Overprotective mom is worried.

oh no.
one of the rats has some kinda pee-thing going on :o

our rats haven't peed on us since we first got them.
but today I keep getting wet pee paws and wet streaks all over myself after holding the rats!
I can't figure out who it is who keeps "leaking" on my arms.

it actually looks like one of them is in fact peeing on me because it's not just the sensation from their paws as if they just went to the bathroom but I actually saw some droplets.

I'm worried. even though it might not be a physical condition it could still be something mental/emotional that needs to be taken care of.

unfortunately mommy doesn't know what "I pee on you" translates to in english so I guess I'll have to just monitor their behavior and hope to not get peed on again.

(having fresh rat scratches on your arms mixed with rat pee....well let's just say it stings a little. a little..)

blind rat coming through!

I think it's safe to say that Nixon's nearly blind:
whenever she gets really excited she runs into things - headfirst.

it's okay though because blindness isn't really a disability in rats since they have a poor eyesight and mostly get by on their excellent hearing and sense of smell :)


it's just funny seeing Nixon run around like there's nothing wrong with her (well not that there really is anyways) and then see her bump into my foot or a shoe lying on the floor :D


also the rats have been extremely rowdy lately.
but it's okay - we've had a lot of fun during our playtime and I've gotten some good laughs out of the crazy rats even though their rowdyness often gets me a little worried they'll hurt themselves :s

The rats are home!

I let the rats run around a little last night which might have been a bad idea since they just got home.
I believe I waited a couple of days after my trip to europe before I let them out.

Nixon did know where she was because she kept running to her usual hiding places and sat in my lap and took treats from me.
Garbo was a little more freaked out and hid in the box spring of the bed for over an hour :/ Robert and I had to scare her out of there since nothing else worked :/
Nixon joined her after running around for half an hour.
both rats knew they had been bad because like dogs they show it by putting their heads down and ears back.


the new food has been a success! when I first let them try it Nixon wouldn't stop eating it. I left some in their food dish and this morning it was all gone :)
so I think I'm gonna leave some pellets in the cup in the morning (turns out their bag of pellets had a lot more in it than I thought) and some tropical rat mix in the evening to give them some variety.

the ratties are napping in their favorite nap spot: the cup and they let me pet them and Nixon bruxed a little so we're all good :)

Rat food.

since the rats left our place with very little food (only enough for the few days they were going to be gone) I had to stock up on some today before they arrive.

we usually buy kaytee's forti-diet which is one of the best lab blocks out there.

since we don't live close to a big chain pet store I usually pick up rat items at a smaller private owned pet store in our neighborhood when we need something fast.
they don't always carry the same brands we buy at the bigger pet stores.

last time I bought rat food at this store I noticed that Garbo's coat was very shiny and smooth. the food I bought came in pellet form. I was hoping they would have had it since the rats really liked it as a change for the other pellets they usually eat and Garbo's fur looked great.

unfortunately they were really low on rat food and I ended up buying a tropical rat mix for them.

we've tried giving them a mix similar to this one before but it didn't go over too well with our ladies. part of it - I'm sure - was that it had been sitting in the garage at Robert's parents house for a few years.

I'm really hoping this tropical mix though will be a success among our ladies.
we'll have to test it out tonight.

otherwise I'm screwed because I forgot to pick up some "back up" food (fruits and vegetables. those always work).

(then again...if the rats are really hungry and they realize there's nothing else to eat I'm sure they'll enjoy this new food :D)

someone tell robert to stop being lazy so we can actually pick up the rats instead of having to wait for someone to bring them over .____.

I'm home now but the rats aren't :(
mommy is sad.
let's try again tomorrow!

yay!

the ratties have a rat sitter for monday-wednesday!
they're going to grandma-jo's house :D
she's picking the girls up sunday night and bringing them home wednesday night.
phew! it all worked out and now I can relax and have fun :)

:D

aww!0I got to hold a pink eyed white male today in school.d (and now garbo's climbing all over me and the keyboard)

unlike many of the other rats ours wasn't scared because I knew how to handle rats :D
ours didn't poop everywhere and it was very social and wanted to climb up on my shoulder and sniff my face. so cute!


so now that I'm home - my rats are all over me! they must know where the scent of this mystery rat came from.

well nixon hasn't really come up to me yet but garbo won't leave me alone! she has to climb all over my shoulders and smell me and nibble on my hair and ears and clothes.



...and now they're too busy chasing each other and wrestling and one of them just had to bite my toe while passing by.

Garbo's guest blogging again.

sCcz

Rat talk.

I've never really known what boggling means.
I've heard that rats boggle and brux.
our rats brux quite a lot. usually when they're going for a nap and when I'm rubbing their ears. Nixon often bruxes when she's just running around on the floor in the bedroom (I'm hoping it's because she's happy - not because she's frustrated or scared. although she runs around like a happy rat so I'm sure it's the good kind of bruxing)

but boggling.
I didn't even know what it was until the other day when I was giving Garbo a good ear rubbing as she was about to fall asleep in their little nap cup.
she was bruxing and then she started doing weird things with her face.
it looked like she was bulging her eyes back and forth and vibrating her whiskers.
I knew immediately that this is a rat who's enjoying the pre-nap ear rub :)

Rat sitter wanted.

spring break is coming up and Robert thought that would be the perfect time to take a little trip to vegas for a few days.
one thing that you should do as a pet owner is to see if you have a sitter for your pets first before anything else and of course that's not what happened in our case.

I have a really hard time getting excited about this knowing that right now we don't have a rat sitter. we didn't want to ask Jamie since she'll be having her baby very soon and that's just too much.

I don't really know who else would make a good candidate.
I don't want just anyone to watch my ratties for me. I want someone who actually cares about animals and doesn't mind rats. (and I guess experience is always a bonus)
I really can't see myself allowing someone who has no compassion towards animals watching them for us while we're gone. we'll be gone for 2 nights but our friend (who is going with us) isn't even leaving her cats alone for that time so I don't think I should have to leave the rats alone either.

what if it's hot? who's gonna make sure they're not having a heatstroke? :/

a lot of people I know have cats and that's obviously a bad thing in this case.
I guess we could always have someone just swing by our place every day while we're gone and feed them and make sure they have what they need.

I have 2 more weeks to figure it out.
I'm sure it'll work out somehow.
I'm just kinda worried right now and I can't excited about this until it's been taken care of.


ps. nixon just stole my math test because it was on the floor. she's trying to run around with it and it just looks ridiculous. a small rat with a gigantic compendium of paper in her mouth.