SRC Valentines Day Show

I was at the Scottish Rat Club Valentines Day Show on Saturday, it was a lovely show at a really nice hall and I think everyone had a thoroughly enjoyable day.

I was very proud of my ratties. Northern Lights Pippin was best Silver, Northern Lights Nev was best British Blue, Aquarius Dewar was 3rd in Agouti and got Stud Buck (for the second time, what a manly ratty he is!) and Northern Lights Ellie was best Agouti. I am very pleased with Ellie, as it was a big class of 11 rats and she was also third in the Adult Challenge. It was a 1 star show and Ellie and Dewar both got stars as well.

The lovely Northern Lights Angus was first Adult Owned Pet Buck as well, which is the second time he’s won that too! He’s such a special boy, he just loves people and was delighted to be cuddled by anyone who wanted to! His boys that I kept are turning out to be just like him as well.

Also vaguely related to show news, I took over as Webmaster of the Scottish Rat Club back in September and over Christmas made myself useful giving the site a complete overhaul. You can check it out at: The Scottish Rat Club. If anyone is interested in a ratty related link exchange, please use the contact details on the website to contact me.

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.

My Show Winners – 6/6/10

We had a lovely day at the SRC show on 6th June. It was my first show as show sec and while it was very busy it was also good fun and I’m looking forward to next time.

The ratties did well too. It was the first SRC starred show and only about half a dozen rats were given stars and two of them were mine! Here are my winners:

Rivendell Babs, 1st Silver Fawn (1 star)

Aquarius Dewar, 1st Agouti, Stud Buck (2 stars)

Aquarius Nedd, 1st Black

Northern Lights Angus, 1st Adult Owned Pet Buck

Newcy, 1st Best Rescue

I am particularly proud of Angus as he is my first home bred rat and he won a big class so I was really delighted when he won.

The Scottish Rat Club

Back towards the beginning of the year, the future of the Scottish Rat Club was looking a little bit uncertain, mainly due to lack of interest and a couple of shows having to be cancelled.

Luckily, Karren of Mayhem Rattery decided that the Scottish Rat Club couldn’t end and set about setting up a commitee. I am now appointed Show Secretary and had my first show ‘in charge’ on the 6th June. It was a very busy day but good fun and I’ve learnt so much – the next one should go easier!

As well as a new commitee, the SRC also has a new website: http://www.scottishratclub.co.uk and a members only forum. The forum is still fairly new but all new members are welcome and it is slowly turning into a source of useful and friendly rat chatter.

This year we have four shows planned. The next one will be on the 4th September in Livingston (don’t worry, I’ll remind you nearer the time!), however for next year we are planning five shows in a number of different locations throughout Scotland.

Our shows this year have stars for the first time, which will hopefully encourage new breeders to work towards gaining an NFRS Stud Name. We have also started a Pet Championship Award to recognise those rats that are exceptional pets. Scottish (and members from elsewhere of couse!) breeders are able to register their ratteries with the club and SRC registered ratteries are then allowed to exhibit under their rattery names.

To become a member, contact Karren on: membershipsecretary@scottishratclub.co.uk

I will put more details on the above mentioned schemes for Variety Stars and Pet Championship Points up in future, but I hope this little introduction might encourage Scottish rat owners to give the SRC a try 🙂

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.

SRC Show 7th March

So excited to find out we have an SRC rat show on Sunday 7th March. After being told the shows may be stopping due to lack of interest, I’m really pleased to hear we are getting another one!!

It will be held at Kirkintilloch, Glasgow, doors opening at 11am, judging starts at 12 noon. It is a varieties and pets show.

I’m not sure who I’m going to take, but definitely looking forward to finally being able to show something in Varieties.

Cancelled Rat Shows

The next SRC show was due to be held on 2nd August. This has now been cancelled due to a particularly nasty, virulent virus going around called SDAV. A large number of rat clubs, including the NFRS have cancelled upcoming shows untill September, as the virus is spread via contact between rats and those handling rats. Because rats can be shedding the virus without,  or before, showing symptoms it is possible to transmit without knowing, so reducing contact between rats is the best way to contain it.

I also found out recently that the June SRC show was also cancelled due to lack of interest. This is such a shame as rat shows are really good fun and a great way to get and chat to other rat owners and fanciers. It seems as if Scotland really needs some more rat enthusiasts, fanciers in particular that will show their rats. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the June show as it was my Hen Party weekend, but I’m really hoping the October show goes ahead and i will definitely be at that one.

A registered Rattery

I got confirmation yesterday that my application to the NFRS to become a Novice breeder has been approved. This means that I can now earn points and compete for the Novice Award at NFRS shows and shows that award NFRS stars, though in practice, it’s unlikely I will be getting to any NFRS shows! It also means I can call myself an NFRS registered rattery, and I am on the NFRS breeders list. It all feels very real now and has motivated me to get on with the website, so expect some updates shortly.

I am also pleased to report that Jemima’s abcess has burst and is already healing very nicely, after only having to clean it up once. Fingers crossed for no more! I have noticed the poor girl has scabs on her back again, I’m assuming this is from being picked on my Nutmeg and Fogwatt. She still seems happy though and is certainly not scared of them – yesterday, she stole a chicken bone off of Fogwatt. I do think, though, that when I get my girls for my breeding I will put Jemima in with them. She is a lot younger than my current girls, and she won’t get picked on like she is at the moment.

A little website update

I mentioned my little article about my experience showing the other day. Well I have now added it to the website on the showing page.

I am thinking of re-arranging the website a bit as I will need to add pages at some point for details off planned and current litters etc. Not yet, but it takes me that long to do anything I need to start planning early! I want to keep all the information articles on there, but not lose sight of the fact that it will be a rattery website. I think I will probably have an information link from the menu bar and lump all the articles under that area of the site. Or maybe keep it as it is but just add a ‘kitten’ section to the menu. Hmmm….!