Well I entered Bramble, Sparky and Diggs. No prizes, but it was a good day out. Tabirat had a look at my lads and discussed which would be best for breeding.
The new sat nav was fine, but hubby's put John Cleese's voice on it, which is OK for a while but is beginning to irritate already.
The new girls are here. We have a pink eyed white, who we've called Angelina Ballerina after a mouse from a story we used to read when the children were little, Maisy - partly after another book character, but also because her hood is maize coloured, and Tuppence, a black hoody, named by my daughter Ginnie from something to do with ring-a-ring-a-rosies.
We've changed two of the names. Maisy is now Isabella, aka Bella, and Tuppence is now Araminta, aka Minty. I was worrying about the size difference between them and the two lads I want to intro them to, but they met this morning and it all went perfectly. Angelina is just 145 grams at 9 weeks! Tiny little poppets.
They spent half an hour together in the playpen this evening. Chester and Pickle were perfect gentlemen. Angelina, Bella and Minty were little pests.
Funny babies. Isabella was in season today, and spent playtime chasing the big boys and jumping on them. They were totally baffled. Pickle even started squeaking whenever she got close!
I took Oliver up to be put to sleep this evening. To be honest, I don't think it was necessary - he would have been gone by morning, but I didn't realise how bad he was when we set off. I'm still feeling a bit numb about it. This leaves Archie on his own again; I'm not sure how much of an impact it will have as they hadn't been together long and were living separately in the same cage.
I started putting the new cage together for Pickle, Chester and the new girls. It's looking good. They may move in tonight, or I might wait until Saturday. Not sure yet.
I stuck Pickle and Chester in the new cage with the babies this evening. No trouble at all, they are acting as if the babies have always been there. It's really strange seeing such tiny little ones in with them.
Rosie bit me this evening. I thought she'd grown out of that. Little ratbag.
A bit of a surprise today. Sparky's been acting a bit huffy all week, but I cleaned out the cage today and both Sparky and Bramble turned into angry puffballs. If this carries on they may both be losing a bit of weight at the vets. Such a surprise as they've been such wonderful little lads until now. :-(
Well, I've been off all day and Sparky has been a right grotbag to the others all day. Bramble's not as bad, but I've made a vets appointment for both of them. Tough luck lads, you're going to be decushioned.
I took the lads up to the vets to be sorted out today. I know it's the right thing, but I do still feel guilty. I'm still off work, thought I'd be back but didn't sleep well at all. This is a disgusting cold! It does mean I can collect the boys as soon as they're ready, which is good. Blech.
Py is still not looking right. His breathing is too fast, and he gets all puffed up when he eats his soft food. It makes me wonder if the problem is that he struggles to eat and breathe. He did let me have a lovely long cuddle with him today. That's probably a bad sign too, but he looked as if he was enjoying it. I need to weigh the vulnerable ones again. Thisbe feels lighter than she should, and Sophie is looking ragged too. The baby girls are verging on square tails, but I think they'll get over that if I can just keep them on a good growing diet.
Still waiting for the hormones to wear off. Sparky is being a total pain in the boys cage, and Bramble isn't much better. AND blinking Rosie tried to bite when I gave them breakfast. I'm wondering if her eyesight is a bit iffy. I'm supposed to be on BBC Radio WM this morning to talk about the Midlands Rat Club, but the time's gone past and they haven't phoned. Hum.
You know, I forget, most of the time, how odd and obsessive it sounds to have 23 rats living in 6 cages inside your house. Especially since I associate online and occasionally in the real world with other people who also keep rats. But then when non-ratty people ask how many I have, I feel reluctant to tell them. Who on Earth needs 23 rats? Well, they each had a valid reason at the time for coming along. But how do you explain that?
I was sitting in the playpen this evening with the six young boys, when a fight broke out in the girls' cage. All of a sudden I had six boys perched on my shoulders and head! Heaven knows what those girls were screaming.
My other half is making plans to add a rat room to the side of the house. !!!!!
We survived it.
I began by learning about genetics to help me with breeding rats. Then I got interested and started reading about genetics that will most probably never be relevant to breeding rats. Then I ran out of books and raided the library, which is where I discovered the books of Richard Dawkins. So I owe the rats for explaining the whole of natural selection to me.
Last modified: Friday, 28-Dec-2007 22:54:21 GMT
