Show Results

It was the Scottish Rat Club’s September show on Saturday. I only took four rats with me to show as I had quite a few to be delivered to their new owners and I got a bit stressed working out how many carriers I needed and who would travel together!

I took my gorgeous Aquarius british blue boy, Stan, Fratton and two home bred agouti kittens, Ellie and Bonnie.

Stan got best british blue and was 4th in the Self Challenge, Fratton was 2nd Ivory and 3rd in the Self Challenge.

I was particularly pleased with myself with the two agouti kittens. I took two of their siblings (one buck & one doe) with me to go to their new owner and she had them in the show. I was very pleased that the two I kept beat the two I’d given away – I obviously have a bit of an idea of what I’m looking at in a keeper! They came 1st and 2nd in Agouti, getting the agouti rosette and then came 2nd and 3rd in the AOV kitten class (out of 10) and Ellie came 4th in the AOV all ages challenge (out of 20) which bodes well for the future.

I have some slightly more up to date photos to share of Evie’s babies as well. They are so gorgeous and full of mischief, four weeks old yesterday – time is just flying by! I will get them up shortly and hopefully there will be a mating in the next few weeks to make some marked babies.

Blue babies

I have been looking forward to blue babies for so long, as British Blue is the variety is I originally decided I wanted to breed. However, at one point I did wonder if I would ever get any!

Evie, the one doe I have for my blue line took three tries to get pregnant, with two different bucks! But she has finally had a litter. It’s a small one, only 5 babies, 4 boys and 1 girl I think. I was after a couple of blue girls from her litter, but the one girl she has had is a either blue or blue agouti so she has been a clever mum in that respect!

Here are some piccies, taken today at a week old:

My blue girly

Bella’s babies now all have homes lined up and have been split from their Mum today. They are turning into really nice rats and I will get some new pics of them to put on here soon.

A post a day

Right, I really need to get back into the habit of blogging so there is going to be a post a day (most days!) for the next month. I am going away so some days I won’t be at a PC, but the days that I am, the blog will be updated.

Today is a very quick general update, and more detail will follow.

We have said goodbye to Cheese, I found her passed away on 21st April in her cage. Her breathing had been bad since I got her and despite trying antibiotics, nothing seemed to help, I’m just pleased she went peacefully at home.

I have managed to successfully integrate two cages of girls so I now have 10 in the aviary. It took a while and poor Bella ended up being bitten again, but they do eventually seem to have settled down.

My first litter was one of only one baby – the gorgeous Angus, who is turning into a lovely boy.

We have 7 new arrivals. I have got two more boys from Aquarius Rattery – Mackenzie, a British Blue Agouti, and Dewar, an Agouti. One of these two will be used to sire a litter with one of Evie’s offspring, when she has her litter (if all goes to plan!!). There are also two Agouti Berkshires from RCT Rattery, Leigh and Blair. One of these girls will be paired up with Angus to continue creating the British Blue Varies. Along with Leigh and Blair, I collected Ashton (black) and Fratton (Ivory) from Coastboat Rattery. Ashton was part of the ‘package’ with the two agouti girls and Fratton was ‘spare’. She has proved to be an interesting ‘spare’ – details to come tomorrow! And finally, there is Douglas, a Pets at Home adoptee with a head tilt. He is a little black hoody and is very tilty. Hopefully he will be going in with Newcy and Smirnoff but he’s a wee bit nervous at the moment.

So, that’s most of the news. As I said, more will follow soon….

Show winners

As so often happens I didn’t update this after the last post, so here are a few piccies of my SRC March show winners:

Rivendell Babs, best Silver Fawn:

Aquarius Evie, best Black and Best Self:

and Aquarius Stanley, best British Blue and Stud Buck:

Thyme also got a third in the Pet class.

I also have some Scottish Rat Club news which I will blog about later

Just a quick one

I have a lot to talk about so I will do a quick update on all things in this post then do further detailed posts about each thing over the next few days.

Firstly, the sad news. In the last week we have lost Onion, Elvis and Jasmine. Onion had an operation to have a really horrid lump removed from the base of her back on 1st March, she seemed to be recovering fine but I found her dead on Friday 5th. Elvis passed away in his sleep 10th March. He did pretty well, he would’ve been about 2 years, 9 months. And lovely little Jasmine had some horrible respiratory bug that took her away from us on Friday. She was only about 10 months old.

In Happy News, we had a great day at the show, bringing home 5 rosettes, Babs got 1st Silver Fawn, Evie got 1st Black and Best Self and Stan got 1st British Blue and Stud Buck. I have also become a member of the SRC commitee and taken over the position of Show Secretary which I’m really looking forward to getting into.

In Exciting News, we should be having babies this weekend if all goes to plan. Lovely Moss and sexy Stan had a one night stand and will hopefully produce the first step on the way to making british blue variegated ratties.

And I have a new aviary. It is a tall, narrow one but should be suitable for 6 – 8 ratties and will make a nice girly cage. And, best of all, it was free! It’s not in use yet but I will add photos when it is.

So, the Northern Lights Rats news in brief. More details will follow.

New Girls

I have recently been down to England to visit family and combined this with a visit to the Burgess Excel Bradford Small Livestock Show in Harrogate, where I collected 2 silver fawn does from Ann Storey (Rivendell Stud) and another visit to lovely Phil & Sue of Aquarius Rattery who kindly let me have a black doe.

The two silver fawns have been named Bella and Babs (Rivendell Aarabella and Rivendell Barbaraville) and the black girly is Evie (Aquarius Evelix).

They are currently living together just the three of the them as failed intros saw Bella up the vets to get a gash stitched up! But I am planning on trying again when the older girls have calmed down and got used to all of them living together!!

Here are a few pics of the three babies, I will get better ones of them at some point and update the website with their own pages as well.

All three girlies all cuddled together

One of either Bella or Babs!

Evie being a typical Aquarius troublemaker and wanting to get out of the carrier on the way home.

And again!