brooklyn
Well-Known Member
http://thebronxlullaby.tumblr.com/post/142982337216/my-current-rat-pack-since-my-first-mischief-of
I couldn't get pictures to upload from my phone onto the post so I linked to the Tumblr post I made today. I'll write pretty much the same thing here as I wrote there, just a bit more elaboration on the forum post about how I came to have 4 soon to be 5 rescued rats, and some edited language around reptile owners for anyone in the community that doesnt want to see that, so you can read on either one if you like or just enjoy the pictures of cute ratties.
I joined this forum at 17 when I got 3 male brothers from a terrible BYB in Hamilton. This community was kind to me even though I made a mistake by buying from a breeder because I didn't know any better and many of the most experienced members of the community came to my aid when one of the boys ended up having a moderate form of megacolon that required constant care. Victoria in particular was so nice and helped me come up with any and every solution possible to help my little Atticus. After Atticus was put to sleep I promised that I would only rescue rats if I wanted any more and I have certainly kept my promise, since my three original boys I have rescued 5 soon to be 6 other rats in total (these four plus Remy Rat who passed away in 2013 of a PT plus the soon to be adopted female companion for Simone). So in memorium to my three boys Atticus, Kiedis and Memphis, this is my rescued rat pack thus far.
Male, standard ear, naked twins, Beavis and Cletus. Beavis (first two pictures) is a little more bald than Cletus who has a fuzzy face and arms. My buddies are turning a year old on the 20th! These guys were rescued from a reptile breeder back in August. They are the first pair of hairless rats Iâve owned and Iâve been pleasantly surprised by their funny little faces and unbelievably warm skin. Beavis is the dominant brother and loves to groom Cletus and sleep directly on top of him and is constantly on the move, Cletus is my little sweetie who loves to cuddle and have his fuzzy cheeks stroked.
My big chunky black varie-berk Dumbo, Mr. Otis Rattus Norvegicus (that is his fully dapper name by the way, heâs coloquially known as Otie Oats, Mister Oats and/or Oatmeal). His exact age is unknown but if I were to guess heâd be turning two around this month or next and his last weigh in at the vet was 720g the biggest rat Iâve personally owned. Otis was another rescue case, he used to live with a female rat (not sure if owners were breeding them or if she was spayed) but then his doe passed away and the owners didnât want him anymore. They mentioned to a girl I knew from high school that they were just going to leave him outside in the Canadian winter, she took him and gave him to another girl who also owned rats and would rat sit for me sometimes, but since she had 14 rats at the time she gave him to me. Otis is a very loving rat to his humans, he loves bum scooches and gives kisses galore, during out time he crawls all over me, but he's never been successfully intro'd to other males. Iâve tried to introduce him to two groups of males doing all the right things, neutral territory, distractions, gradual out time with other rats, I've even had other rat owners experienced in intro's come and supervise the intro to make sure I was doing it right but he can never make it more than 15-20 mins without rat balling with whoever the dominant rat is in the room, and once he does it once he continues until I put them away, no matter how much time and effort I put into it. Honestly, with his hammocks and toys and out time, Otis seems totally content, heâs never showed signs of depression, and very occasionally we let him do a bit of play time out of the cage with the twins but we watch closely and try not to push it for him. He loves our cat though...? Hahaha
Last but not least, little Simone. Iâm not sure of her exact age once again, but I think sheâs maybe at most 4 months old. Sheâs a standard ear, pink eyed white self. She was sold to a man at a local PetSmart (said PetSmart has a policy against selling live animals for food other than fish and so my friend who used to work there and I are filing complaints with the manager) as a feeder, but luck was the little girl's side because my mother happened to be rooming with this man and when his pet didn't want Simone my mother claimed her for me to take. At first my roomate was completely against us having another rat, so I promised it would only be for a few days and after that she would go to Little Friends Rescue here in Guelph, but after two days of her living with us, he was looking for rat cages to buy her and asked if we could keep her, so instead of surrendering an animal to LFR/GRS, we are now looking into adopting another female. She is eating rat blocks like no tomorrow (which she had never had until this past Thursday), and has totally come out of her shell in the last two days, sheâs actually quite a feisty little thing who loves to groom her humans and springs around like nobodyâs business. Sheâs going for her first vet visit this week to be checked over and treated for a mild case of lice and then weâre going to pursue adoption for a companion for her.
I couldn't get pictures to upload from my phone onto the post so I linked to the Tumblr post I made today. I'll write pretty much the same thing here as I wrote there, just a bit more elaboration on the forum post about how I came to have 4 soon to be 5 rescued rats, and some edited language around reptile owners for anyone in the community that doesnt want to see that, so you can read on either one if you like or just enjoy the pictures of cute ratties.
I joined this forum at 17 when I got 3 male brothers from a terrible BYB in Hamilton. This community was kind to me even though I made a mistake by buying from a breeder because I didn't know any better and many of the most experienced members of the community came to my aid when one of the boys ended up having a moderate form of megacolon that required constant care. Victoria in particular was so nice and helped me come up with any and every solution possible to help my little Atticus. After Atticus was put to sleep I promised that I would only rescue rats if I wanted any more and I have certainly kept my promise, since my three original boys I have rescued 5 soon to be 6 other rats in total (these four plus Remy Rat who passed away in 2013 of a PT plus the soon to be adopted female companion for Simone). So in memorium to my three boys Atticus, Kiedis and Memphis, this is my rescued rat pack thus far.
Male, standard ear, naked twins, Beavis and Cletus. Beavis (first two pictures) is a little more bald than Cletus who has a fuzzy face and arms. My buddies are turning a year old on the 20th! These guys were rescued from a reptile breeder back in August. They are the first pair of hairless rats Iâve owned and Iâve been pleasantly surprised by their funny little faces and unbelievably warm skin. Beavis is the dominant brother and loves to groom Cletus and sleep directly on top of him and is constantly on the move, Cletus is my little sweetie who loves to cuddle and have his fuzzy cheeks stroked.
My big chunky black varie-berk Dumbo, Mr. Otis Rattus Norvegicus (that is his fully dapper name by the way, heâs coloquially known as Otie Oats, Mister Oats and/or Oatmeal). His exact age is unknown but if I were to guess heâd be turning two around this month or next and his last weigh in at the vet was 720g the biggest rat Iâve personally owned. Otis was another rescue case, he used to live with a female rat (not sure if owners were breeding them or if she was spayed) but then his doe passed away and the owners didnât want him anymore. They mentioned to a girl I knew from high school that they were just going to leave him outside in the Canadian winter, she took him and gave him to another girl who also owned rats and would rat sit for me sometimes, but since she had 14 rats at the time she gave him to me. Otis is a very loving rat to his humans, he loves bum scooches and gives kisses galore, during out time he crawls all over me, but he's never been successfully intro'd to other males. Iâve tried to introduce him to two groups of males doing all the right things, neutral territory, distractions, gradual out time with other rats, I've even had other rat owners experienced in intro's come and supervise the intro to make sure I was doing it right but he can never make it more than 15-20 mins without rat balling with whoever the dominant rat is in the room, and once he does it once he continues until I put them away, no matter how much time and effort I put into it. Honestly, with his hammocks and toys and out time, Otis seems totally content, heâs never showed signs of depression, and very occasionally we let him do a bit of play time out of the cage with the twins but we watch closely and try not to push it for him. He loves our cat though...? Hahaha
Last but not least, little Simone. Iâm not sure of her exact age once again, but I think sheâs maybe at most 4 months old. Sheâs a standard ear, pink eyed white self. She was sold to a man at a local PetSmart (said PetSmart has a policy against selling live animals for food other than fish and so my friend who used to work there and I are filing complaints with the manager) as a feeder, but luck was the little girl's side because my mother happened to be rooming with this man and when his pet didn't want Simone my mother claimed her for me to take. At first my roomate was completely against us having another rat, so I promised it would only be for a few days and after that she would go to Little Friends Rescue here in Guelph, but after two days of her living with us, he was looking for rat cages to buy her and asked if we could keep her, so instead of surrendering an animal to LFR/GRS, we are now looking into adopting another female. She is eating rat blocks like no tomorrow (which she had never had until this past Thursday), and has totally come out of her shell in the last two days, sheâs actually quite a feisty little thing who loves to groom her humans and springs around like nobodyâs business. Sheâs going for her first vet visit this week to be checked over and treated for a mild case of lice and then weâre going to pursue adoption for a companion for her.
Otis has one of the biggest personalities I've ever seen in an animal, so he needed a majestic name to go with his big personality. Oatmeal is what he gets called when hes being dorky, and Mister Oats is what he gets called when hes being bad, sometimes he also gets called buttmunch when he's acting up hahaha
