Post by Deleted on Apr 3, 2011 17:16:31 GMT -5
The other day I was browsing Craigslist and a lady was giving away most of her feeder rats so she wouldn't have to move them cross-country...I called her up, drove out and ended up with about 50 already frozen pinky rats, 23 live baby rats (like furry, active mouse sized rats), and 5 hopper mice. I brought them all home in a shoebox excited to let Akiko do her thing and get them all in the freezer since they very rarely get whole prey and nothing beats free meat with 6 hungry carnivores to feed...
To make a long story short, my husband was home early from work, wanted to see what was in the box, and now we have 3 pet rats and 5 pet mice despite months and months of him saying no more animals. He says it's my fault for bringing home such cute animals, I think it's his for being sucked in by the cuteness, I was prepared to let nature do its thing with all of them... They are sweet though, I had a rat about 10 years ago and really enjoyed her company. The mice are very independent already, but the rats are still young enough I'm keeping their food soft and syringe-feeding them a milk supplement a few times a day since they wouldn't have been separated from their moms just yet if I hadn't taken them for feeders. Currently they're all housed together since they're roughly same size and love to all crowd together in the same hut, but I'm watching for a good deal on a big rat cage to separate them from the mice later. No idea on how to sex these little guys yet, they all look the same under the tail to me... I'm kind of stressed because I know the brunt of the research and the care is on my shoulder's and I need to figure this out, I'm just praying and calling everyone boys hoping all three are the same sex because I don't want to deal with breeding or separate caging.
Since my husband saved them from certain doom, he has the naming rights unless I think of something really good before he does .
So far the mice are unnamed, at this point they all seem to act and look very similar except for one particularly active one with red eyes that we've decided to call Vash (for Vash the Stampede). I do really like their strawberry blond fur.
The rats are Emile, he's our big chubby explorer guy and loves to be a shoulder rat already.
Remy is a little guy, he's very very clean, grooming himself very often and us when he gets the chance.
And the last little guy doesn't have a name yet, he's the runt...my husband wants to stick with the Ratatoullie theme but I want his name to be different. He's a big eater and cuddler, but still very small so I worry a little about him.
To make a long story short, my husband was home early from work, wanted to see what was in the box, and now we have 3 pet rats and 5 pet mice despite months and months of him saying no more animals. He says it's my fault for bringing home such cute animals, I think it's his for being sucked in by the cuteness, I was prepared to let nature do its thing with all of them... They are sweet though, I had a rat about 10 years ago and really enjoyed her company. The mice are very independent already, but the rats are still young enough I'm keeping their food soft and syringe-feeding them a milk supplement a few times a day since they wouldn't have been separated from their moms just yet if I hadn't taken them for feeders. Currently they're all housed together since they're roughly same size and love to all crowd together in the same hut, but I'm watching for a good deal on a big rat cage to separate them from the mice later. No idea on how to sex these little guys yet, they all look the same under the tail to me... I'm kind of stressed because I know the brunt of the research and the care is on my shoulder's and I need to figure this out, I'm just praying and calling everyone boys hoping all three are the same sex because I don't want to deal with breeding or separate caging.
Since my husband saved them from certain doom, he has the naming rights unless I think of something really good before he does .
So far the mice are unnamed, at this point they all seem to act and look very similar except for one particularly active one with red eyes that we've decided to call Vash (for Vash the Stampede). I do really like their strawberry blond fur.
The rats are Emile, he's our big chubby explorer guy and loves to be a shoulder rat already.
Remy is a little guy, he's very very clean, grooming himself very often and us when he gets the chance.
And the last little guy doesn't have a name yet, he's the runt...my husband wants to stick with the Ratatoullie theme but I want his name to be different. He's a big eater and cuddler, but still very small so I worry a little about him.