Garbo was being really nice and cute yesterday (until she escaped under the couch and decided that it was fun to play the you-chase-me-away-from-there-and-then-I-go-back-there-and-we-do-it-all-again game. it's becoming her favorite and I'm not a big fan of that game).
she hopped up on my shoulder all by herself and hung out there for a while.
she doesn't do that very often and I think this was only the second time she's ever done that.
she also seemed to enjoy hanging out in my cleavage. she was looking out from there. she looked so cute :D I wish I had gotten a picture of that.
Nixon is still as nice as usual. she really likes the large hoodie I've been wearing cause she can fit inside the sleeves and go on adventures inside of it. she's stretched out two of my cardigans by crawling inside the sleeves. it's her new favorite hobby I guess.
potty training has been successful although I think we need two litter boxes since they always use two corners to poop in. this of course means that they don't always poop/pee in the litter box. I'm actually surprised that not only do they poop in there but they also pee in it. I don't know how often you're supposed to change the litter (cause all me and robert really have to compare is a cat's litter box which we both thought is cleaned once a week) so I did it yesterday when I cleaned the cage and everything in it. when we got home last night I noticed that there weren't any droppings anywhere in the clean bedding - only in the litter box :)
(except now they've gone back to the two corner system that I was talking about before)
speaking of the cage and everything in it...
the rats really love having a lot of stuff in there. the more the better. they like having multiple hiding places and lots of things they can climb on and play with.
but what does that mean to rat mommy? well...it means A LOT of cleaning.
here's the list of things I scrubbed and disinfected yesterday:
+ the bottom of the cage
+ the top of the cage (which I don't clean that often but it had gotten really dirty)
+ food dish
+ litter box
+ tree house
+ igloo
+ upstairs platform
+ ladder
it doesn't really sound like that much but a good amount of time goes into rinsing and scrubbing and disinfecting all of these things. on top of that I usually wash the temporary cage that they were in during the cleaning.
the girls were both on their best behavior when I put them in the temp cage and didn't squirm or try to fight. as a reward they both good a couple of pieces of bread each :)
today they've been super active and crazy. I think they're excited for playtime!
Showing posts with label supplies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label supplies. Show all posts
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Potty training.
potty training has officially started today.
Jamie gave us some of her old rat things which included a litter box and some potty litter. so far it's gone both well and not so well: Garbo peed in the litter box which is good but both Nixon and Garbo seem to think that the potty litter is meant to go in their mouths. I caught both of them munching on the litter and when I tried to take it away from them they'd just run away from me or turn away so I couldn't get to their little hands. hopefully they'll stop doing that and keep doing the pee and poop thing. I've heard that they don't really pee in the litter boxes but apparently Garbo does. good job rattie!
speaking of Garbo - she is nuts.
I may have mentioned before that she is quite the stunt woman.
tonight she really outdid any stunt she's ever pulled before.
Robert had her on his shoulder when he was sitting in front of the tv and Garbo decided to jump all the way from his shoulder to the tv stand. it was quite a flight. I've never seen her jump that far! I'm worried she's going to hurt herself one day doing all these crazy stunts :s
also I got some stuff for Nixon's tail so when she wakes up I'm gonna dab some on it.
hopefully I will have good news about the potty training sometimes soon.
and since this is a rat blog I suppose this would be the appropriate place to mention that we just watched ratatouille on tv (and it was during the movie when Garbo decided to display her talents as a stunt woman)!
Jamie gave us some of her old rat things which included a litter box and some potty litter. so far it's gone both well and not so well: Garbo peed in the litter box which is good but both Nixon and Garbo seem to think that the potty litter is meant to go in their mouths. I caught both of them munching on the litter and when I tried to take it away from them they'd just run away from me or turn away so I couldn't get to their little hands. hopefully they'll stop doing that and keep doing the pee and poop thing. I've heard that they don't really pee in the litter boxes but apparently Garbo does. good job rattie!
speaking of Garbo - she is nuts.
I may have mentioned before that she is quite the stunt woman.
tonight she really outdid any stunt she's ever pulled before.
Robert had her on his shoulder when he was sitting in front of the tv and Garbo decided to jump all the way from his shoulder to the tv stand. it was quite a flight. I've never seen her jump that far! I'm worried she's going to hurt herself one day doing all these crazy stunts :s
also I got some stuff for Nixon's tail so when she wakes up I'm gonna dab some on it.
hopefully I will have good news about the potty training sometimes soon.
and since this is a rat blog I suppose this would be the appropriate place to mention that we just watched ratatouille on tv (and it was during the movie when Garbo decided to display her talents as a stunt woman)!
Friday, November 19, 2010
Loft!
Robert has been asking me when am I actually going to post some pictures.
well tonight would be a perfect time for that since I was just cleaning the cage and I gave the rats a new loft and took a few pictures.
we've had this piece for the cage with a cup hole in it and we use to have it at the bottom of the cage back when the girls would drink out of a cup. since we got a bottle for them that piece hasn't been used and it's been laying around in the closet.
I always thought it was meant to be a loft since the cage also came with a set of stairs but I could never fit it in the cage until today when I decided to cram it in there - and it worked! and the stairs attached perfectly to it.
I made sure to put something cozy up there too so I took a piece of an old t-shirt (I used the same t-shirt to make a hammock for them but that hammock is long gone)and Garbo started arranging it around immediately.
I noticed Nixon has a tiny sore on her tail :/ I read that if it's just a small surface wound like that and it's not bleeding it should heal up but you need to clean it every now and then. it doesn't look bad but it's a little red like it may have bled when she first got it. I also read that you aren't supposed to use hydrogen peroxide to clean rat wounds since it burns off the tissue or something like that :/ unfortunately that's all I have right now and I don't know which would be worse - not cleaning the wound or using the 3% hydrogen peroxide. maybe I should just wait till tomorrow and go pick up something more suitable. I need to go supply shopping this weekend anyways so it would be appropriate.
oh and I just realized that these texts look really confusing and annoying - it's cause my keyboard hasn't worked normally for months :/ some of the keys on the right side (such as the comma) are completely dead. bear with me!
the loft and Garbo trying out the new loft. Nixon was up there for a little bit too and actually used the toy in the middle of the cup hole to climb up there! I've never seen her do that before. Nixon decided that the best place to go pass out at the moment was behind their little kleenex box while Garbo decided to stay up stairs.
pictures from yesterday. Nixon was being cute.
the first picture is from today and that's Nixon in my lap :) bad quality though cause I reeeeaaally don't want to blind my rats by using the horrible flash on my camera. it leaves people blind for a little bit - so I really don't want to find out how my rats would react to it!
well tonight would be a perfect time for that since I was just cleaning the cage and I gave the rats a new loft and took a few pictures.
we've had this piece for the cage with a cup hole in it and we use to have it at the bottom of the cage back when the girls would drink out of a cup. since we got a bottle for them that piece hasn't been used and it's been laying around in the closet.
I always thought it was meant to be a loft since the cage also came with a set of stairs but I could never fit it in the cage until today when I decided to cram it in there - and it worked! and the stairs attached perfectly to it.
I made sure to put something cozy up there too so I took a piece of an old t-shirt (I used the same t-shirt to make a hammock for them but that hammock is long gone)and Garbo started arranging it around immediately.
I noticed Nixon has a tiny sore on her tail :/ I read that if it's just a small surface wound like that and it's not bleeding it should heal up but you need to clean it every now and then. it doesn't look bad but it's a little red like it may have bled when she first got it. I also read that you aren't supposed to use hydrogen peroxide to clean rat wounds since it burns off the tissue or something like that :/ unfortunately that's all I have right now and I don't know which would be worse - not cleaning the wound or using the 3% hydrogen peroxide. maybe I should just wait till tomorrow and go pick up something more suitable. I need to go supply shopping this weekend anyways so it would be appropriate.
oh and I just realized that these texts look really confusing and annoying - it's cause my keyboard hasn't worked normally for months :/ some of the keys on the right side (such as the comma) are completely dead. bear with me!
the loft and Garbo trying out the new loft. Nixon was up there for a little bit too and actually used the toy in the middle of the cup hole to climb up there! I've never seen her do that before. Nixon decided that the best place to go pass out at the moment was behind their little kleenex box while Garbo decided to stay up stairs.
pictures from yesterday. Nixon was being cute.
the first picture is from today and that's Nixon in my lap :) bad quality though cause I reeeeaaally don't want to blind my rats by using the horrible flash on my camera. it leaves people blind for a little bit - so I really don't want to find out how my rats would react to it!
Crazy rats!
this morning the girls were so full of energy!
it was almost impossible to keep up with the two.
I could tell they wanted to come out of the cage so I thought I'd let them out for a little bit. well....trying to get them back was nearly impossible.
they were running around all over the living room (but they were being nice too: they didn't go anywhere far and came back when I called on them)and when I tried to grab them they both started climbing up and down my arms and running back and forth from and to my lap. it was like a big sniffing attack from two ratties.
eventually Nixon went back to drink some water and while she was there I managed to put Garbo back there.
after I had showered I went back to see what they were up to and they were both standing by the door probably hoping to play some more but when I opened the door Nixon crawled back inside their little playhouse and Garbo picked up a pellet and started eating.
speaking of playing - I've mentioned before that Nixon likes to play with me but Garbo doesn't usually do that. well yesterday she did! she doesn't play with me outside the cage like Nixon does but inside the cage she will. I stuck the old piece of shoelace in there yesterday and she was chasing it around :) this is good since I always worry about them being under stimulated.
today is cage cleaning day and I think there's enough bedding in the bag for today's cleaning session. I really hate this bedding we're using right now. it starts stinking pretty bad and some spots need to be scooped out daily because of that. plus it makes me sneeze when I put it in the cage. the rats are fine - but it makes mommy sneeze :( carefresh is the best one we've used so I'm going to stock up on that. I'm also hoping to buy something I can use as a litter box for them so I can start potty training the girls. another thing that we're running low on is food so we need to stock up on another bag of lab blocks.
that's it for today. I really need to start capturing their crazy moments like earlier today. they are just too funny and precious :)
it was almost impossible to keep up with the two.
I could tell they wanted to come out of the cage so I thought I'd let them out for a little bit. well....trying to get them back was nearly impossible.
they were running around all over the living room (but they were being nice too: they didn't go anywhere far and came back when I called on them)and when I tried to grab them they both started climbing up and down my arms and running back and forth from and to my lap. it was like a big sniffing attack from two ratties.
eventually Nixon went back to drink some water and while she was there I managed to put Garbo back there.
after I had showered I went back to see what they were up to and they were both standing by the door probably hoping to play some more but when I opened the door Nixon crawled back inside their little playhouse and Garbo picked up a pellet and started eating.
speaking of playing - I've mentioned before that Nixon likes to play with me but Garbo doesn't usually do that. well yesterday she did! she doesn't play with me outside the cage like Nixon does but inside the cage she will. I stuck the old piece of shoelace in there yesterday and she was chasing it around :) this is good since I always worry about them being under stimulated.
today is cage cleaning day and I think there's enough bedding in the bag for today's cleaning session. I really hate this bedding we're using right now. it starts stinking pretty bad and some spots need to be scooped out daily because of that. plus it makes me sneeze when I put it in the cage. the rats are fine - but it makes mommy sneeze :( carefresh is the best one we've used so I'm going to stock up on that. I'm also hoping to buy something I can use as a litter box for them so I can start potty training the girls. another thing that we're running low on is food so we need to stock up on another bag of lab blocks.
that's it for today. I really need to start capturing their crazy moments like earlier today. they are just too funny and precious :)
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