My "kids"

[Ryefish]

I am referred to as The Crazy Rat Lady by my close friends and family lol.
I currently have four rats of various breeds People think they are gross, but they really aren't. They are supposed to be intelligent creatures - but that is questionable as I sit here watching Patrick trying to scale a cardboard box

I have had five rats over the past four to five years. It all began with a guy named Harvey. He was, what we call in the rat world, my heart-rat and i was smitten! I suppose I should show a picture
Harvey

Next in line is Sidian (a.k.a Sid) he is coming up to his 3rd birthday in 3 months and is very frail. He is a Russian Blue Rex with Dumbo Ears

Then I have my Irish Colony.
My neutered male Patrick - he is a Black Irish (mismarked). He is 1 year and rougly 3 months old.

Muirenn born on 21st July 2009. She is a Russian Blue Point Siamese with pink eyes her 'point' on her nose is darkening and spreading up over her eyes lol.

and finally Clodagh (my little mouse girl) born on 29th July 2009. She is a Russian Blue Agouti Rex.

And then my Feathered Kid - 3 year old Indian Ringneck Parakeet named Spit. He is my boyfriends really, but I take more care of him

And a funny one - this is how Mu-mu (Muirenn) sleeps, its pure comedy. I nearly died in hysterics the first time I saw her. Patrick is laid up front and not impressed with my camera flash in the slightest

 

[emma12321]

aww they are gorgous love rats i've had 7 now but don't have any at the minute

 

[chesterscot]

they are well cute
rats and fish and birds now your my kinda lady
regards scot

 

[aly_starh]

WOW!!! I nominate picture 1 & 4 for POTM!!!

 

[Ryefish]

Haha thanks guys.
My mum is on the verge of having a nervous breakdown about how many cages/animals I have in the house which is why I have to put cycling my fish tank on hold (just soaking up information at the minute and buying the things I need as I go along). I had my own place for two years so it wasn't a problem, but had to move back into the parents house after some unfortunate events

My mum will FREAK, but I have a list of animals that I would like to atleast own some day hahaa - God help me when I have my own place again!! I think after fish, my next pets will be Libyan Jirds. I will probably keep rats and fish my whole life.
It felt wierd living in a house without fish

 

[aly_starh]

Those rats look adorable!

No offence but do you think they 'smell', i would love to have a rat, but family members think otherwise.

 

[Ryefish]

haha sometimes they really do pong! I use wood or paper based cat litter in the litter trays instead of sawdust which really helps with the smell. I think it depends how much you clean them out. Im having a hard time at the minute because all my boys have been litter trained and only go in certain corners and pee before they come outside for play time, but now i have the girls they are impossible and make my life hell! lol. They have a lot more work that needs doing to them.

The breeder i got the girls from had 40 baby rats at the time to get rid of >.< and had another 30 of her own and her house smelt 'fruitful'....

 

[aly_starh]

Thanks for letting me know!

 

[silverrabbit]

The rex ones are absolutely beautiful

 

[Ryefish]

I lost Sid back on the 27th January He died of old age and i was with him until the last minute. I miss my old man.
My boyfriend also moved out of my mums on the 5th of February into his own place and took the parrot. So i 'lost' two of my pets in a short time which is still taking some adjusting to.

I got my Student Loans (FINALLY!) and they were back-paid to September so my 'biggest' spend (i bought a laptop last time lol) was a new rat cage for my three rats

Its an "Explorer" cage, and its flippin massive! Heres a pic just after i built it, it was a bit overwhelming! It hardly fits in the spare room

with some rats and fully decorated - it has space for a shelf underneath which im going to build in the summer and get some nice storage boxes to hide the junk

Top:

Bottom:

And Muirenn looking comfortable in the Savic Circus

The batteries died in my camera so i haven't had any nice pics since last week. I will have to upload some more soon

 

[VickiandKev]

Very nice ratties and very nice cage. I had an explorer last year for my (then) big group of boys, but had to sell it on once my little critters got older

Your Patrick reminds me of the brother of one of my old rats, Phoebe. Long story short I rescued a breeding pair of rats from awful conditions and the girl, Blessi, was too ill to be spayed so she had her final litter with me and gave me 5 beautiful babies. One was a girl, who I named Phoebe and kept, she was black hooded and the 4 boys were two himalayan, Caspar and Tyson, and two black berkshire, Joey and Patrick.

Some pics of these fellas as babies (rat babies are the cutest EVER!)

Patrick in the foreground and Phoebe in the background

Phoebe on her own - she was absolutely my baby

There's not enough people know about the joys of ratties methinks.
I only have three very old ratties now, and don't think I can get more until I finish uni, but I love them still.

 

[Ryefish]

omg what cute babies!!
I dont think i will get any more rats for a while - although there was one at pets at home in the adoption bit all on her own when i went to get supplies for my fish tank

I might have a stroll up there in a few weeks and if shes still there i will have to bring her home (i doubt she will be though). She is a black hooded - and i lubs my hoodeds!

 

[VickiandKev]

I'm dreadful for getting rescues - I simply can't look any more because I had 22 rats at one point because I took on rescues and sob stories!

You should definitely get her though! Hoodeds seem to be out of fashion, as are PEWs and even siamese now

Anything that isn't curly or dumbo isn't what people want Generally speaking anyway.

 

[Ryefish]

you can add hairless to the list aswell for what people want, seems to be a craze over them lately.

I went back and the girl wasnt there, which was good in a way because my mum would have killed me. and i LOVE LOVE LOVE hoodeds, smeezes and PEWs. Id happily have a full colony only made up of those

 

[VickiandKev]

I went back and the girl wasnt there, which was good in a way because my mum would have killed me. and i LOVE LOVE LOVE hoodeds, smeezes and PEWs. Id happily have a full colony only made up of those

I did have - 3 red-eyed smeeze, 2 smeeze roan (essentially PEW after first moult ), mink hoody, black hoody, black-eyed smeeze rex ... oh, and poor Blessi, the champers that looked like a dirty PEW bless her.

I never really had the 'craze ratties' - had the odd russian blue/rba and lots of dumblobs once they came into fashion - actually my final few rats are a silver fawn hoody, a black capped dumblob, and a black vari dumblob. Would you believe nobody wanted the black capped dumblie though??? He was sat in rescue for ages simply because he had to be homed with his black hoody dumblob brother

I'm not allowed to look at rescues any more