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

Playing with water!

the ratties got to play with water for the fist time today!
a good way to get a rat used to water is by placing some treats at the bottom of a water filled bowl and letting them either dive for them or just kinda "fish" them up.
I started off by putting things that wouldn't sink in the bowl, like apple jacks.
Garbo only wanted one but I think she might have been uncomfortable with the fact that the bowl was in the bathroom. Nixon came back for the apple jacks multiple times and waved her arms around in the water filled bowl. it was very very cute :)

I dumped out some of the water so it would be a bit more shallow and put something that would sink to the bottom in it. for that I used uncooked pasta. Nixon didn't really want to stick her head so she kinda continued waving her hands under water. she managed to get a piece of pasta that way. Garbo was more comfortable with the water when I moved the bowl into the bedroom where they roam free. she didn't care about getting her face wet. while she didn't exactly dive for the pasta, she did at least get her face wet and wasn't afraid to go in the water bowl. in fact, I saw her dipping her feet in it too :D so today's brave rat is Garbo!
after Garbo set the example, Nixon didn't really care about getting wet either and actually tipped the bowl over a few times, getting her belly and feet wet. she wouldn't let me dry her. actually, she really hated me chasing her around with a dry wash cloth :/ oh well.

I'm pretty positive that the rats will learn this game very quick and that they'll enjoy diving for treats underwater :)



also, daddy Robert and I are going away for a few days again. ratties will be staying at the comfort of their own home, but we'll have our friend Sarah come by to check on them everyday :) Sarah doesn't have rat experience but I'm not too worried because we went over all the details a few times and she doesn't seem too worried either. I'm sure it'll be fine, especially since the rats get to stay in their own home this time.


well, that's it for now.
if you didn't notice, I'm able to use a comma now. we have a new computer here at the rats' nest. Garbo has shown interest in the cord. not by chewing, but she wouldn't stop sniffing it. it probably smells like cats and dog!

New hobbies.

I'm glad that climbing up and riding on my arms/shoulder has become quite a fond activity to our little ladies :) lately I haven't even had to chase them around - all I have to do is offer them a ride on my hand and they'll gladly accept it.

another thing that they've been enjoying lately is folded toilet paper rolls. I hide treats inside of them and they go crazy over them. it's good exercise for their brains and teeth! I just need to make sure they both have their own because otherwise there's a lot of stealing and fighting.

I have some pictures that I want to post but I haven't even gotten them on the computer yet :/ perhaps this weekend.

now I'm off to see some friends. it's a perfect time for that since the ratties are napping :)