Sorry...

Please excuse the poor image quality. The iPhone is so easy to just grab and shoot pics with. better than nothing!

Day 5

Up Down Up Down

oh i have a funny story
last night
cupid was playing with a piece of rope from their hanging toy. she would carry it up to the 3rd or 2nd level of the cage, drop it all the way to the bottom, go back down, carry it back up, drop it, go back down….

you get the idea XD she did this quite a few times. such a silly girl. lucky was just laying around, probably watching cupid, thinking about how silly she was acting.

i think i need to find some new things for them to play with and explore. she may be a bit bored

Day 4

We only counted 12 today for some reason. Ah well...12 is still oodles of babies

How the Ratty Family is Doing...

Now...I have heard a lot about the parents being mean when it comes to having babies around. Not so with mine. I still handle Lucky and Cupid as easily as ever and can remove the bed of babies without them even batting an eyelash. I have also handled the babies and have not had any problems with mommy and daddy rejecting them afterward.

I have also heard about removing males for some reason but Lucky is a GREAT father. He and Cupid will take turns keeping the babies warm and cleaning them or they will sit, snuggled up next to each other by the little bed the babies are in. It's all extremely adorable.

I also found an extra amazing snack for my rats. Mealworms. Lucky and Cupid will battle it out for one of these. It's only a snack though so one every day or so depending o their size. They smell and are "juicy" messy and too many would probably be excessive protein and fat. I get the live ones. I dont know if i trust died or canned mealworms.

So all in all, all 15 rats are doing quite well. The babies started showing darker patches for marking at day 2 and had hair from day 1. I think I can tell how many will have red eyes and how many black because some of the babies have "black eyes" (even though they are closed you can kinda tell cuz the area is dark) and some dont have them dark. I dont know yet because they are still closed but we'll see.

Day 3

Day 2

Day 1 Pic

I have counted them...

They had 13 babies :) all pink and fuzzy

He's a Good Daddy

Well...it's a bad picture but here is Lucky with his babies. Cupid and Lucky make a good team! The babies are born with hair ♥ so fuzzy and cute...and yet weird looking all at once hehe

Exciting Day

Today March 19, 2010

Sometime before 10:30 am (when i woke up)

Cupid had her babies! I haven't pulled em out yet to check on em but I momentarily counted about 10-11 babies.

Stay tuned for updates and pics!

Silly Girl

hehehe ok this is funny and mean...mean cuz I laughed at her

We have one of these for the rats

Cupid is going nest crazy in there. She tried to go through the round window and got stuck haha her little back legs kicking and scratching at the wood till she finally squeeze through.

110% positive...

Pregnant Cupid

Ok NOW i am POSITIVE Cupid is pregnant! She's very big now and I'm thinking she may "pop" soon :) i've seen pics of other soft furred rats that look as big (or even smaller) as she is and they are 2-3 days away from giving birth. i hope she doesnt give birth in a stupid place like on the top level or the pancake hammock thing they have.

We MAY have a preggo ratty?

Well

I'm not 100% sure but I THINK cupid may be pregnant. Shes been looking a little fatter and wider than usual. She also seems to be in a sort of nesting frenzy. Constantly digging out spaces at he bottom of the cage and running around like mad with bits of cotton and other bedding in her mouth.

I will keep an eye on her body shape and weight. And I'll try to get a picture of her...if I can get her to sit still for two seconds haha.

Love is in the air?

I read somewhere that natal rat males need to actually actively chase the female for better breeding success.

Well....last night those little guys were ALL OVER the place! Jumping around, squeaking, running...I'm assuming this was the er "love dance". Never have I seen them so CRAZY.

And I hope its love! But hey, we wont know till Cupid starts to look like a fat pear.

The pet shop I got my natals from had new litters (pinkies are so cute! and have hair on them from the start) and they also had some natals for $1! I was tempted but later found out those particular ones were SUPER nippy. The shop owners were glad to see how sweet my two were and that they looked happy in a good home.

More Out Time

Everyday, at least once a day, I pull the little rats out and have them crawl all over me and the bed for as long as I think they are happy with it. I put them back in their cage once they start being quick on your hands and become more of a task to handle.

I used to only take them out one at a time because Cupid was a bit crazy but she's calmed down lots and is more manageable. Lucky is now EXTRA easy to handle so if he wanders a bit too far I usually don't worry about him and he usually comes back anyway.

I have 2 shirts on and put them under the top one. They were both in my sleeves and on my shoulders, grooming each other and being generally warm and toasty.

When I tried to get Cupid out so I can put them away, she didn't want to come peacefully! She wanted to continue burrowing into my sleeves and though the layers of fabric. I had to trap her in my sleeve and then basically push her out that way hehe :P

They are also getting MUCH better when it comes to their potty control. I've has tons of out time where I didn't have to clean up a thing! Only when something REALLY freaks em out like someone suddenly opening the door, do they ever leave anything for me to clean up.

Soft furred rats can make super fantastic pets! :)

NOOOO WAY!

I saw a video of a rat swimming in a VERY shallow bath tub and though to myself, HMMM I wonder if my rats would like to swim?

So I put not even an inch of warm water into the bath tub and brought the little fuzzies into the bathroom. I put them into the tub and they began to jump almost clear out the tub! Lucky was just plain NOT HAPPY with the whole thing. Cupid was a bit more tolerant but I could tell she didn't like it much to want to stay.

So these rats don't seem like they enjoy water unless its in a bottle for them to drink. I wont try to get these 2 to swim anymore but I may try with any offspring they have since like I said...Cupid wasn't TOO freaked out.

After the adventure they had squeaky clean feet and bellies ;)

New Bedding

I know...I haven't updated in a while...i'll make up for that :)

A few days ago, I got a different bedding for the rats. I wanted to try something new because they waste tons of food by burring it and I keep giving them food to waste thinking they ate it or something.

I got this Kaytee minty bedding. I was afraid at first that it may irritate their respiratory system but right away they seemed perfectly fine about. They didn't sneeze like when I added new clean carefresh bedding. Also the smell is not very strong at all. It's a light minty smell. It's got random twigs in it (i guess from the mint) and they LOVED to find these and gnaw on them.

Its like soft pebbles in all different sizes and some are green so its PRETTY and the ratties like to move it all around and chew on it.

I'll update again on the bedding after I clean out the cage as far as if its dusty or not. I've been noticing the deeper I get into the bag of carefresh, the dustier the cage is when I go and clean it out.

Size...it DOES matter :P

I took a few pics of my fuzz butts to show their difference in size to each other and their size so far in my hand.

So here is Lucky and Cupid in my hand to show their relative size. They grow so fast haha

Here is a shot to show how much Cupid has grown since December. The first image is now. The second image is what she used to look like compared to Lucky.

Birthdays

I don't know Lucky and Cupid's actual birthday but I can make some general birthday assumptions...if we got Lucky in November, then he was born in October and if we got Cupid in December, she must have been born in November.

They were weaned so maybe about 4 weeks old each rattie.

That means Lucky is about 4-5 months old now and Cupid is about 2-3 months old.

Lucky can be born on Halloween (hehe my FAVE holiday) and Cupid can be born on Thanksgiving (yummy) ♥

Fighting for the Fortune

I thought this was pretty funny :P
I opened the door to the rats cage and of course they both come running to see what I'm doing. I grab a fortune cookie and open it, taking out the actual paper fortune. Lucky grabs it, runs away with it, and Cupid tries to fight him for the fortune. They both went at it for some silly reason haha. maybe because it smelled like food. Was still pretty amusing :P

Just general updates...

Both the rats are healthy and happy, active and bright eyed. Cupid is almost on the same level of tame and calm as Lucky is. At night they are both pretty feisty and are hard to catch to take out of the cage so I try to spend the most cuddle time earlier in the day when they are still sleepy. Fingers and hands placed in the cage get a good going over by the rats...just in case there is food attached somewhere...

Over all VERY good little pets ♥ very calm when it come to noises and other animals. My dogs will go up to the cage and sniff at them and the rats will go and try to sniff em back and I showed the rats to my mom...she screamed bloody murder and they didn't even flinch. I guess after getting used to laser fire, explosions and zombie sounds, nothing can phase these little guys...except maybe the crinkle of paper. For some reason crinkling paper bags, plastic bags, or chip bags really freak these little guys out.

I dont think Cupid is old enough to have babies yet. She is still smallish but I'm in no rush. I'm enjoying my little fuzz balls like you wouldn't believe! But there will be babies...this is a pair of rodents after all...so stay tuned if that's what you are waiting for :P

What I got for the Ratties

So they can travel in style and comfort haha. The rats stay and my boyfriend's house because my mother HATES them but when she goes out and wants us to watch the house, she lets me bring Cupid and Lucky with since she won't be around to see them. I figured this would be a good buy so they can come travel without any injuries or trauma. Then when we get to where we are going they can go back into the big cage. This isnt anything for them to actually STAY in...just something for them to ride in the car safely and comfortably.

I also picked up one of these hanging tunnels and an extra little bed. I had to clean the other one and I didn't want to leave them bed less haha XD They like the tunnel and of course LOVE the little bed. They appreciate every little thing you put in their cage even if its ripped up paper ♥

Training Natals

I am inspired by MouseAgility
Videos of mice and natal rats doing tricks such as fetch and twist. VERY cute! Lucky will be my little pupil since he's much more calm than Cupid right now. How I miss my fuzz butts ♥

Official Mouse Agility Site

Videos of Lucky and Cupid

Pretty short and poor quality (taken on iphone) but it's something :)

OH!

Don't think I ever mentioned...we put smaller wire mesh around the whole rat cage maybe a week ago. Worked out REALLY well. There are a few spots that may still need to be covered for babies but we aren't too worried right now. That was a pain on our fingers! OUCH! No escape attempts because escapes can no longer be made and we did a good job with pointing the wires out and smoothing them so no cut rattie feet. Happy we did it finally....but not looking forward o finishing off the other little bits here and there.

Whatever it takes to have safe caged rats.

Plans...plots...

Thinking about adding a wheel to the rat cage. I think they would enjoy it. I have to be careful though. I've read about tails getting stuck in spokes so I cant just grab any wheel. I also want to string up some bird toys, minus the bells...all I need is to hear bells at 4 am haha

I also need to figure out a good fortune cookie recipe to bake sheets of training treats. They fight over the bits and pieces I hand them and they come running when they think they will get some.

Hamster ball fun?

All snuggled up!

Well...after much mess I think they've got the hamster ball down. At least Lucky does but he's bigger so he's in charge of where it goes.

Because they were afraid of the newness of this ball, they of course did poo and pee while in there. I had to clean the ball up multiple times and pick up what fell out the ball. I also had to wipe the little rats down with a wet towel. They did NOT like that at ALL. I'm guessing they don't like water.

I put them in the ball today while I cleaned out their cage and no huge mess! Lucky and Cupid are getting used to the ball rather quickly. Hopefully they get to the point where I wont have to follow them around with a napkin and a towel haha!

Updated Pic of Lucky and Cupid

Most recent picture I took of Cupid and Lucky. Cupid got BIG! Compare to how small she was next to Lucky in this picture. She is much more easy to handle now. She wants to climb up onto you and explore.

I put them in the bigger rat cage last night and kept an eye on them. Cupid almost escaped again! There is a certain spot where the bars are a bit more open. Good thing I was watching. So until we mesh up the cage they need to stay in the smaller container. To keep them from getting super bored, I got them a big hamster ball they can both play in. Now they can be "loose", explore and exercise without me worrying about escapes.

All in all they are doing well. Curious and cuddly.

Before you assume these rats are hellions....

Many people say they are very aggressive. Consider what age they may have been purchased or what they are being kept for. These rats are bred mainly for snake food. No one plays with them. If you buy an older rat, the aggression will most likely still be set in its little head, making it harder to work with. It isnt used to being petted or picked up.

It's best to buy a few of them when they are still fairly young (but able to eat solids) They will be jumpy as all hell (people have called this area of time the "popcorn stage") but they will be less likely to bite you meaning you will be more likely to work with them. And please buy more than one. They are infinitely more calm when you have at least two.

An other perk of buying them young is you can have them for more time. I've read the average lifespan runs at about 3 years. I want to have mine around me for as long as I can.

In my opinion these make great pets. Small, easy to care for, not smelly, super cute...You just need to put time into them but then again...don't ALL pets require some kind of work and time? ☺

To mesh or not to mesh...

Thinking about wrapping the big rat cage in a mesh that has smaller holes to keep the future baby rats from escaping. I could just move them all into the smaller cage as they get to a certain size but that could just get annoying if these things have babies like I've read. Just not sure how I'd set it up or how much it would even cost.

I guess I'll figure that all out next time I see the cage.

Until I can update you on MY rats status, here's a natal rat doing some tricks for you!

Message Board and Video

I don't plan on posting to this as it seems like it moves VERY slow BUT I read a lot of the posts and it's given me some good ideas and information.


Video of some soft furred rats and their babies. Very encouraging because even with babies they are not nippy. I've read they can be VERY protective of babies but I'm hoping with work they will continue to be good calm little ratties.



Earthling has some cool stuff :)

Cupid's attitude

Cupid wants to sniff the iPhone

Cupid has been growing and has been calming down, becoming a better pet. I'm thinking the younger and smaller they are, the more jumpy they are because of their deep instinct to run away and save themselves.

She will now climb up onto your hands and sit there for a bit instead of immediately jumping back down. Knowing this, whenever I get babies, I will not try to pick them up until they are a certain age (will get back to you on that specific age) I will still try to pet them and have my hand in their cage as often as possible to make actual handling much easier.

So far, all is well with my little fuzzies. I brought them down to my house for a while and I had to use a water bowl instead of a water bottle. They seem to have figured out that if they throw the "healthy" lab blocks into the water, they get taken away and tossed. They don't throw any snacks into the water....

Can't wait till Cupid's head gets bigger so she can safely go in the big rat cage. They seem to REALLY like all the space, ladders, landings, and toys. Lucky seems lonely, by himself in the big cage without his little girl friend. At least right now they are together, happily sleeping all snuggled up.

They just love to eat....

I like to give my rats little nibbles of certain things that I am eating at the time.

So far Lucky LOVES the soft bread on the gorditas from Taco Bell and both Cupid and Lucky ADORE fortune cookies. They will just rip these foods from your hands and then come back looking for more. They don't get this often and they dont get very much of it. It's a special treat here and there for them to happily nibble on. And anyway...the more they associate your hand with yummy snacks, the easier it is to tame them ☺

Lost and Found

The other day (I want to say yesterday...Tuesday?) Cupid was no where to be found...she escaped! I was going to just flop over and quit right away...she's a little rat in this HUGE house with 3 dogs running around...I thought it was over before I even started....but my boyfriend said we needed to find her. So I sat down and thought, if I was a little ratty, where would I be?

The closet?...

I went into the closet and started moving some stuff around and what do you know? She was there! In a shoe! She popped her little head out and when I went to grab her she jumped and ran. We eventually caught her after we cleared the whole closet. Good thing there were no holes she could escape the closet through.

She is now in the critter carrier till her head gets bigger and then she can go in the big rat's cage.

Sexing

Female vs Male
Pretty simple?

Newest addition to the ratty home

On the tippy top floor of Cupid and Lucky's house, I placed one of these little snugly soft looking pet beds. The one I picked is brown with blue spots. I picked the rats up and put them inside the bed. Lucky stayed and has been up there for hours, Cupid jumped out and ran back down to the bottom but has since then made her way up to snuggle with Lucky.

Makes it easier to give them little bits of fortune cookie (which they LOVE) when they sit at the top close to the door.

My opinion on food bowls...

Food bowls are NOT worth putting into the cage with your soft furred rat. They drag even the largest pieces of food around and bury them where they please. I can't imagine what kind of mess they would make with small pellet food (I give them BIG lab blocks as a main part of their diet)

Everything from the lab blocks to the pieces of dried fruit and cracker snacks get scattered around the cage. Out of the maybe 10 lab blocks I put into the bowl only about half will stay where I put them and any treats I've tried to place in the bowl immediately get hidden elsewhere. I dont know why they do this but they just do. It's pretty amusing to watch them go about burying the treats and ferrying them around until they find the perfect spot.

So, bowls can just be a waste of space in opinion when it comes to these guys. Best to just not even bother and use the extra couple bucks on some extra tasty snacks!

Cages for soft furred rats

We went out today and got a real home for our little ratties. Its the same exact cage as you see above. Rat Habitat by Super Pet: Habitat Defined.

When you first see soft furred rats, you will probably not think RAT and might start to think that one of those hamster cages with all those tubes and tunnels would be oh so cute! These guys get bigger than you may think and while the bar spacing on cages for hamsters is great, these rats could possibly get stuck in the tubes or those little wheels that are closed up but have the holes in them. I wouldn't trust them. The last thing I want is for my little rats to get stuck/hurt.

With ALL PETS keep the full grown adult size in mind. Plan for an adult animal, not the little baby animal you are bringing home.

Very Interesting

This site shows the different colors rats can come in and what they are all called. Not specifically about soft furred rats but still interesting! Not even sure if these would apply to natals. I've only really seen them look a certain way (white face and a colored back with occasional spots)

Found a place with some color info for the natals

The good, the bad and the ugly

Ok so it's only good and bad foods/snacks for your rats that I have looked up online:
The Good

• fruit (avoid seeds): apples, cherries, grapes, banana, strawberries, other berries, melons, plums.
• vegetables: broccoli, potatoes, peas, carrot, cooked sweet potato, kale, parsley, bok choy, squash.
• cooked liver, other very lean meats (poultry) (cooked)
• whole wheat pasta and bread
• cooked beans (including soya)
• yogurt (especially with live cultures)
• brown rice
• unsweetened breakfast cereals
• mealworms
• small dog biscuits(mine LOVE these)
  
• some leftovers from your meals are okay in moderation, but avoid fatty or sugary scraps and items off the list below.
• special treats (given only occasionally): whole nuts in the shell (almonds, Brazil nuts, walnuts), sunflower seeds (high in fat), carob chips (this is a "fake" chocolate that you can also give to dog)
  

The Bad

• chocolate
• raw beans
• raw sweet potato
• cabbage, brussel sprouts
• green potatoes
• sweet sugary treats, any other "junk food"
• caffeinated beverages
• carbonated drinks
• peanut butter (in its straight form it can get stuck in your rats throat or mouth and suffocate it)
• Oranges/citrus (apparently can give male rats cancer)
  
• Dried corn (be careful! can sometimes have a fungus that can cause cancer)

I will keep adding to this as I find more info! Good list for me to have!

Corn Problem...Fixed

During my research I read that dried corn can contain a fungus which can cause cancer in rats when fed excessively. Not wanting to risk my little fuzz butts getting sick, I stopped feeding any snack that had whole or crushed pieces of corn in it.

Sadly, every treat stick in the aisle for small animals had corn in it! I thought this would be the end of the treats my little fuzzies love the most.

Then I decided to look at the treat sticks for birds. There were some that had no corn pieces in them. They looked to be made out of the same exact seeds, fruits, everything. So I decided to grab one to see if my Lucky and Cupid would like it. The bird sticks are usually much bigger so I cut a piece off and put it in their cage. Right away they began to nibble at it. Looks like it got 4 tiny thumbs up! Now they can get their treat sticks without all the big pieces of whole dried corn.

The kind of bird stick I got was Lafeber's Nutri-Meals. Has 31% dried fruit and veggies and 36% pellets: cranberries, raisins, sweet potatoes, and walnuts, millet seeds (2 kinds), and oats. Sounds like good ratty food to me.

Also for treats, I grabbed some dried papaya. They loved that too! Started nibbling right away. Not picky at all.