fresh food and even more worryingly was struggling to get about and his head was shaking when he was moving. I got him to the vet on Friday and found pus in his ear. The vet thinks he had a middle ear infection and he had a steroid injection and some baytril, but he went to sleep for the final time during the day

He was a lovely boy, big and soft but with slightly more mischief about him than Rupert. He got a ‘cheeky rat award’ at the one and only rat show he ever went to. He loved to just sit on your lap and be cuddled, particularly recently while he was living on his own. He never got to meet the new boys, I think he would have taken to them fine. He was very good with other rats and he was the one that befriended Luke when they all moved in together.

Bye Bye Jools, go find your brothers Rupert and Charlie and cage mates Beau & Luke. The rat room is empty without your little black face peering out of your bed.

New boys

I thought it was time I told you about my 4 new additions to the Northern Lights Rats family. 4 new boys that will be the start of my breeding plans. I am so excited about them arriving and feel like i’m finally getting started.

I have 2 boys coming from Aquarius Rattery which will be the foundation bucks for my blue plans. One is a British Blue and the other is Black. The other two are coming from Cariad Rattery and will be Chocolate or Chocolate carriers. The two choccy boys will be the foundations for the champagnes.

They are being collected the 2nd weekend in October. Even though it’s miles away I can stay with family while i’m down there so it works out really well.

Please welcome…

Tethys Tullybelton & Tethys Whitemoss. That’s their ‘pedigree’ names and their pet names are Tully and Moss. They are absoloutely lovely, very bouncy and confident and full of mischief. They are the first rats I’ve ever had that have used the wheel!

They have now been introduced to the big girls and other than being told off occassionally for being over-enthusiastic they’re getting on fine. They’ve not been out to play yet as I’m a bit worried they might dissapear and not come back but they’re at the door every time I talk to them so they should be ok. They’re just so little, I’d forgotten how little 8 week old ratties are!!

Moss is the agouti capped and Tully the black capped.

Starfish!!

And Moss snuggled in bed with Sugar. You can see how little she is compared to Sugar.

I also have a vid of them bouncing around in the aviary when they first went in with the girls. They’ve been moved into the top half temporarily because Tully and Moss will get through the bars of the Tommy, but they will be moving back into the Tommy when they’re big enough. Tully and Moss Video

New babies

Just thought I’d add a happy post in between the obits.

I am collecting two new girls next Saturday. After losing my girls I felt it was important to start looking for a couple of youngsters to add to the group to keep Jemima company for when the inevitable happens to my 3 old ladies (which seem fine at the moment). Tethys Rattery in Yorkshire had a litter of lovely marked babies advertised on the NFRS forum and someone from Glasgow was offering a home to some of them so I cheekily asked if they’d mind playing ratty chauffer and collect a couple for me as far as Glasgow and I’d collect them from there. They said that would be fine so I contacted the breeder and she kindly agreed to let me have two capped girlies, one agouti and one black.

I’m really looking forward to getting them. They are my first breeder rats and their pedigree arrived today by email which I got all excited about! They will be here purely as pets but their breeder said one of them (the agouti, I think) might be showable, so I will probably try showing her.

The two capped girls on this page are mine: Tethys Kittens, have to think of some names for them now