It's all about the ratties.

Sometimes I feel that they are too misunderstood. So in honor of their awesomeness, I dedicate this site to them.

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It’s Inktober again, so of course I needed to draw a cute magical rattie 🐀 🧙‍♀️🌙✨

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Got these ratties as a gift for my birthday this year. I keep them on my desk and they help whenever I start to feel sad about not having pet rats anymore. I would love to get more rats some day, but it’s been difficult finding a good breeder in my area. Hopefully I can find someone next year cuz ratties are the besssst🤞🏻

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Been missing my ratties a lot this year, so I drew one enjoying a pumpkin as one of my inktober drawings. They used to love getting pumpkin treats this time of year! I also kinda miss the Halloween photo shoots I would set up for the ratties. 🎃🐀

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Ratty Updates

Sorry it has been a while since I’ve posted any photos on here. To say things have been a bit stressful lately is a bit of an understatement, but I wanted to let you know what was going on.

I haven’t posted photos of Brisby recently because her health had seriously declined within the last month. Her respiratory issues were back and she started to have symptoms of hind limb degeneration, but it spread to all of her limbs. She was not fully paralyzed, but any movement had become really difficult for her.

I didn’t share this stage of her life on here because it was very difficult for me. I have never seen a rat lose so much mobility that I had to feed her myself because she couldn’t pick up food to eat it. I’ve never had to rearrange a cage to such an extreme way because I was afraid she would fall at any height and hurt herself. And mostly it was heartbreaking for me because no matter how much I tried to help, I knew there was not much else I could do for her. But through it all she remained positive, happy, and chattering away any time I stopped in to pet her.

It was as this point that I made a decision...Brisby was going to be my last rat for now. After losing all the rats I’ve shared photos of with you all on this blog, it’s getting harder and harder to lose so many wonderful pets in such a short amount of time. It’s been difficult...they give so much love and are only here for a short time. I wish I could spend more time with them.

The other half of my decision came from the fact that my life has changed in the last year and I no longer feel it is fair for me to have ratties. I’m not at home as much as I used to be, and I think that it just isn’t fair that they don’t get as much socialization as my other ratties did before.

I know, deep down, that Brisby will not be my last rat. I plan on having more because they are amazing pets. I just think for now that a break for now might be best.

The other thing I’m struggling with now is what to do with this blog. I can talk more about rats, reblog photos from other rat blogs, and share my old archive of photos of rats, but I don’t have any new photos with new ratties to share. I would like to keep this blog going...I’m just not sure what direction to go in yet.  

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It's been raining a lot lately, which in turn has been making it super cold, so I bought Brisby a new fluffy hammock to help keep her warm and so far she really likes it 😄

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How I'm usually greeted as soon as I open the cage 🐭💕

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Sunday morning cuddles with Brisby 💕

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Happy Halloween Everyone! 

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Brisby has been having a rough time this week. She went to the vet because she is having some respiratory troubles, and the vet gave her some antibiotics to help. She is still active and being as lovey as ever, but I worry about her. Keeping my fingers crossed that she responds well to the medicine.

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I got Brisby a new bed, and she is the first ratty I've ever had that didn't immediately tear it apart. Usually when I see her in the morning she is curled up happily in her bed. Guess it was just what she needed now that the weather is getting colder. It's soooo cute!

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TBT: Yukiko being funny/adorable when posing for the camera. 

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I'm heading off for the holiday weekend, and it was very difficult to leave all my pets behind (don't worry though, they still have my bf for attention!). I wanted to say bye to them and give them pets before I left, but they pretty much were only interested in cuddles and I didn't want to interrupt them. They are just too cute! Hope everyone has a good holiday weekend!

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Yukiko: January 2015 - August 25th, 2016

Yukiko passed away last week and I am still in a bit of shock about it. At the beginning of the week she started acting lethargic. She rapidly lost weight and stopped being her normal self. I had scheduled an appointment to bring her in to the vet, but she passed away before I could take her. I’m sad that she is gone and I wish I could have had some more time with her.

I adopted Yukiko with Chie about a year and a half ago. She was super shy since she had been in the pet store without proper socialization for a few weeks, but I was very hopeful that she would warm up to my house. I was so happy to see that she did warm up to Brisby and that she became more outgoing as time went on. She was even starting to sit with me when she wanted pets and cuddles. It may have been really rare, but that made it more worth it when she did cuddle.

Chie and Yukiko were very close, and I am sad that Chie now has to be without Yukiko. I called them the twins since they were from the same litter, and it’s hard to visit the cage now and not see Yukiko there. I love you and miss you my curly rattie. I hope you are at peace and running around in rattie heaven with Arrietty, Cheria, Pascal, and my other ratties. Your life may have been short, but I hope you know that you were loved. 

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I know wire floor is bad for my children, and I lay blankets and fleece down for them, but they always want to sleep underneath the fleece on top of the bars?? even though they have so many hammocks and cozy sleeping places, they're like "nah id rather sleep on metal bars" How do I get them to enjoy the good things in life?!

Rats can be pretty stubborn when it comes to where they like to sleep. They might like laying on the bars because it feels cooler, or they might just like snuggling under the fleece. In the past I would buy my ratties beds and they would tear them up and want to sleep on the floor instead. I think the best thing to try is giving them other options to see what they like best. When my ratties didn’t like the beds, I tried a space pod instead and they absolutely love it! So try out some options and they might find something else to sleep on instead of the bars. 

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Rats are so precious and lovely and I just want to pet every rat.

Yay! Exactly! I mean, who can look at these adorable rattie faces and not want to pet them? They are so cute! 

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Do your rats walk directly on the wire flooring? They can get a disease called bumblefoot, or there feet can get caught in the wires. It's super painful for them. Do you have anything covering it? If you don't believe me, google bumblefoot in rats.

My rats did walk directly on the floor, but the floor is round bars exactly like the sides of the cage as opposed to the other wire floors with thin lines and small squares. I do know about bumblefoot, and I have been checking their feet just in case their feet start to get irritated from the bars. Recently I changed my cage setup, so the bars are no longer there and now they can directly access the bedding on the floor. I was worried that my cage wouldn’t have proper support with the bin if I took the bars out, but I found a way to make it work and my ratties are a lot happier now that they can burrow. Thanks so much for looking out for my ratties though! I really appreciate the concern and care you (my blog followers) share with me about ratties and their health/happiness. 

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Hello! Just a quick message, lay the metal parts of the binder clips flat to the shelf and you won't risk them getting their feet caught in them!

Hello! Thanks for pointing that out. I went back and looked at my old blog photos, and I noticed that I had the parts of the clips up when I was showing off the new cage setup. I did lay them flat afterwards (before my ratties were in the cage) and I always make sure to check that they are flat before I put the ratties in a newly cleaned cage. Thanks for looking out for my mischief!