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….

Some sad news

I was contacted at the beginning of February by Hannah who had three of Sugar’s boys off of me. She had lost two of them in January, one from a stroke and the other had a tumour removed but reacted badly to the anaesthetic and died at home (strangely enough, the same as Fudge and not much older then her either).

I was really sad to hear this news as they were only just over a year old and it sounded like they turned into lovely friendly boys.

Here are a couple of photos from when the little rascals were still here:

Jango the hoody beating up either Jools or Rupert and Remy watching on:

Jango chewing on my shoe:

Jango at about 10 ish weeks, just before they left:

And Remy at the same time:

Goodbye boys, go find your sister Fudge….

Happy Birthday to you

It was Sugar’s babies birthdays on 20th september. A year ago they looked like this:

Then they (very quickly) grew up to look like this:

Jools at 12 days old

Rupert at 12 days old

Nutmeg at 19 days old

And now they’re great big chunks who (*touch wood*) seem to be healthy as well as lovely and friendly. Nutmeg is particular has grown into a really pretty girl, very dainty, especially compared to Fudge who is competing with her mum for the ‘fattest rat’ title. And the boys are just lovely softies. I’m so glad we ended up keeping them!! They haven’t had their birthday treat yet, because I haven’t been shopping, but when I do, i’ll get some photos.

Volunteering for Rat Rescue

A little while ago I had someone post the following comment on one of my posts. I thought it would be worth posting an answer as a separate post in the hope it might help others too.

really want to help out a shelter like you did and look after some rats – if possible some babies too but i have no idea how to get started. – any advice?

I got to help out with Sugar in response to a request for help from PAWSS on the fancy rats forum. They had about 9 pregnant rats if I remember rightly.

I would imgaine the best way to get started volunteering for a shelter is to phone, email or even go in and see someone and offer your services. I think most places are happy with any help offered. If you want to foster rats you will probably have to fill in a form with information about how you keep your own rats so they can assess you are suitable. They may also want to do a home check. I didn’t but i’m so far away from PAWSS. I did send photos though.

Also remember you don’t have to actually foster animals to help out either. You could also help with transportation or home checking.

I would suggest perhaps starting with your local RSPCA or SSPCA if you don’t know of any other local rescues but I would imagine you might get more luck with a smaller local rescue. They often don’t actually have rescue centres. Like PAWSS, they are more likely to rely on volunteers to actually foster the animals in their homes.

I hope that helps and you manage to find something. It really is very rewarding! Just beware – it’s very hard to hand them over to new homes!!

Burmickity – ?2007 – 14/04/08

I had to have Burmickity put to sleep on Monday. She went downhill very quickly on Sunday and could no longer lift herself up to get in the food bowl and she was even struggling with eating soft food. She was falling over whenever she washed herself or turned round and she looked so sad and confused led on her side, I just knew it was time to say goodbye.

I held her in my arms as she slipped away, so hopefully she knew how much I love her.

Burmickity arrived on 15th September 2007 along with Fogwatt and Sugar. Her and Fogwatt were only meant to be foster rats but Burmickity decided that wasn’t to be when she gave Steve a full nose clean-out the day she arrived. He decided they were staying. She was the only one of my rats who routinely gave kisses and she was so much gentler than the rest with her grooming.

She settled in straight away and was such a live-wire. They were let out on the bed but she was off in 5 minutes flat exploring the room and was always happy to be picked up and cuddled. She also had a great temperment with the other girls, never causing fights (though she wouldn’t back down without a struggle if one picked one with her!!) and she was normally found snuggled up with Sugar.

Bye Bye baby girl – we all miss you loads.

Recycling for charity

Did you get a new phone for Christmas? Are you always throwing away ink cartridges? Well you can now send your old mobiles and ink and toner cartridges off for them to be recycled and raise money for Cavy Rescue, which is a small animal rescue that are very active in rat rescue. Their website is well worth checking out for some really good rat care articles.

Simply email them at cavyrescue@yahoo.co.uk with your address and they will send you a bag to put your items in.

New vid and happy girlies

I forgot to upload this video when I filmed it. It was taken the day before I delivered Cinnamon and Doughnut to their new homes, so the last time the girls got to play together 😦

Here it is: Enjoy! Baby girl rats playing (age 10 weeks)

I also have to tell you this little story – I went into the rat room yesterday and Charlotte, Tinkerbell and Doughnut were curled up in their bed together. Tinks and Doughnut had their heads out the door, half asleep and when I said hello to them they both led there and bruxed and boggled at me. They were just so cute and Doughnut proved rats can boggle with their eyes half shut. They were just a picture of ratty contentedness!

Baby rats – 5 down, 3 to go.

Well the last time I updated this I still had all the babies. The three boys and the black hooded and champagne roan girls have now gone to their new homes. I left the two girls running round the sofa of their new home with one of the girl rats they’re going to live with and have had an email from Hannah who had the boys to say they were running around causing havoc and have settled in fine.

It was quite an eventful trip down to Edinburgh. For once the weather was worse in southern Scotland than it was in Caithness and was hideously windy, then started to rain once I got to Edinburgh. Very heavily!! I was running about an hour behind, which didn’t really matter as Hannah and her OH got lost and were running late as well and I managed to pick a Service station to meet at that had separate bits on either side of the motorway and we were coming in opposite directions. I seemed to spend a lot of time driving up and down the M8 between J4 and J5! The drive back home in the dark with a howling gail and chucking it down with rain isn’t something I fancy doing again soon either!

There are still three girls here – the mink and two champagne hoodies. The guy who is having them couldn’t do last weekend and is away this weekend and I refused to do next weekend. I’m looking forward to sitting on my ass doing nothing next weekend – everything I need to do for Christmas will need to be done by then, and if it’s not it’s too late! I’ve not heard back when he can do after Christmas, so i’ve named them seeing as they’ll be here for another few weeks. The mink hooded is Nutmeg, the paler champagne hoody is Saffron and the other Champers hoody is Marzipan. Marzipan is darker and has more markings and is a fat rat!

I’m enjoying them while they’re here, Nutmeg is still a little bit more timid, but once she decides to play she’s as full of beans as the other two. The two champagne hoodies are just mental – outgoing and licky, like their Mum and Aunty Burmickity. I am wondering about putting them in the Jenny with Sugar and co – it will mean it’s a wee bit overcrowded but the babies will have more room to climb and play about. I’ll have to see how they all get on first!

Photoshoot

I spent a couple of hours yesterday taking some piccies of the babies (that are now 10 weeks old!!) before they go off to their new homes on Wednesday and Saturday. In total I took 176 photographs, but not many of them were any good. Here are some of the better ones.

Hannah’s boys:

Ottis:

Remy:

Jango:

Elizabeth’s girls:

Doughnut:

Cinnamon:

Roger’s girls:

Champagne hoodie #1:

Champagne hoodie #2:

Mink hoodie:

As you can see, I didn’t get as far as doing my own ‘keepers’. Basically, this was because it took ages just taking pics of the ones that are going. I will get some of my boys soon. And, in the new year probably, take some hopefully decent ones of my girls too.

Photographs

I had the camera in the rat room yesterday, so took a few piccies of some of the ratties. I am planning on doing a (hopefully) decent photoshoot of the ‘babies’ before they go to their new homes, so there will be more of them soon. But for now….

Burmickity showing how beautiful she is

And again, saying, “let me down mum, I want to play”.

Fogwatt posing

And showing off!

Sugar wondering about how to get down

And posing, showing how gorgeous she is.

My two ‘baby’ black hoodies, Rupert and Jools, showing how chunky they are.

And Ottis sat in the food bowl – perhaps that’s why he’s so huge!