Pinkies!!!
Ratticus Rattus esq.
them squeeking. Look to be a couple days old, boys were shacked up
with Cell. (don't start please) judging by their behaviour I'd say
they both had a chance at her. Not CLUE that she was preggers, either
from her behaviour or theirs..
Is this fun or what? Now to see how they grow and if we can tell who
daddy was/is.
--
Keith
New and Improved Village Idiots on sale now!
SteveR
> WHOOP! Cellistina had 5 pinkies and hid them!!!
I suppose congratulations are in order. Coincidentally, we had pinkies
in our house earlier this week, but wild ones, not issue from our three
tame females. Landscape people removing the leaf-and-compost pile from
our back yard discovered a nest chamber with six baby rats who looked to
be about 2 weeks old. I asked them to leave that portion of the pile
with the nest chamber and associated tunnels. Meanwhile, I put the nest
and pinkies into a shoebox for a couple of hours while they finished
their work, then placed everything back into the chamber, covered it
with straw and prayed momma rat would come back for them. I hadn't been
able to get them to feed from a syringe, so hand-raising was out of the
question. Within an hour, the nest chamber had been repaired and sealed
back up from the inside, so presumably, all the little guys were being
looked after by Mom once again. We had been aware that there was at
least one wild male living in the compost pile, since we had seen him on
several occasions, but the fact that he had acquired a family came as a
complete surprise to us.
Schiffner
Sweet! Indelicate question though...are you considering adopting any?
(just thinking of the logistics of trying to heard, sort and select
gives me a headache). But I love the wild ones also, sometimes I think
it's disease. ;^) Give me the choice of pigeons or rats and I'd get
ride of the pigeons toot-sweet.
Kate
Bless you.
Sadly I am having to have Riley PTS. Old age has lessened his quality of
life, his back legs are losing their strength, he has lost all his weight
and to make matters worse, our other boy "Axel" has taken to being mean to
him. He blocks the igloo every chance he gets so Riley can't get in.
Yesterday Riley was doing his best to climb in to their hammock and that
mean Axel actually pushed him out, Riley being weak couldnt break his own
fall and landed on his back in his grains dish :(
We have been fortunate enough to have lots of Rats, my husband purpose built
their massive house, floor to ceiling :) We are now down to just the two,
Riley and Axel neither will be replaced (not that you replace them) I can no
longer handle the short life span and the many trips to the Vets to say
"Goodbye for now", Im fed up feeling as if I have to justify why I choose to
have Rattie Men as family members, allbeit we have a Dog, 3 Cats and a house
rabbit. My children are all in their teens to early twenties and have moved
on from having "pets" they have always however cleaned and fed them every
day :)
Sorry I have vented off but I am fed up, I had a run in with the
Receptionist on the phone yesterday when I made an appointment. She said "I
will put down Rat" I got angry and said "Actually his name is Riley" she
then had the gall to ask me if I wanted her to change it. ARRGGGHHH.
So it would be great if everyone could spare a kind thought for my wee Riley
man as he makes the transistion.:) He is going to be met by a hell of a lot
of Pets we have owned:) Regards to all Rattie lovers and scritches to the
fuzzy butts who share your home.
Regards Kate
http://community.webshots.com/user/ollieogg
"SteveR" <st...@noplace.be> wrote in message
news:Bth8m.12974$ay4....@newsfe27.ams2...
Schiffner
You have my permission to back hand the receptionist when you get
there. My vet has always known my rats names was just as sad as I when
Muc & Luc died (first rats she'd touched since vet school) Now if
you'll excuse me I've got to feed everyone even though I gave a
pierogi to each cage. Alphonse has turned out to be good but firm dad,
amazingly...
SteveR
> Sweet! Indelicate question though...are you considering adopting any?
> (just thinking of the logistics of trying to heard, sort and select
> gives me a headache). But I love the wild ones also, sometimes I think
> it's disease. ;^) Give me the choice of pigeons or rats and I'd get
> ride of the pigeons toot-sweet.
>
It's been ages since I checked this newsgroup. The little pinkies are
probably half-grown by now. In reply to some questions that popped up
along the way - No, we considered adopting one of the wild ratties, but
since we couldn't get them to feed, there was no question of taking one
at that stage, and I didn't want to traumatize them all by tearing into
their nest to capture one later, after they'd had a chance to get big
enough. I see them from time to time. Perhaps foolishly, we put scraps
and fresh water out for them (to the neighbors' horror, if they knew).
We even sprayed a flea, tick, and louse killer (safe for rats,
recommended by our vet) onto a couple of paper towels and put them near
the entrance to their cave system, so they'd use them as bedding and
keep them free of parasites. I just hope they don't reward us by
invading the house someday. As long as they stay outside, I see no
difference between having rats in our compost pile and having squirrels
in our trees.
I understand about it being so hard to let go of our little ratty
friends, sometimes after less than two years. We lost our favorite,
Ratchel, a few months ago. Our second-oldest, Ruffles, is now two and a
half, and has become a very old, feeble animal who can scarcely move her
back legs anymore, but her cagemates treat her kindly, even if they
occasionally steal her treats. This sweet old rat seems unbothered by
her infirmity and still seems to enjoy rat life. Three trips to the vet,
with every-increasing doses of anti-inflammatories have failed to help
her paralysis, so it's just something she'll have to live with. I think
it's probably worse for us, watching her struggle to get about, than it
is for her.