I'm an accidental rat mommy!

[Nela]

Paul wouldn't need to give his okay if this were an 'accident' Ya goof! They are adorable though

 

[SnowyShiloh]

The babies are such good girls- neither peed or pooped on me at all last night or the night before when I was holding them! Let's hope they choose to keep up the trend. It would be great too if they take to the litter box well...

Braelynn, I felt guilty about getting them without Paul's permission. I don't have a cell phone, otherwise I would have called him there in the store. Also if Lalita had run back over to the other rats, I never would have known which one she was! Thankfully, Paul isn't mad about the new additions and said it didn't seem like something worth getting upset about. He pet both little rats last night as I held them and helped me take photos of them.

The Ferret Nation cage is on sale for $170 today with free shipping to Alaska on Amazon.com. I would have to modify it so the babies couldn't escape, but depending on how big they get, I could remove the modifications when they grow up. I've always wanted that cage and it looks so easy to clean! The cage is this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000F4OX0E/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

They make a Critter Nation that has much smaller bar spacing, but it's $140 more expensive!

I find it amusing that 4 days ago, we weren't going to get the mama rat because Paul didn't think we had space for another cage, but we've now figured out how we can move cages around so that our two tiny rats have a cage that would fit about 10 rats.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Woohoo I just ordered the Ferret Nation! The plan is to put the rats in the bottom half, and Phoebe Mae in the top half! Each half is 36 inches wide and 25 inches deep, then however many inches tall. It actually has about 1/4 more floor space than a 2 grid by 2 grid NIC cage, plus I'm planning to add another nearly full floor to her half. It should be marvelous! And of course the 2 ratty girls will have plennnnty of space in their half. They're going to look so ridiculously tiny in that enormous cage.

Aside from being really big and cool and versatile, one of the main reasons I want the Ferret Nation is it will be soooo much easier to clean than my old rats' cage. That cage was hideous to clean, absolutely hideous. The idea of just opening the double doors on the cage is divine.

 

[undergunfire]

Shiloh....I really would not put a rabbit in a FN. It just isn't made for bunnies. Whenever people say that they are going to do it...I always have to chime in. Having had the FN, I just don't think it is enough space. I also think it is dangerous because of the bar spacing. I can see a rabbit getting its foot caught in the bars & between the pan/bar walls & bars beneath the base pan.

I am happy that you got it for your little girls....they will LOVE it!

 

[fuzz16]

it is really hard...ended up with 6 at one time, few had to be put down once tumors and cancer got to bad or URI wasnt gettin better and killin them slowly

it was super hard...took home a couple buns and other little ones that came in sick and nursed them back up.they were my babies. sadly couldnt keep them though, had enough pets as was

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Amy, thanks for letting me know your concerns! I'll wait until I see it in person to decide. If I decide to put Phoebe Mae in it, I'll figure out a way to modify it so it will be safe for her. If I do use it for her, I'm planning on putting a full sized second floor in it with a little ledge she can use to hop up and down from it. Ned lives in a similar cage- I modified my old rats' cage for him. He seems to like it quite well.

For the bar spacing, did you mean it may be more dangerous because the bars go vertically instead of horizontally? The bar spacing on Ned's cage is 1 inch and the bars go horizontally. I've never worried about him getting a foot stuck. The squares on NIC panels are even bigger than 1 inch and Rory hasn't had any issues.

The cage won't be big enough for Phoebs to race around in, but she'd need to have her own bedroom for that. She gets time out of her cage every day and expends her energy running around the living room and kitchen


And Brenda, sorry to hear about your ratties. It's always hard when pets die.

 

[SunnyCait]

Yay a FN!!!

I have one, but I hate it. I'm getting pan made for it. Then maybe I will love it like everyone else does haha!

I like the names you decided on! Very pretty!

..... I vote for more pictures? LOL

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Cait, the girls are so sweet, you would love them. I can tell they've grown already and their fur is changing. We had them out on the futon for an hour tonight and they're way less nervous than they were before. Annabell didn't shiver at all tonight and cuddled with me for a long time. She even fell asleep in my hand! Lalita spent a lot of time in Paul's shirt sleeve

 

[SunnyCait]

Aww! As young as they are it shouldn't take too long for them to become fully acclimated. And they'll probably be really friendly and lovey when they are bigger.

 

[Yurusumaji]

Very cute babies. I hope to have rats again someday.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Cait, I think they will be sweet girls when they're adults too. I can't believe how caught up I've become with them in less than a week, but I'm happy. I love having my wonderful bunnies and ratties too. I just wish it was safe to have rats out of their cage at the same time as a bunny. So far the rats have stayed on the futon, but the buns like to come up on the futon to visit is too and I wouldn't want the bunnies to bite the rats. When the rat girls are older I may worry more about them biting the bunnies, but I don't think they're much of a risk yet.

Yesterday Paul and I went and visited a girl from the rat forum who lives here in Fairbanks. Paul lived in the same dorm as her freshman year of college (4-5 years ago) so they're acquaintances. She's very nice and has I think 18 or so rats- only 6 are hers, the rest are all rescues that she's trying to rehome. I didn't know about her before I bought my babies. She has rescues from towns 8 and 9 hours away. Anyway, she introduced us to all the rats. It was so much fun, there were rats crawling all over us and they were all really nice and friendly. She also gave me some old Ferret Nation cage liners she made, and sold me some rat food as well as a pretty nice cage that 3 of her rescues came in. I'm going to use it as a backup cage, it was only $10. She showed me how to sew hanging cubes too.

Today was a big spending day. We bought 48 shower curtain hooks to hang hammocks from, 4 rolls of hardware cloth to make our Ferret Nation safe for our baby rats (so they can't escape), a big covered bucket to keep dirty rat bedding in, a litter box for them, and enough fabric to outfit the Ferret Nation with cage liners and hammocks 6 times. I bought only the least expensive prints from WalMart (and of course fleece which is at least twice as expensive), but still managed to get some pretty cute fabrics.

Oh and we may be adopting one more rat, either from the girl with the rat rescue (who prefers to adopt them out in sets of 3- we don't want 5 rats at this point though), or if that's a no go, it turns out there's a shelter about 20 minutes from here with a sole female rat.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Cait, here are some more pictures for you. Annabell still has her purple tail marking so it's easy to tell them apart, and she's still smaller and her fur is still thinner, but it can be hard to tell their faces apart in photos. But! I noticed that Annabell has a little brown mark on her left ear, so if I can see the ear I can tell who the photo is of! I hope the spot stays.

The girls in their pouch (it's in the cage now):

Lalita:

Lalita in the handmade awesome octopus play thing (I'll post more photos of it later):

Annabell:

A handful of adorable. Annabell is the one on top:

 

[Nela]

So you finally got an Annabelle? ^_^

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Ooh my Ferret Nation arrived today! I hope to get it all set up tomorrow after class inkbouce: Let's hope none of the parts are broken.

 

[JadeIcing]

Can't wait to see.

 

[TinysMom]

I've never ever liked rats or desired them...but seeing your rats and Amy's rats and other rats that folks have...I've got to say that it is something I *might* consider at some point in time...

But it will probably have to be after Art passes away (I don't think he'd allow me to have a rat..) - and I've already told him that after he's gone I'm getting a pet skunk...which is no reflection on what living with him is like.

Anyway - if I ever do get a rat - I'm blaming it on you & Amy and all the other rattie parents on this forum who share pictures....

 

[SunnyCait]

Awww they are adorable!!! You can tell they are a lot more comfortable with everything.

I want to see pics of the cage and how you decorated it. People get really creative with those things!

Was the person you met Pink/Iris? She's on the rat forum I go on too.

 

[irishbunny]

I'm in love! They are adorable!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

My babies sure are cute! Cait, yes the person is Iris. She's awesome. I've actually vaguely known who she is for years, Paul lived in the same dorm as her freshman year. Her brother is friends with some of our friends. Iris came over yesterday too to meet the girls and the bunnies. Lalita unfortunately leaped from her hands and fell like 4 feet to the floor :shock: It took about 5 minutes to catch her, but we got her back! I think she's okay after her fall but I worry anyway. It was interesting because you could tell the girls are more comfortable with me than other people, even though they're still skittish, they've not tried to get away from me like that. She said the girls are less than 5 weeks old even now, so younger than I thought. Poor babies. Also, sweet Annabell is getting a URI Iris has a great rat vet and she called her and said to give her Doxy until we can get her to the vet next week. Thankfully the URI is very mild so far. Iris has lots of rat experience and said she thinks Annabell will be fine, and that both my girls will be very nice when they grow up She thought they were super cute (of course) and liked Annabell in particular because she's cuddly yet very adventurous. I'm glad Iris lives around here! Aside from being good with rats, she's very nice and fun. She loved the bunnies and Nedders happily sat on her lap getting pets for like half an hour.

Unfortunately, we don't have the cage up yet. I'm going to try to do it today though! I still need wire clippers or to find my Dremel to cut the hardware cloth. We've been having even more issues with wedding stuff- I never would have thought things would be so complicated! No matter what we end up doing for the wedding (meaning where it is and how big it is), someone is going to be upset. Ugh. Just wish we could magically go one year into the future and be married already.

 

[NZminilops]

Oh my gosh! GORGEOUS! They look so plump and happy too compared to when my rats were babies.

So adorable, I hope you keep posting more pictures