 |
 |
| To
accomplish great things we must not only act but also dream, not only
plan but also believe ~ Anatole |
Logo design courtesy of Acolytes of Art
|
For
the health of our own animals we do not allow visits to the rattery.
Please don't take this personal, as it is not meant to be insulting or
untrusting of anyone in particular. Here on this page we've
provided pictures of our cage setups, and details relating to raising
the pups, what our rats are fed, and enrichment ideas. If you have any
additional questions, feel free to send us an e-mail: dazzleme@gmail.com !
*Our
Rattery is currently being moved to another room and reorganized.
Photos will be up shortly!* All of our males, aside from the elderly or singles, are housed in a spacious two-level Ferret Nation home that can be separated into a 2-in-1 cage if needed. This cage is excellent for our males because it is very large and they cannot squeeze through the 1 x 5 inch bar spacing. It is large and roomy enough for everyone to go to their own 'quarters' of the cage with lots of hammocks, igloos, litterpans and places for 'water cooler gossip'. We have a few elderly rescue and special case males that do not get along with anyone else. They are housed in single level Super Pet cages. All of our females, aside from the elderly rats, are housed in a large Martin's F-475, initially designed for ferrets but the cage works very well for our females. Depending on the groups of girls we have it is configured to be either one large 3-level cage or three smaller (yet still spacious) compartments. Currently it is one large cage for them. Our elderly females that can no longer keep up with their younger cagemates are housed in a Martin's F-435 which is similar to the R-695 but with 1 x 1 inch bar spacing. It makes for a nice retirement home for them.
Our rats are fed a
staple of Harlan Teklad lab blocks or high quality dog food and we
offer a bowl
of modified Suebee's grain mix along with the blocks. The mix contains
Cheerios, tri-color rotini pasta, sunflower seeds, puffed rice and
puffed wheat cereals. We also offer fruits, vegetables, jarred baby
foods and other
goodies a few times a week. All staple foods are stored in covered
storage bins.
 Sampling of one of our batches
We have recently started our
own fruit and vegetable garden in an effort to provide the rats with
more nutritious, fresh produce with no pesticides or other harmful
chemicals.
We offer our rats
fleece hammocks, igloos, cardboard boxes and other hidey houses to
lounge in. They usually enjoy a bed of paper towel, paper 'crinkles',
shredded newsprint, or fleece remnants in their sleeping quarters.
We've tried many litters over the last few years and have a few favorites. Our number one choice for everyday usage at this time is Yesterday's News, or Harlan Teklad's version called Pelleted Paper. We also like Carefresh or Carefresh Ultra (or Harlan's version of both) for pregnant or nursing moms and growing pups. Harlan SaniChips are nice and make the cages look neat, however the little squares (like confetti) get *everywhere* -- in your house, in your car, in your laundry. We no longer use Aspen due to our own allergies, and it seemed to make our rats sneeze as well. And, of course, never use pine or cedar. Precautions must be taken when purchasing litter or bedding from places such as pet stores, because more often than not little parasites such as mites or lice are tagging along and can pass onto your resident rodents. Your best bet is to purchase your bedding straight from the manufacturer, or warehouse, such as Harlan Teklad, or online from places that sell products only (not animals). However this is not a guarantee that things can't be picked up along the way. Many people choose to freeze their bedding for at least 24 hours before using it. Some people have good luck with using cloth. Usually it is best to use cloth as a cage liner if your rats are litterbox trained. If they aren't, the cloth will need to be changed and washed several times a week. This can still work out quite well for those who wish to go to cloth and can devote the time to changing out the 'linens' regularly. The perks of using cloth is the ability to keep your cages cleaner by changing them more frequently and you don't have to worry about bringing home mites or lice. Cloth can also be more cost-efficient, unless you are the unlucky one with rats who love to chew up all the fabric :)
Some of our rats enjoy
wheels with a solid-surface to run on, such as Wodent Wheels or Whisper
Wheels, while others prefer to lounge
rather than exercise. We offer a variety of toys for them to play with
and investigate. Rats consider almost anything a new playtoy. Cardboard
tubes, boxes, ladders, cat ball toys, rattles, bird ropes, even whole
rolls of toilet tissue... that's a fun one! Anything is game for a rat,
as long as it is safe and cannot be ingested or choked on.
A fun new game is filling a toilet paper tube with treats (yogies, for instance) and folding the ends so they have to work to get at their treat. They'll dig, chew, toss, and destroy the tube to get at the goodies inside. It's like opening the best present at Christmas time! Rats need items that stimulate their minds and keep them busy (especially females!). Providing girls with lots of nesting materials is always a big hit with our crew. They spend hours upon hours building huge nests just so that one of their pals decides they want the bed on another level of the cage and everyone works at moving it..again! Another form of enrichment is food. Providing a variety of dry (lab block, kibble, grain mixes) and wet foods (jarred baby foods, yogurt, soy products) keeps the rats entertained and looking forward to breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Giving them some variety could be as simple as popping open a jar of Banana baby food or even cooking up a complicated recipe that your human family AND rat family can enjoy :)
Quarantine is an essential part of having rats. The most important thing is to keep your current rats safe and healthy. Any new *rodents* (rats, mice etc) intended to be brought into the rattery are quarantined for a minimum of 3 weeks in another building. This helps to ensure that our crew stays healthy, and also ensures that the new rats are being cared for properly. To ensure this, the new rats are fed/watered/checked on when I leave the house for work in the morning. I'm away from home for 10 hours a day and change clothes upon returning home.
When we have decided on
which pairs to put together we leave them 'honeymoon' straight up until
a few days before the birth of the pups. We are very particular about
keeping track of the progress of the pregnancy, so we have a digital
scale and weigh the moms-to-be before being introduced to their mate,
and ideally daily up until the birth of the litter. This helps us to
better monitor the pregnancy and can potentially give indications such
as problems in the womb (reabsorption) and size of the litter.
We are more comfortable with our females having their first litter around 8-12 mos of age (never before 6mos), and our males at 12 mos of age and older. However we may make a few exceptions now and then depending on the specific rats, the line, and the importance of the litter. Babies are usually born in either an aquarium (in winter) or the modified Martin's CC-3018, which is a collapsable ferret cage with rat-appropriate bar spacing. The Martin's Cage offers plenty of space for the growing pups to learn and explore, while being easy enough to pick up and move from room to room to help get the pups used to different sights, smells and sounds. We handle the babies as soon as the mothers are comfortable with me handling them. Sometimes this is immediately after birth, and other times a few hours later. We always handle them within 24 hours of their birth and handle them quite often throughout each day as they grow, open their eyes, start crawling around and exploring. The more they are handled the more socialized they will be. When the babies start nibbling solid foods we start making up our 'baby slurry'. This can be a mixture of a variety of things, but most often it is a mixture of baby cereal/oatmeal, jarred baby food, KMR, wheat germ, baby fruit juice (sometimes with yogurt), high quality canned cat food and TEK Plus supplement. This all gets mixed in a blender and poured onto a paper plate so that everyone can get a chance at the goodies without crowding a dish. This is always a big hit and helps them to grow up even stronger and their coats have more sheen than without the baby slurry. Even the adults get to enjoy baby slurry every now and again! Pictures are a big deal with us. We like to take lots of pictures of the pups as they grow. This is not only for the would-be adopters, but for our records as well. It is a nice way to compare litters at different stages of their development, and to help others identify colors or markings in young pups if the need ever arises. It is just a fun, yet essential part of raising pups. If you happen to be a would-be adopter, you can definitely count on seeing lots of photos as your pup grows up. Babies are weaned from their mom between 4 and 5 weeks of age. Typically females are left in with their mom until they go to their new homes. In the case of females we are keeping, they get to stay with thier mom forever. Males are kept together for a week before we send them off to their new homes. We want to make sure they are eating on their own and adjusting well to being without mom before sending them to their new homes. |