# My Babies



## rach913 (Jan 11, 2008)

My babies are treated with love and care, and I'll NEVER give them away! They're WELL-behaved, and LOVE to be handled by their people, more than eating our tablescraps! In order, is the timing that they came into our lives.









Moo, the Cow, the Rat
A heart of equality, gentleness, and a feeling to stay young at heart
2 yrs. as of Dec. 25th, 2007









String Cheese, A.K.A, Hinata
A cuddly personality, and a rat that I just can't seem to gain weight on! :? 
1 yr. as of Nov. 10th, 2007

The next four came at once, in a litter by poor Hinata, when she was adopted from another owner's home, by us










Samwise Gamgi
An outgoing critter with a wise head on his shoulders
1 yr. as of Jan. 11th, 2008 (today)









Frodo Baggins
Another outgoing critter, who prefers to "hang ten" with his brother, Sam
1 yr. as of Jan. 11th, 2008 (today)









Jimmy's Little Shadow (Not so little anymore! lol!)
An enormous critter with a gentle heart
1 yr. as of Jan 11th, 2008 (today)









Spiffy Little Jeffy
A goof-around being with a big aptitude for my attention
1 yr. as of Jan 11th, 2008 (today)

The rest came to us at different times, again in order 









Munch Kin Rin
A fat rat who can't get enough of love (the one I want to train to dance)
Owned since Apr. 15th, 2007, estimated 9 mo. as of Jan. 11th, 2008 (today)









Mini Moo Athena
A speedy brat who constantly begs for a good tooth-cleaning
About 6 mo. as of Jan 11th, 2008 (today)









Munchkin's Little Runt
A super-cuddly curly with a heart of gold for BOTH of her people
About 3 mo. as of Jan 11th, 2008 (today)

edited to fix code


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## camel24j (Feb 27, 2007)

i love the pic of moo very cute.


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## Screechy (Dec 28, 2007)

Such beautiful ratties! Thats a great mischief you got there


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## rach913 (Jan 11, 2008)

Thank you all for the friendly comments! They all get along so well at home, too! 

There's an interesting story about Moo that may seem like "fate" had brought us two together. I saw him as a ritten 3 years ago at a friend's house, but at that time, my mother would've said "no" for a pet rat in the house. 2 years after that, I saw him again! So, in remembering seeing him, and Moo clearly showing that he remembered me, I took him home, in our apartment (by then, I didn't live with "mommy" anymore, and my rules applied! Yay!) Tell me, is that fate?  Rach


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## kaylaface (Sep 6, 2007)

Aww they are so cute!


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## rach913 (Jan 11, 2008)

6 of the 9 grew up in our home!!  They seemed to have grown so fast in one year, even 3 months time! I miss the way they looked back then at times, but then they wouldn't have gotten so big!  Rach


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## Screechy (Dec 28, 2007)

rach913 said:


> Thank you all for the friendly comments! They all get along so well at home, too!
> 
> There's an interesting story about Moo that may seem like "fate" had brought us two together. I saw him as a ritten 3 years ago at a friend's house, but at that time, my mother would've said "no" for a pet rat in the house. 2 years after that, I saw him again! So, in remembering seeing him, and Moo clearly showing that he remembered me, I took him home, in our apartment (by then, I didn't live with "mommy" anymore, and my rules applied! Yay!) Tell me, is that fate?  Rach


Sounds like it was fate to me^_______^ He was destined to be your rattie!!


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## dingosm8 (Jan 10, 2008)

I love your name selections. Great for their different personalities.
I also love the photo of moo....he looks almost fake he's so cute


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## calories (Dec 7, 2007)

oh wow, moo is such a ham. in the picture, he looks like he might even be a tri-colored. is he?


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## rattieluver (Dec 29, 2007)

They are so cute! I may have to steal Munch Kin's Runt!


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## rach913 (Jan 11, 2008)

That's the light from the lamp, that radiates a "light brown" on him. He's just a gray-splotched, white rat. And, no, you can't steal our little Runt! lol! She's quite a little stinker, too!
Tri-colored...Could that be Sam? Up very close, one could see a "dirty white" to his belly. I tried many times to scrub the white clean, but to no go. Is this what you mean by the tri-color?


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## calories (Dec 7, 2007)

No, I meant Moo, but I can see the lighting now. They're all cuties, though. I, too, suffer from dirty white bellies. ):


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## rach913 (Jan 11, 2008)

A small update:

We still own our 9 babies, and Moo is still kickin' away at life, although his breathing has become a lot heavier than he used to. As for Rin, she's finally decided that I'm her security blanket (finally), for now she kisses me on the lips, just like all of the other girls. Finally, she's learned that her mama will always be there to protect her from any harm. I kind of wonder if that small incident from her last litter (the litter with MyRunt in it) had caused this. Let me explain...

We once had adopted a female, dust-colored cat named Dawn, who never had seen rats as pets, before. We had a litter on the way through Rin inside of a 5 gallon aquarium. The night that she finally came into labor, I watched her give birth, to ensure that we can go to bed with all babies born and drinking away (aside from three still-births, making confirmation that Moo is not a good rat to breed, any longer).
15 minutes after being situated in bed and ready to sleep, we heard a crash. I walked out to the living room to see what happened, and there was that pain in the arse (sorry) cat, standing over the newbies. At sight of me, she ran and hid, as Rin came to me in fear at the sound of my angered voice (she was hiding under the couch, closer to our other cat, Bulvine, who was sniffing the babies to see if they were alright-this cat was raised around our rats as a kitten, and so she felt safer next to him, but even more safer around her people. As soon as she came into view and I placed my hand, palm down, before her, she came up on her hinds in a "mommy, pick me up NOW" kind of manner, she grabbed tightly to my wrist as I picked her and her hour-olds up. Two more died. Only 5 remained.
With the actions that that devoted mother had around that cat, I knew for sure that I could not trust her unattended. And so, more bad behaviors from that cat occurred, until she started urinating wherever she wanted, causing her to become but another farm cat.
All five boys have acquired a strange, new attitude, however. When "daddy" comes to sit on the couch with them during out time, they try to back their butts up next to him, and pee or poop. This angers my husband, and so now we're trying the "If you pee or poop on us, you go home for the day" method once more. They know better around me, but they insist on doing it to daddy. I kind of wonder if they missed him when he was still working, and they're trying to tell him that he's still part of the group by doing this? lol

As for Runt, by the time she turned about a month or two in age, she acquired a blind eye, possibly due to the accident she had at birth (her ears are always clean, and so infections are out of the question). She still shows signs of intelligence, as we can say "Hi, MyRunt," and she'll respond with her tilted head to the bars, and sometimes she'll even leap onto the side, by clinging on in the corner.

Athena has decided that she wants to do the "monkey bars" behind our backs, or so she thinks. I've been letting them out more often in separate cages (one for the girls, one for the boys). If I go out of site, she'll start climbing up the side of her cage, grab the bars above, and crawl around like a sloth. Then, sometimes she'll release her two, front paws and do a cute flip, and other times, she'll release her back paws and use her fronts to do the monkey bars! I came into her view one day, and she looked at me as if to say, "dang, you caught me being cute, again!" lol

Jeffy has acquired a strange, muffled look to his coat, clearly showing acute signs of stress. His eyes have become more "bloody" just by staying awake, as well as asleep, and like Sam, he can snore (only, Jeffy's snoring is far worse than Sam's now...I admit, these two boys had a respiratory problem since birth, and they can tell that we're moving again, I think, causing their problem to worsen a little bit. Plus, they've seen us get rid of our guinea pig-more explanation on that later-and I'm sure that they're worried that we'd be ridding them, too, which they needn't worry-I love them too much!).

A couple of days ago, a girl brought in two, small rats that were once someone else's pets, and now they were destined to be snake food. One of them looked almost exactly like my Rin, and the other looked like Moo, only, this one was HOODED! Same type of curly hair, and everything. Female. Only, Chad told me that I can't have anymore.

With me being pregnant, and hearing a day later that those rats were eaten by that snake, I cried. Around us, you can't get a curly-breed rat in rescue centers, pet shops, or hardly anywhere else. Finding Moo from my friend was mainly luck. But, I thought that that curly rat was beautiful! It was heartbreaking to hear that such a talented, smart rat was fed to a common python (she knew how to "hide" under the lid of the cage, and eventually, she was sleeping up there...). I completely understand that snakes are meant to be fed, but if only daddy could've let me keep just ONE more...I would've named her Wilma 

Other than that, we had no choice but to get rid of our oldest pet, our female guinea pig. There are a few reasons why we HAD to do so.
1. We couldn't afford bedding, and she's the one that went through it so much (Chad's been laid off, due to the recession going on). 9 rats could keep it fresh, with daily scoop-ups, for up to 2 weeks before needing a fresh change and cage wash-up.
2. Chad's lay-off also has caused us to live in an R.V. for the summer, in his parents' back yard, resulting in smaller cages for everyone, and more required out time for our ratty friends (good thing summer's on it's way...)
3. The longer she stayed her, the more unhappy she came to be. She even got to the point where you could pick her up, and she would tremble in your arms.
4. Where she is now, there are many, different ages in which she can get accustomed to, including infant hands. She gets to roam around their home more often than here, she's spoiled of dandelions, and they've been keeping her home clean since I've brought her there (I'm not saying that I wasn't doing my part, as I was...Her unhappiness was making me feel saddened...)
5. We're on our sixth month of pregnancy, and with the realizations of our pets' behaviors, the guinea pig was more of a threat with her gentle nibbles, than our very-laid-back rats (however, I don't want baby holding or touching our ratty friends until he turns a year in age...), who never lay their teeth on us, even to groom us.

We hope that things are going very well with everyone within this forum, as things clearly are going well with us. Rach


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## bffel3 (Apr 20, 2008)

you have adorable rats!!


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