# My wonderful new guests and hopefully upcoming babies... (pic spam alert)



## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

I thought I would introduce the 3 lovely ladies that are currently staying with me. They were the only does born in my litter about a year ago, there was one little lad born but unfortunately he didn't make it. Being a buck owner this was pretty hard but they went to one of my breeding partners and the owner of their Mum, one of my friends Lloyd. Being as brilliant as he is the three of them recently came back to me for one of them to have her litter and so i am being spoilt with my 3 girls back home, and the prospect of mini versions (hopefully at least some males surviving this time) in the very near future. 

First off here's a picture of the terrible trio as of yesterday;









First is Tigerella who is the best of the litter in terms of both temprement, physical health and looks, she's a real gentle confident lady, and very cheeky, she loves trimming my nails and positioning herself in the way of any efforts i might make to stroke her sisters. She's also 2 weeks pregnant so hopefully there will be mini tigers coming along soon
One showing her lovely belly








and another showing her prettiness









Next is Peacevine, she's a quite slightly timid lady, but such a sweety, she's besotted with me already and i've only had them back for a few weeks, maybe she remembers me? She really reminds me of her Dad at time (albeit a shyer version, he was very confident) who was one of those rats that leaves a mark on your soul, i adore him and miss him too.
One of her in all her agouti dumbo goodness (looking far too like her dad for a girl lol)








And one of her sleepy and settled on my hand cuddling up









Finally here's India, she's a super confident lady, who can get a little pushy at times, but is a real lovely friendly explorer most of the time. She is very stubborn though and very much likes to think she should rule the world. She also is a little too fond of her food and is trying to keep up with tigerella even though she is very much not pregnant lol.









Here's a picture of there dad for reference, my much loved Thom, winking at the camera in a typical Thom face








and one of his serious studious face that peacevine is so good at copying









And there mum Lo, who was wonderful, teaching me loads about babies and just what i was allowed to do and not, she was one of those rare cases where you decide to have a second litter from a rat who is brilliant in so many ways. She aged really slowly, was fit and active and such a brill mum to her first litter that we decided she would help us move towards our goal of extending average lifespan if we had a second litter from her. 
Here she is collecting the babies from a teacup to put them back to bed









And here's a few pics of the lovely trio as babies;
Tigerella licking me at a couple of weeks old








All 3 exploring and discovering eggs at about 3 weeks old








A 5 week India showing how tall she is








A 5 week Tigerella prooving how agile she is








A slightly grmlin looking peacevine, she has since grown into her ears a little









I'll post pics of the dad and more info on the upcoming litter if anyone is interested in it ;D


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## never-sleep (Mar 3, 2012)

India is gorgeous. Thom looked like quite a character...


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## Poodlepalooza (Aug 9, 2012)

They are gorgeous!!! More pics please!!


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

They are all so adorable, especially their dad. His ticking makes him look Almost like a brindled rat (if only those existed).


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

I will try and get some more pics up tonight, Tigerella is quite massive now, it's day 20 today and 3 days later so things have moved on a fair bit. Her and her sisters move into her birthing cage tomorrow to get her used to it, then they will come out in time for her hopefully to ahve babies on sunday (or be mean and stress me out like her mum did and have them on monday) I'll try and get some up to date ones of my boys too.



LightningWolf said:


> They are all so adorable, especially their dad. His ticking makes him look Almost like a brindled rat (if only those existed).


Brindle would be gorgeous in rats. His effect is caused by an odd thing that happens in some lines of bucks (as well as the photo angle) as they mature here, and seems pretty common in Tabi line rats (our pet name for this line of rats). It seems to be linked to when the testosterone drops a litte and typically hits about 12 -18 months. They begin to loose the strong guard hairs in their coat atarting over there back then moving back until most of the bum is missing them, and in agoutis this makes them appear to have a orangey saddle as the guard hairs carry most of the black part of the ticking. You can see and feel it in the blacks in our line too, but it doesn't photo well. Upping the protien in their diet seems to help short term but it's still enevitable. It's quite a pretty effect in a way but i would love to be able to work it out a bit better. Do you see it in the states?


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

No we don't to my knowledge, granite a lot of breeders don't breed Agouti. Agouti, Topaz (Fawn here, I like UK terms better in most cases) black, beige, and albino are typically not bred for same goes for Amber and Champaign. I have only ever found 1 breeder of Agouti and 1 for Topaz, but none for Black, beige, albino, ect. Almost everyone here breeds either Siamese, Blue, Russian Blue, or Burmese. Its starting to become difficult to find Fancy/Standard/Top eared rats. most are starting to breed it out of their lines. Correction the only breeder working on Albino for out-crossing I do Not like, she is not very helpful when asked questions and a lot of what she says is rubbish. I may love Albinos but I will not support a breeder like that. Oh well, she a few states away so it doesn't matter, we have no breeders here in Texas.

Very cool effect though, I wouldn't mind having a buck that did that, Almost like a roan in a way. Lack of Iodine might be causing it, wait does the water there have Flouride? it does here (it sucks) and Flouride competes with Iodine in the thyroid gland which needs a lot of Iodine, reason a lot of people here have hypothyroidism. Its quite sad to be honest, my mom figured out about it and now we only drink bottled water (same goes for the animals) and she often uses Iodine drops in her water and the animal's water (I can taste one drop in a large bottle of water, so I don't do that). Could be the cause, proteins are often linked with Iodine. It could also just be a trait like how some people have brighter blue eyes then others, or darker brown eyes then others.


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## Isamurat (Jul 27, 2012)

A few updated pictures, Tigerella continues to balloon, I meant to weigh her this morning but forgot as I was also moving her into her birthing cage. Anyway there not the best quality as there just phone pictures, will upload some proper ones this weekend (whilst nervously waiting).

The clearest one of her belly, whilst she was chewing my nails so you can’t see her pretty face









And some blurrier ones that show her size a bit better

















Here’s her birthing cage, she moved in today with her 2 sisters to start to get settled in. There’s tonnes of nesting material in there should she want to start early, but also a few ropes and such. This is to help keep them entertained for a few days, they are all very active girls and will go stir crazy in an empty cage. I will leave them in for Tiger when she has her babies, I find ropes work well as it means she can still move around the cage a bit and perch somewhere not on the floor, but unlike a hammock she can’t move the nest or babies onto them. The towel draped over one end gives her a sheltered end if she wants to build her nest somewhere a bit more secure feeling. I generally start folding this back when the babies are over a week old and getting close to opening their eyes, at this point she is a lot more settled and less protective


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

What a gorgeous mama! Wishing the best for her and the babes.


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