Monday, August 24, 2009

Two More Furry Babies Come Home













Baby Ratties

Where are the baby ratties hiding? In a nest...
One peeks out, where are all the rest?
One is sleepy, one is snappy,
One is crying, and the last one is happy.
(adapted from a poem @ mice)

We've been rat owners since June & have fallen head over heels with our little family members. Rudy & Chaulky (above) have brought us so much joy. They are sweet, cuddly, friendly, playful and gentle. They are wonderful for young children, especially the males who are larger and over time, get much more sedentary & lap-doggish.

Unfortunately, Chaulky came to us sick is still on antibiotics for a URI, which becomes dangerous because virtually all fancy rats (lab rats are excluded) carry mycoplasma (humans can't catch this from them)...and when they get stressed, their immune systems have a hard time fighting off things like a common cold. It's been almost 5 weeks and we've now had to add a second antibiotic for our poor Chaulky. He seems to be getting better, but if we left his URI untreated, it could turn into pneumonia and claim his life very quickly...

Here is Elena feeding Rudy some cantaloupe...to help Chaulky, we are trying to keep his stress level down. We're trying to give him more cage time and the girls aren't handling him as much.

So...unexpectedly, last Friday, I was looking online and spotted a beautiful black-eyed Siamese Rex rattie in need of a good home, so on Sat night, we hopped in the car and took a ride to Pasadena. We came home with two new babies, who are being quarantined, so the older boys haven't met them yet...Here is the Siamese Rex, named Luke (as in Luke Skywalker)...

Here he is: just 6 weeks old...little Lukie :)

And here is his twin brother, Ben (short for Ob-Wan Kenobi)...

Little Benny...he's a Black Burmese Rex (rex indicates that their fur is like a velveteen and their whiskers are actually curly)...


The rattie world is really amazing. Did you know there are rat shows (Best in Show type shows)...rat clubs & groups (yes, we joined a rattie forum :)...and there are many different types.

These babies are incredibly sweet - giving kisses non-stop. They were very well socialized, friendly and are bonding already with us. They are much more quiet than our first two and we can't wait to introduce them to their big brothers!


So from Ben & Luke..."May the Force Be with You!"

2 comments:

  1. Goodness, I knew nothing about rats before reading your informative post. All your little ratties look like real little characters.

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  2. Very sweet rats, Jen. Thanks so much for sharing!

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