| Introducing: Lester (The Little Bandit) |
[Aug. 28th, 2008|06:00 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | chipper | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Velvet Goldmine ST - Venus in Furs | ] |
My boys got a new partner today, after the poor little thing's been on quarentine time at a friend's house (poor things suffered calls and emails about what to look for every, oh, half an hour XD I'm kidding), a hooded young boy.
The introduction went well, as I cleaned the cage for smell reduction and in they went. Liegott so far ignored the little sweetheart and sleeps in his silly positions (pictures of said positions shortly) and Rizzo's...well...odd.
( the story so far ) |
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| Choking rat? |
[Aug. 27th, 2008|09:49 pm] |
I think Alice is choking? I took the girls out of the cage about 20 minutes ago and Alice keeps opening her mouth and it looks like she's dry heaving. Her breathing is heavy and kind of wheezy, and the only e-vet in this city knows zilch about rats. She didn't have any "naughty" foods - she had broccoli, quinoa, cooked spaghetti, Regal Rat and green peppers today. I offered her water but she wasn't interested. What can I do, besides just keeping an eye on my baby?
Edit: She survived the night, and my vet opens in about a half hour. I've already left them a message that Alice is in respiratory distress and we're going down there in a few minutes. I'm going to ask them if there's another e-vet, since the one I found is terrible (they specialize in cats, dogs and bunnies. Most of my vet's patients are bunnies) and Alice always has her crisis in the middle of the night. She stopped dry heaving, but she's breathing through her mouth and her wheezing is audible. I think whatever she was choking on last night aggravated her myco, since the old girl is over 2 now. She's lost a bit of warmth but she visibly lost any weight. She's still kind of moving around from hammock to hammock, and Scully keeps trying to keep her warm. Poor Al. She's been through a car accident, she's gotta live through this! |
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[Aug. 27th, 2008|08:34 pm] |
My store recently had a litter of rats (she came in with a male who held his goodies up until I came into work and noticed some parts that shouldn't have been there). The babies are just lovely, all blues with some head markings and all seem to be velveteen. They were born August 13th. They're exhibiting something I haven't seen in adult rats so I thought this would be a great place to learn something new about baby rats as I myself have never cared for any. At times some of them shake their heads quickly for a few seconds. If you touch them, they stop. Is this normal behavior? If so, what is it for? If not... what could it be?
Always interested in learning more. A horrible way to learn knowing with proper care the litter could have been avoided, but a learning experience for myself nevertheless. |
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[Aug. 27th, 2008|02:12 pm] |
So Riff Raff has been on baytril and doxycycline for ten days now - we have another eleven to go - but he doesn't sound any better to me... he's still Snarfy McSnarfles. I am sure this is because the lady I rescued him from had left him in this condition for ages... I hope it's just a horrible URI and not something worse but the meds don't seem to be having any effect. Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?
ETA: also I wanted to adopt a companion for him but if this is a chronic condition is that still a good idea?
( bunch o' photo ) |
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| new |
[Aug. 27th, 2008|03:46 pm] |
Hi. I'm Carri. I was looking for groups about rats and i came upon this one. I am a long time rat lover and i've had some in the past but this is my newest friend! Gertrude!
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[Aug. 27th, 2008|11:51 am] |
so, i'm stumped as to what tattoos i want next. well, kinda.
see, i've always wanted a tribute tattoo to angel (she died last summer) and i think i finally have enough money to scrape together and get her tat (the other one i want is a bass clef on my left ankle to match the treble clef on my right ankle).
my first idea was to get a simple black heart with her paw print in the middle as negative space. i would've put that either behind my ear, on my shoulder blade, or on the back of my neck. however, my former roommates forced me to cremate her way before i was ready to (long story...basically, ZOMG i left a frozen rat in a SEALED plastic bag, with her wrapped in a towel so they wouldn't see her dead body in the freezer in a corner they wouldn't actively see her in for like, less than a week...) and so right after i got her cremated, i realized i never got her paw print. that made me extremely pissed off, but i was wondering if it'd be possible to make a negative image of possibly her paws from a picture and then get a paw print from that? (i think i have a couple of pictures of her upside down with her paws showing). if so, i'd get that.
however, if that plan falls through, i have no idea what to get. i've been thinking and thinking and thinking...and nothing strikes me as "WOW", you know? i've had an idea to get her favorite yogurt treat tatted on me, but if you guys know how it looks like, it'll just look like a pink piece of turd on my body LOL. i also thought about getting her fav food tatted on me, which is boba (tapioca), but then again, that would look like crap because it's just a round little ball.
i've also thought about tattooing a toy train on me (tiny one) because my nickname for her was "choo choo"...it's a taiwanese phrase for...hmm, hard to explain, but basically, it described her whiskers and how they were long and whispy. i dunno. this idea seemed a little lame to me, since angel had nothing to do with trains.
i also thought about getting her 4 paws tatted on the front and back of my shoulder so it looks like her ghost is sitting on my shoulder (if that makes any sense). however, it'll probably look like crap both from far away and close up, and will probably blob up in the future. plus, i don't have her paw prints.
i also hate the idea of word/letter tats (no offense to any of you, it's just for not for me), especially when she was named by a middle schooler before we adopted her.
other things about her...she loved her hammock, but i'm not getting that tatted on my body. fav toys? nothing that really comes to mind. i kinda like the idea of a tat of her curled up and sleeping, but i'm kinda iffy about portrait tattoos. (god, i'm so picky lol)
so right now, i'm at a loss. i really want to get an awesome tat for her, but it has to be small at the same time. i'm thinking all black just like my other 2 tats, but if it's something REALLY amazing, i just might consider colors. i'd like to see what you guys have to suggest to me. any input would be greatly appreciated! i'm just hoping there's a "DUH" possibility that i just haven't thought of. TIA!
( and a pic just for kicks ) |
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| My sweet Betty - ??/??/06-27/08/08 |
[Aug. 27th, 2008|04:34 pm] |
We had to take our oldest girl Betty to the vet last night, and she didn't come back.
She developed a large lump on her tummy down beside her girly parts, I took her to the vets a couple of weeks ago to check it out. We decided to let nature take its course, due to where the lump was. I brought her home and made sure she was comfortable. Well Betty decided to take things into her own paws, she chewed and chewed on the lump, we tried to discourage (and cover it for) her but as we couldn't watch her all day, she ended up with a big hole in her underside. As the hole was so big our vet couldn't do anything, so he help her to get to a better place, The Bridge.
I'm actually heartbroken, she was the first rat my OH and I rescued together. She's always had loads of character, especially when we first got our other girls she was not impressed at all and showed it, but she mellowed out and was happily living with the other 11 girls in the big cage. She was the first one at the cage door when it was food time and made sure none of the girls got food before she did.
Stay safe my beautiful girl, we'll see each other again someday. |
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| Rat pregnancy |
[Aug. 27th, 2008|12:07 am] |
Sorry about these questions, I can't find the answers anywhere.
My roommate is convinced that her hat got pregnant again the same day she gave birth. (There was a male present then, but they were seperated within 24 hours.) Anyone know if this is possible?
She also wondered if rats could store sperm for use later like kangaroos can. (I told her I think no on that one.)
x-posted, sorry if you see twice. |
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| hairless rat care. |
[Aug. 26th, 2008|11:33 pm] |
i picked out my baby rat lotus at two weeks old a week an a half ago as a cage mate to juniper. she had beautiful blue skin and dumbo ears. her eyes had just opened the day before and she had fuzz about her body.
tonight, i received a email saying that the female i picked out is hairless.
would it be safe to say that my baby is definitely hairless, or probably going to be a double rex? i'm just wondering if she's probably patchwork because she had a layer of fuzz at two weeks.
i don't really care either way, but i'm just curious about what extra precautions i should take bringing in a hairless rat. i know, because their skin is exposed that they're more prone to skin irritations and cuts, but what else would one suggest? |
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| bumblefoot |
[Aug. 26th, 2008|10:39 pm] |
i left my rat with a neighbor while i was out of town for a month and i finally got her back yesterday. i noticed today that she has bumblefoot on both feet. it looks so painful :(We use softsorb bedding and my neighbor changed her cage only once all month and replaced her soft sorb with carefresh. could the d irty bedding or the change in bedding be what caused this? Shes not in a wire cage. i'm going to take her to the vet tomorrow. but i have a few questions for anyone who has dealt with this before.
do i have to take her to the vet or are there any homeopathic remedies I could try? Not because I don't want to spend the money but because I hate antibiotics. I also would hate to not take care of a problem fast enough and have it escalate. Advice is appreciated.
also, what should I expect from the Doctor? are there any specific questions I should ask him? or anything I should look out for?
Sorry, I don't have any rat owners as friends who have dealt with this problem before. Thanks in advance for any responses :) |
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[Aug. 26th, 2008|11:26 pm] |
I'm a little concerned... one of my rats keeps making snuffly squeaks, each one accompanied by a little jump. It didn't strike me as anything other than excited squeaking until my roommate commented that it seemed like he's sneezing!
Is this just rat behaviour, or is he actually sick?
It doesn't seem like he does it unless he's on my shoulder or scuffling with the other rat...
I wanted to have some feedback before I take the little guy to the vet.
Thank you! |
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| Woohoo |
[Aug. 26th, 2008|03:57 pm] |
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Complaining paid off. I was so angry at the vet visit yesterday that I sat down and wrote a long letter. Just got a phone call back. They're refunding my money, and no longer seeing rats since, as she explained, no one there has "exotic" experience. Should've asked why they'd see 'em in the first place instead of referring them somewhere else. Oh right, profit. |
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| Gruntyface finale |
[Aug. 26th, 2008|02:42 pm] |
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Perry had his vet appointment, at the Rhawnhurst Animal Hospital in Philadelphia (THANK YOU to whoever gave me that recommendation, great experience today!). All in all, the vet heard a little labored breathing but nothing that screamed URI, so I was given some Baytril as a preventative measure (banana flavored, which I'm seriously doubting the tastiness of). I called ahead and asked if I could bring Walter in and the woman who answered the phone said I couldn't, so I just told the vet that he'd started making some similar noises the night before. I was going to get enough Baytril for the two of them but didn't have enough money for both vials, so I'm going to go pick up the other after I get paid. Perry is otherwise a large, healthy boy (1.2 lbs! I'm not familiar with rat weights, but that sounds like a lot to me), not too fat or thin, with a "great disposition". I'm really impressed by the way he behaved, usually he's the whiny complainy one, but there was no crying in the 45 minute car ride either way, and no complaining or nipping at the vet. Thanks to everyone who gave me advice, I'd never taken a rat to a vet before and was reluctant to go and this was a great place, with polite staff and a caring, knowledgeable doctor. I will definitely be bringing my boys back here, as well as my kitties (I didn't like the other vet I brought my cat to in the city.) |
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| Peeing problem |
[Aug. 26th, 2008|02:03 pm] |
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One of my rats, Mudkip, appears to be having a problem with peeing on me. It's always just a little tiny bit, but it's unpleasant and it smells. He's not nervous. He's a very friendly rat who enjoys human company. I also don't think he has a problem with holding his urine, I let him roam in a rat-safe area freely, and he never pees on the floor or on my bed. He only pees on me. I was just wondering if anyone knows why he may be doing this and if there's a way I can get him to stop. Any help would be appreciated :] |
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| Babies pictures :D. |
[Aug. 26th, 2008|05:42 pm] |
So, I've been promising this for a while, and it really is about time that I posted some baby pictures. They're just over three weeks old now. XD. I thought that I had more piccies than this, seeing as I've been madly snapping away. Oh well. Sorry about quality, Camera sucks - need a new one.
Very Image heavy. haha. xD.
( On to the rattie cuteness... )
I'm getting so attached to these adorable little puffballs. I'm going to have a hard time giving them up. ♥ They're so hard to photograph - always on the move. XD.
Should everything work out okay, four boys are going to live with dan, two boys are going to live with a friend of my mom's, and I am going to keep one of the girls with Tifa and cloud + vincent when he is fixed. That leaves four babies with nowhere to go at the moment, should all the other plans work. :(.
x-posted in my own journal, too. :). |
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[Aug. 26th, 2008|07:22 am] |
AAAGH I should have left Jarrod's place half an hour ago. Fuckin' A, man. I'm posting anyway.
Here goes:
Radiohead on Wednesday with ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) sagcat and glitterninja was super-awesome if wet. Katrina and Marty got there late and never found us. sagcat has a song list plus links to lots of videos from the show, but it's a friend-locked post.
Thom messed up Faust Arp and it was hilarious. And again commented on the WTO protests and dedicated You and Whose Army to anyone who'd been there, and I jumped up and down and whooped at that one. Heh.
The original plan was to stay in Seattle overnight, but we quickly realized that's where 90% of the crowd was going, so we went back to Portland instead.
I woke up to Jarrod calling me because he got out of work early, so we were able to leave on Thursday. We drove and drove and drove and ended up camping at the KOA in Eureka, which is between the highway and an industrial park, because we got down there so late. o_O Not bad, though.
Saturday we got up fairly early which meant nothing in Eureka was open. Eureka's boring anyway, so off to Arcata we went. (I saw a cashier at the co-op there with a pin: "Eureka! I found Arcata!") We wandered around. We rented bikes and rode to the beach. The rental bikes were kinda Suck--I hate flat handlebars!! Gah! And they were mountain bikes with no fenders, which wouldn't have mattered but we rode down a rural road with cow poo on it. Icky icky ick. We saw a bunch of cows getting herded. So. Many. Cows. I tried to breathe through my mouth but I could *taste* it. I almost gagged.
We ate dinner at an Italian place right on the Plaza. Tasty but expensive.
Arcata isn't as awesome as it once was--there's a large transient population and some of them aren't very nice, apparently. We didn't visit the Community Forest due to things we'd heard.
That night we left and ended up camping at a private campground just into the national and state parks area.
Saturday we spent in the redwoods. We did a little hiking. I've seen some big trees. I've *lived* in big trees. These. Are BIG TREES. It was amazing.
That night we set up camp earlyish at a "primitive" state campsite. We had to hike in a quarter-mile, which is entertaining because we're car campers--an air mattress, a cooler, a heavy tent... It took two trips for us to haul all the stuff. And another for the firewood we'd bought in town. We made a fire and roasted onions and potatoes in foil, with the unfortunate affect of making everything coated in a thin layer of margarine that smelled like onions. We locked our food into a metal locker the park handily provided to keep it away from curious bears. Then we walked around with a flashlight catching big toads. The toads were awesome--big dark brown and gray. We'd hold them and they'd try to walk away or jump. It was so much fun.
Driving back the next day: felt like longer than the trip in. Which it was. Because now *everyone* was trying to get home. Stupid RVs everywhere. From Portland to Eureka through Grants Pass is, according to google, seven hours and five minutes. Assuming no traffic. Hah.
All in all, the weather was awesome--between 50 and 65, sometimes really pretty fog and sometimes sunny. And the smells, oh yes. Redwoods and forests and ocean smells together equal me almost hyperventilating. Foggy beaches and dripping trees and sparkly spider webs.
So, yeah. I'm back in town. My cell phone's been off though. I gotta go home now and shower and eat like super fast because I'm going to be late for work, I just know it. Dammit! |
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[Aug. 26th, 2008|01:32 am] |
I came across this really cute video on Youtube, of a baby rat enjoying some scitches! So cute!
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| sometimes saying goodbye is harder than breaking up |
[Aug. 26th, 2008|03:37 am] |
It's late.
We just got back from a four day road trip, and as usual, the seperation portion of the evening is kind of unbearable. I'll lie and say that I will post more tomorrow, but this pretty much sums it up:
( amber takes too many pictures ) |
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| Some pictures |
[Aug. 26th, 2008|01:17 am] |
Dear lord it is hard to get pictures of these girls!
I didn't get good pictures of them all (these are my new girls) but I did get some of them :D
I really hope to get more pictures soon for you guys! I just got the camera phone to work so I'll be taking more and more. And pic spamming lol. |
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| My first rats |
[Aug. 25th, 2008|11:59 pm] |
The all white one is 1/4th hairless I believe; her name is Magick due to the fact that they found her AFTER the rest of the batch she was born in was gone, and AFTER [not during, but after their cage was cleaned]
The other little guy's name is Pirate; he's missing his back left leg and most of his tail. Those who owned him before [he's basically still a baby] say that they only noticed his missing bits after he started to grow. o:
But yes, my first rats and my own little ones. :3
They were introduced yesterday; pecking order went down, and they seem to play a lot; and cuddle up when they sleep without problems. :3
So; they like stale bread and seem to like having part of their cage covered. xD
I'm so happy to have them; but quick question; Pirate [the one with black on his face], makes little noises that sound kind of like he's sniffing for something when I listen to him, what's up with that? Anything I should worry about?
Here, have some pics of my kids;
[sorry about my face in the pics lol]
Images were made smaller; sorry guys DB
[I'm still pretty new to this site, let alone posting] |
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