Lots of new things.

I feel like I had a lot of stuff to write, but I'm pretty sure I've forgotten most of it by now.
oh well!
I've just been really lazy about updating.

remember when I was praising the tropical rat mix that they were eating?
well, we had to stop giving it to them. Nixon started getting protein scabs from eating too much of the food. we had to go back to giving them pellets.
we still have a big bag of the mix and I've heard it's a good supplement on top of the lab blocks, but I'm really uneasy about feeding the mix to them, because of the scabs she got. at first we thought she might have had fur mites, but since Garbo wasn't any itchier than normal nor did she have scabs, we had to look for other answers. that's when I came across a rat site that mentioned that sunflower seeds and seed mixes are high in fat and protein and can make a rat itch and scab when fed too often with these food items. she's been eating the pellets for probably about 2 weeks or 2 and a half, and most of her scabs are gone. other than that, little Nippers is fine!

water training has been good. I read that rats that will enjoy swimming won't shy around a bowl of water, which definitely applies to Garbo, who seems to enjoy dipping her head under water. it also mentioned that rats that aren't quite as fond of water will nervously fish for treats underwater with their hands, which applies to Nixon, who will immediately shake off any water she might have gotten on her face.
I saw a plastic container outside the other day that made me think about purchasing one for the rats, so that when it gets really hot I can fill it up with water and have them go swimming :) well, Garbo at least. not sure if I can get Nixon to swim, and I'm obviously not going to force her into it.

I feel like they've both grown a bit too. they're turning 1 this summer! aww. my babies are growing up. yet they're so full of energy and there are no signs of calming down! although female rats like to play and explore throughout their whole lives, I did notice that there is one place outside of the cage where they don't mind laying down for a bit: the bookcase. on days when I don't have time to fully let them out, or sometimes just as a "supplement" to our hour long playtime, I like to let them explore the bookcase. it has always been a favorite of our girls since it's high up. the other day I saw Nixon lay down in there, so I decided to put a wash cloth in the corner of the bookcase for the ratties to rest on. Garbo has taken a liking to the cloth and will immediately go lay down on it. Nixon just likes to cuddle with it and chew/suck on it :D Nixon also found a new favorite toy in the bookcase: a small batman figurine. I couldn't stop laughing when I saw her dangle batman from the edge of the bookcase. poor batman. being tortured by a rat must be a punch to the ego :P

the ladies are super social. Garbo is even fine with daddy Robert picking her up and giving her a ride on his shoulder :) in fact, I was a little surprised with how well she behaved the other week when we had a friend over! Nixon is okay with guests. she does her normal thing when we have people over and doesn't really care. she doesn't want to actually hang out with strangers, but she's fine in her cage and will come to the cage door to say hello. Garbo, however, has always hated strangers. she would freeze up in a corner and stay there until the danger was over. the other week, we had a friend over and Garbo was being completely normal. she actually let our friend pet her and she took a treat from him. instead of being frozen in a corner, she'd do what she'd normally do. she was being active and social! she deserved many treats for being such a good girl. both of the rats demonstrated their catlike playing to our friend, which was another good sign. good job ratties!

the girls have also learned a couple of new tricks. they've learned to give mommy a kiss and to climb up my leg. they're a little nervous about the leg trick, so we're still practicing on that one.

I would post some video and some new pictures but I feel like this entry is kinda long as it is. surprisingly enough, I seemed to have remembered a lot of the things I was planning on writing.

later!

Nixon has something to say..

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uh...really shouldn't let the rats on the desk. Nixon almost chewed off the ctrl-key. like we didn't have enough problems with messed up keys on the old laptop.

Agility.

tried some agility with the rats today.
I'm thinking Nixon will be the agility rat of this family, because Garbo has shown pretty clearly that she doesn't want to learn any tricks (other than the water thing.)
Garbo listens to me a lot more than Nixon and knows her name pretty well and what NO means, so it's not that one is less intelligent than the other, it's just kinda like they have different "priorities" when it comes to learning things. Nixon likes to ignore my commands outside of the cage but will learn tricks.

so I decided that Nixon could learn some agility. I set up a little course in the hallway and it went kinda...eh. Nixon (on purpose, actually, which makes it funny) knocked over the blocks that she was meant to jump over. she actually went up to them with her front paws and just burst through there. the second time though, she actually jumped over it so she got a treat. once, I got her to jump up on top of their little house and that was also worth a reward. we'll see how it goes. I should actually take them to the vet before any real training, so for now it's just kind of a fun activity to do around the house. I would like to get more serious about it, but we'll see. I doubt that's ever gonna happen since Nixon is so easily distracted and extremely stubborn and Garbo doesn't want to learn things like that :D

Brave Garbo.

I'm starting to think that Garbo is going to enjoy swimming and diving a lot.
we've played with water again and she really has no problem going in the bowl and getting all four paws and her face wet. in fact, she doesn't hesitate diving down in the bowl. no matter how much water I put in the bowl (I've increased the amount with every time we've practiced this), she'll dive in there.

Nixon doesn't really like getting her face wet. she'll go stand in the water, but very rarely, and most of the time she just hunches over the bowl and moves her arms in the water. it's really cute though. it's not that she's afraid of water, I think it's more that she doesn't think it's that much fun. she'll go to the bowl more frequently than Garbo, but she doesn't go all the way in the water like Garbo does.


I filmed the rats playing with water yesterday, and I've got lots of other clips too that I just haven't posted. it's just that posting a video on blogger takes forever, if it's coming from the computer. and I really don't want to upload any of my stuff onto youtube.


I've been meaning to go buy some rat food ever since we got home from our trip, but I've been too lazy. I feel bad for the rats, even though they've had enough food. now, however, they only have enough food for tonight and possibly tomorrow morning, so I really have to get my ass down to the pet store for some rat food! I'm debating whether we should continue feeding them the seed mix or if we should just switch back to pellets. we'll see. they don't even always have pellets, which is why they got the seed mix last time I bought food. so we'll see. at least they love the seed mix.

well, that's it for now. I bet my ratties will be swimming by the end of this summer :)

Home with the ratties.

so we're back from our trip and the ratties seemed really excited to have their family back :D
they knew immediately that mommy was back and came up to me and sniffed my hands and later, without hesitating, climb inside the sleeves of my robe for a stroll around the apartment.

Sarah took great care of them and let them out a little too and spent time with them. time we didn't even expect her to spend with them. so a big thank you to Sarah for being an excellent first time rat sitter :) Nixon wasn't that excited about Sarah, however. she told us that Nixon bit her fingers every time she tried to hold her. Garbo isn't much of a biter so she was nicer to her.

we like to give the ratties a day to adjust to us being back home after each trip, so the only time they got to leave the cage today was when I'd pick them up or let them crawl in my sleeves. tomorrow is a new day and I'm thinking we'll continue playing with water. the ratties deserve some extra fun now that I'm home again :)