I'm an accidental rat mommy!

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Woowoo! I sewed the ratties 5 hammocks today! I will post photos of them in the cage tomorrow. I used a really cute baby print with bunnies and moons on it. Any rat living in my house must like bunnies!

Today the girls have officially been with me 3 weeks. It feels like much longer. I weighed Annabell and she has gained 50 grams in 1 week! How cool is that? Last Monday she weighed 100 grams. Way to grow, little one. She still has the persistent URI and we're entering week 2 of treatment, but it obviously isn't affecting her growth. She and Lalita are the same size now and their fur is feeling like adult fur now.

Lalita and I had a bit of a breakthrough tonight. She's the more shy one of the two. I was sitting on the floor in front of their cage, tidying it up (they like to drag everything around), and I replenished their supply of lab blocks and Suebee's mix. Lalita decided the food all belonged in the igloo on the 2nd level, so we got a system down where she would run to the edge of the shelf, I'd hand her a piece of food, and she'd put it in the igloo. Repeat about 30 times. Then she started diving down my shirt sleeves and actually walked out on my hand several times and would jump onto my knee. Annabell got in on the action too. They would run to the edge of the cage and hang over the side until I came close enough for them to climb on. It was so cute, we played like that for about half an hour. They wanted to keep playing, but it's almost 5 am and I haven't gone to bed yet so we had to say night night. It was great though, both girls were having fun and Lalita really came out of her shell. Hopefully the same thing happens tomorrow!
 
Arrr that is lovely, when you have two there is always a shy one isnt there, it seems to happen with all my pets, like they take the position and sometimes if the shy one is unfortunately left on there own when a new one comes they are the confident one and the new one is shy.
not sure if that made sense or not lol
 
I finally took a picture of the girls' cage! The towel is actually purple and I sewed all the hammocks last night :D There's a pocket hammock, tube, regular hammock, pouch, and a big square hammock with the corners pulled up to make a little nest. This photo was before I added a few more toys. The litter box is in the bottom left corner behind the pocket hammock. In the photo, Lalita is on top and Annabell is on the bottom. Right now both girlies are hanging out in the pocket hammock! They have essentially ignored all the hammocks I've put in the cage until now, maybe they like my wonky hammocks better!

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Thought I'd update this! The girls are doing so well! They're growing like weeds. They don't look like babies anymore, they look like little adults! Annabell has actually surpassed Lalita in weight and is 200 grams, Lita is 180 grams. We're still fighting Bella's URI, but it obviously isn't impacting her growth at all and she's very active and curious. Both girls are still a little skittish (sometimes more than others) but have made great strides. I'm sure they'll be pretty laid back in a few months! A girl on the rat forum got a pair of baby rats right around the time I got my girls, and my girls seem tamer than hers even though they were never handled before me.

Also, the girls are going to be babysat by a girl on the ratty forum who lives here in town. We've become friends. I'm going to be out of town for almost a whole month from the middle of December until the middle of January :( The girls are going to live with 6 of her 9 foster rats during that time. I'm going to miss them, but I'm sure she'll spoil them and they'll love the company! Best of all is when we go to pick them up after the month, we're going to bring home two (or maybe even 3 since she has a trio I really like) of the foster rats :D We'll take home whichever two Bella and Lita seem to like the best. How cool is that, they get to pick their friends!

Paul is going to take care of the buns and birds while I'm gone. He's going to have a lot on his hands! I'm going to miss my Paul and my animals :(

Also, I've sewn two more sets of hammocks for the girls! I've done regular flat hammocks, tubes, pocket hammocks, pouches, double deckers and a nifty kind that I think is called a bunk bed. If I may say, my skills are improving a lot and they look pretty good! Tomorrow I will post updated photos of the babies and a picture of their cage with the most recent bedding.
 
Donna, here are the photos I promised! I'm not going to label each photo with who each rat is, but if you can see the tails, Annabell is the one with the purple sharpie.

New hammock set that I made for them. The double decker hammock (the one in the middle) needs to have a wider top, but I was guessing when I made it!

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When I open the doors of the cage, they both come to the front and like to hang out of the cage at the corners like this:

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One of the girls (sorry, I don't remember who, I think it's Annabell though) with a soda can for a size comparison. Look at them now compared to 5 weeks ago with the soda can!

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Peeking out of the hammock that my buddy from the gift swap on the rat forum sent me:

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Me trying to hold onto Annabell so they'd both be in the photo together... They were both pretty hyper tonight and kept taking off in opposite directions.

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Kind of like this!

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I hope you enjoyed the photos of my gorgeous girls :biggrin2:
 
:inlove::faint::adorable:i should have waited until i get back from daughter's meet the tutor evening....mind you such rattyness will get me thru the obligatory speech that one of the faculty is bound to give:p

what great looking hammocks etc - those rats have really landed on their paws (hopes this sentiment isnt lost in translation!) my beloved rizzo rat used to love hanging from the bars by his tail - for some reason;)
 
I love my baby girls! They are sweeties. They were the best impulse purchase ever. They're still little girls and are about 3 months old now. Amy, the past few days they have been hanging out in your star dome home more than any of the hammocks!
 
Today we are going to get 3 girls from my friend! She has a small rescue with 9 rescue girls. 3 of the girls came in together and don't get along with the other rats and have to be caged separately and have play time separately. My friend feels all the other rats (she has 13 total) are stressing 1 of the girls out and that they'd be happier with a much smaller group of rats. Since my girls are still young and I only have 2, we're hoping they will get along with mine. It's a good thing I got a 2 level Ferret Nation because I'm going to have to make the upper level for the rats, too.

Of the trio, 1 is actually a hooded agouti and 1 is a Siamese. 1 is a PEW. I completely love the PEW and the Siamese, they are great girls. The hooded girl is the one who causes the problems with the other rats (she's a bully) and doesn't like people very much, but my friend thinks she will benefit from having an owner who can give her more one on one time.

The funny thing is that these 3 girls were surrendered by the girl who we adopted Colby Jack from 2 1/2 years ago- she decided she didn't want her rats anymore :( They are all 15 months old and 2 of them were actually born to the rat that belonged to another member of Goosemoose, so I have baby pictures of them :D If everything works out, the 2 girls will have lived with all 4 of the Alaskan members of Goosemoose.

The plan is to bring the trio home and let them settle in for a few days, then introduce them to my babies. I hope it goes well! If it doesn't, we can bring them back to her and adopt 2 of her other rescues.

Wish us luck and I will post photos of the 3 lovely ladies (plus my little darlings, who are doing splendidly) tonight.
 
STOP THIS...you almost make me want a rattie....and I don't like rats at all. You & Amy always seem to show them looking and acting so cute - its not fair.
 
Peg, rats really are sweeties. I love my girls. I'm glad we're getting the 3 today. I'm heading to my friend's house in about a hour, we're going to sew and bake cookies and stuff and then take the girls home tonight.

I considered not adopting more rats since Skyler is sick, but taking the 3 girls will really help my friend out and 5 rats won't really need much more of my time than 2. They'll come out of their cage for the same amount of time each day. I'll have to clean the cage a bit more frequently and spend a bit more time on the rats individually (especially the agouti hooded), but I will be able to handle it. Also, these girls have been very healthy- my friend has 2 the uncle and brother of the PEW and Siamese and they have always been super healthy. Paul and I talked it over and we're willing to take the risk of them needing pricy vet care. If it was just me, no way, I couldn't afford vet care for all of them, but Paul thankfully can afford vet care if they need it. These girls have never even been to the vet since they were young though (they had SDA has babies!!). I hope the girls live for a while. Like I said earlier, they're all 15 months old now.

It will be interesting having 5. I've never had this many before! We've been spoiled by our girls- they took to the litter box right away and never poop when they're out of the cage. The trio is more "free" in their pooping habits. I wonder if our girls will start pooping everywhere now too? And our girls are super gentle when it comes to food- they carefully take food from my fingers, even if it's something really tasty, but the trio GRABS (watch out for fingers!) and stick their arms out of the cage when they want food (which I think is hilarious). I'm assuming it will only be a matter of days until my girls are doing the same thing since they'll have to be more proactive if they're going to get any food with their grabby friends present! We're going to rat proof the bedroom too (so far our girls only play on the couch, but I know the trio will be off the couch in less than a minute if we try that). We decided it would be easier to make our bedroom the ratty play area since there are fewer cords, fewer hiding places, and the bunnies and birds live downstairs. I would have preferred to get the rat proofing done already, but our friend would like the girls out of the house today so she can make a double wide out of her 2 Ferret Nations! It's probably just as well for the trio to settle in for a couple days before we bring them out to play or we may never see them again :biggrin2:

Here is a photo my friend took of the girls. You can see the PEW in the center, the Siamese on the right and the hooded girl's tail!

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The girlies are HOME! They don't seem scared really. The agouti hooded let me hold her for the first time. I held the PEW girl up to my girls and they sniffed each other. I think she is my favorite of the three so far. Pictures will be coming later!
 
I really hope these girls get along with my girls because I love them already! They're such sweeties. The agouti hooded girl is a little more reclusive than her friends, but still sweet. They don't really seem scared being in a new place and ran around exploring everything and going in all the hammocks as soon as I put them in their new cage. The plan is to let them settle in for a few days, then introduce them to my little girls on the bed upstairs.

I got a LOT of photos! Even more than these, but they're so cute that I have to share.

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Moments after putting them in the cage:
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She is the sweetest of the 3:
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PEW girl tries to steal the Greenie:
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She is the most adventurous of the 3 (and they're all pretty adventurous)
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We forgot to buy a water bottle so they get to drink out of a mug for tonight:
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With more toys added in (there's a big Capri Sun box behind the tube on the 2nd level as well):
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Cute, huh? They're so curious and funny! The PEW and Siamese are much more confident than my little babies. The little girls have made lots of progress, but my friend said they probably won't mellow out a bit until they're about 6 months old.

Anyone have name suggestions? I'm planning on naming the hooded girl Saskia and am considering Clementine for the Siamese. Winter for the PEW would be nice, but there are a lot of white rats named Winter so I don't know.
 

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