Good Bye Pixel

Posted on July 30th, 2008 in by Cassi

My sweet little Pixel passed away on Saturday. It was extremely sudden, and he was so young. When I got home from work Thursday evening he was hunched over, not moving much, and his fur was all puffed out. I took him into the vet first thing the next morning. After an xray and blood work, the vet determined he had an ear infection and possibly infection elsewhere. We got him on Baytril and Meloxicam. I got him to eat some ground up lab blocks mixed with water, and was hopeful he was doing better. But on Saturday he started getting worse. He was so lethargic he couldn’t stand up to eat out of his shallow dish. He was taking meds from the syringe pretty well if I held him in my lap, so I decided to suck up some watery food and feed him with the syringe, too, since he wouldn’t eat on his own. Somehow I think he inhaled some of the food, or choked on it, because his breathing got really labored and I could tell something was wrong. From everything I’ve read in the past, it said to let a rat work it out if he’s choking because intervention could make it worse. But after 1 or 2 minutes he stopped breathing. I called the e-vet immediately, and she suggested CPR. I managed to blow air into his lungs a few times, but it was too late.

I feel so terrible about it. He was a great rat. He always knew how to win people over with kisses and cuddles - I called him my Rattie Ambassador. I know I’ll never have another rat just like him.

Hue and Pixel

Here he is with Hue just a couple weeks ago.

The Little Boys Have Met the Big Boys

Posted on May 26th, 2008 in by Cassi

Sorry for no updates in so long! The month of May is always hectic. We went to NY for vacation a couple weeks ago (don’t worry, my brother rat-sitted), then this long weekend was spent on the Indy 500 and the surrounding festivities.

Well the big boys and little boys are still living separately, but hopefully not for long. They’re almost big enough to go in the Big Boy Cage. They do get to play together almost every day though. Here’s a video of them playing:

Click here.

Let me know if the link doesn’t work for some reason…

Hue’s all better!

Posted on May 3rd, 2008 in by Cassi

He had his final vet check today and the vet said he was fully recovered. She massaged his trachea and tickled his nose trying to get the mucous to move around and make him sneeze. But there were no sneezes! Then she listened to his lungs with a stethoscope and didn’t hear anything. She said he could come off the meds, because she didn’t want him to become resistant to them. So I decided to bring the little guys home today. :D They had been at the office for 2 1/2 weeks and now that they are totally better I thought it was time they came home where I can give them lots more attention. 

I held each of them up to Pixel through the cage bars so they could sniff each other too.  I think they’re going to be great friends. Pixel sniffed each one for a couple seconds then tried to groom their faces. I haven’t tried it w/ Pica yet though since he’s so dominate. I don’t want to stress the little guys out after their big move home. The new boys are still babies practically, so I don’t think there’s going to be any issue with introductions. They’re still too small to go in the cage with the big boys though. So they’ll only get to play together for now. 

My new Easter boys!

Posted on April 16th, 2008 in by Cassi

I lucked out and found 2 new boys on Craigslist. Their litter was born on Easter, and these were the only 2 boys in the bunch. They’re soooo tiny and adorable! And they were handled since birth so they’re super friendly. They don’t mind being held and petted, and they poke their little heads out when they hear someone coming into the room. They’re fur is beautiful too. I honestly couldn’t tell you what colors they are, because they look so unique, and possibly because they’re still babies and have baby fur. Here are the pictures:

Hex - Can you tell I love his belly? :P

Baby Hex

Baby Hex Belly

Baby Hex Belly 2

Hue - Check out his little head spot!

Photobucket

Baby Hue in a Cup

I think they’ll be making a vet trip tomorrow to make sure everything is okay. Hue is a little sneezy. So today I changed the litter to Soft Sorbent from the Papurr. I think the scent from either the Papurr or the Timothy hay was making him sneeze. At least I hope that’s all it is…

Their cage came in last night too! I ended up getting the 141 because I couldn’t get the order changed in time :( Oh well. I can always add on with the 143 if I need to. I’ll have more pics of that when I set it up this weekend and move Pixel and Pica in.

Pixel and Pica are getting 2 new rat brothers!

Posted on April 8th, 2008 in by Cassi

Well, I can’t say anything too definite yet. I don’t have any solid plans set up so far. But I know 2 new boys will be coming home soon. :D I checked the cage calculator and it says my cage is big enough for 4 rats, but I don’t really want it to be that crowded. So I’ll be getting a Ferret Nation 141 for them to live in. Here’s a link to the description of the cage: Ferret Nation 141. It’s one of the best cages out there for rats. The normal FN is twice this size and is called the Ferret Nation 142, but I don’t think I need to go that crazy. The 141 can hold 6 rats, and I plan to top out at 4. Besides, if I got the 142, I might be tempted to fill it up with more rats… and I think Kevin would kill me! :P

Anyways, I’m really excited, and I can’t wait to introduce 2 new ratties to you all!

A Short Update

Posted on March 29th, 2008 in by Cassi

Actually, I don’t have much of an update, which is why I haven’t posted much lately. The ratties are doing great. We haven’t had a lot of excitement recently.

Don’t forget that World Rat Day is coming up on April 4th!

And here’s a cute picture from a week or two ago:

cute picture of my rat, pixel

Happy Year of the Rat!

Posted on February 7th, 2008 in by Cassi

Today is the Chinese New Year… the year of the Rat! To celebrate, the boys got a dish of oatmeal with raspberries smushed into it. They went nuts over it! Here’s a video of them eating:

Google is celebrating the New Year, too. This was their logo for today:Google Year of the Rat

Pretty cute!

Happy New Year!!

Edit: P.S. Reddit is celebrating too!

Reddit Year of the Rat

Rats are a lot like puppies…

Posted on January 27th, 2008 in by Cassi

They really are. You can teach them tricks, they’ll come when you call their name, and they like belly rubs. :P

Here’s Pica laying in my lap enjoying a good head scratch:

Pica head scratch

And here’s a link to a video of someone else’s rat playing fetch! Click here.

Do your rats do anything puppy-like?

The Year of The Rat

Posted on January 1st, 2008 in by Cassi

Happy New Year Everyone!

Starting Feb. 7th, it will be the Year of the Rat. :D The boys had a fun time celebrating the new year with us last night. While we had normal, big-people, pina colada/fruit daiquiris the ratties just had some of the fruit juice that we were using to make our drinks. We’re totally addicted to Naked fruit smoothies right now, so we got the pina colada and the blue machine flavors to use in our drinks. Here are the boys drinking some of each flavor mixed together.

New Year Ratties

Merry Christmas from Pixel and Pica!

Posted on December 26th, 2007 in by Cassi

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy Christmas for my rat boys. They didn’t get any special presents (because they’re already spoiled). But they did get a big dish of baby food and a few Flat Earth Fruit Chips - both of which they adore. And their grandmom saved up a huge trash bag full of card board tubes. Maybe tomorrow I’ll pick up a new hammock for them. Right now they’re scampering around in the kitchen… probably getting into trouble.

Good night and Merry Christmas!