Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Addition to my family!

*Warning: If you don't like cute pet rats, stop reading right here, pictures below*

YAY! IT'S OFFICIAL!

My family is growing! I wrote a rattery a few months ago saying I would love to adopt two little rats. It took a while, but yesterday, the tiny critters were born :D There are 17 rittens born, of which 10 are male. That means two of those will find a home with me and my boys.

I will share pictures with you as soon as I get any. OMG I'm so excited :D My guys are already 1,5 years old, and getting lazier by the day, so a bit of excitement in the cage will do them good.

Oh, and I bought a new camera! These are pics from the internet:


I'm so looking forward to making pretty pictures of my ratties. It's a really good camera: 16 MP, lots of options to customize your settings and it's small and lightweight. And while I was stalking my rats with my new camera, I finally FINALLY caught a yawn on camera!


Okay, so here's a normal picture of the one we call Chuck


He's a black rat with a white belly, but his butt is becoming more brownish over time. He is a smart guy, knows exactly what he wants and likes a god petting now and then, but he's not really the type for long hugs. He's a good brother to the two other rats (who actually are his biological brothers) Noah and Merlijn. 


Noah, the sleepy lazybum above, is a big rat, and I mean BIG. He weighs over 800 grams now, that's about 28 ounces (if I calculated correctly). That's big for an adult male rat, who I'm used to being between 500-600 grams (between 17 and 21 ounces). He's not at all fat, though, it's all muscles in his body. They get a lot of time to run around my bedroom and jump on and off stuff, especially my couch and my bed, so they're very fit. It's important for rats to get plenty room to play, exercise and explore. They can't get bored. 

But I'm drifting off into a speech about proper care, back to my rats! Noah is a bit of a clown, he doesn't think before doing anything, he just jumps without caring where he lands. Mostly that's on his butt. And it looks darn funny :-p He can play a bit rough with his brothers, but he means well and he will always take care of them, groom them, make sure they have enough food and, ofcourse, destroy the hammocks I hang in their cage. 


My pretty boy Merlijn is a lazy bum too, but he sure likes his hugs! I like to pick him up when he's been napping, he's so soft and warm and relaxed. He likes to be scratched behind the ear, he turns soft when I do that. He's a sweety pie who grooms anything he gets into his little paws, including my fingers. He grabs them tightly and doens't let go until I'm clean by his standards. They never bite, though. They know perfectly that that's not allowed, it's like they know that hurts. When one of them accidentally bit me a little bit when I woke him up, I thought I saw him flinch. They're really the sweetest pets, they're like my cute little kids and I love them to bits. 

They also like attention waaaaay too much. Look at their little faces in the picture below. This was last night, they know they each get a hug before I go to bed. 



Since we're on the topic of pets, I wanted to show you my parrot. He's actually not really mine, he's my parent's parrot, but I'm like his mate. Unlike my rats, Bart (that's his name) will bite if he doesn't like or trust you. And he bites HARD. He likes me, I can do anything with him. Yesterday, he stuck his head through the opening of the feeder (he broke the feeder a few years ago) and let me pet his head with my whole hand, all the way to his wings. Nobody is allowed to do that, except me. I really have a special bond with this cutiepie :D

So these are my pets, the sweetest and cutest I have ever known. But doesn't every pet owner say that about their pets?

2 comments:

  1. Your rats are so cute! I've often thought about getting rats, but I already have ferrets and it probably wouldn't be right to get prey animals when I already have predators, haha. Their cage looks so awesome, though. Something about animals that crawl through tubes and sleep in hammocks is just so :3

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