Playing in the Water Fountain

Posted on April 3rd, 2008 in by Cassi

Yesterday one of my coworkers gave me a little water fountain for the ratties to play with. They’ve never really been around water, so I thought it’d be funny to see how they react.

The lil guys say “Thanks Autumn!!”

One of these days I’ll try pea fishing

Rats Have Amazing Balance

Posted on February 20th, 2008 in by Cassi

Here’s Pixel showing off his awesome balancing skills. It’s hard to believe this was my clumsy tilty boy not long ago. He still has a slight tilt, but it isn’t affecting his balance and movement as much any more.

Why Do Rats Like Beer So Much?

Posted on December 4th, 2007 in by Cassi

I guess I can’t blame them, I like beer too!

Before I go further, please know that they didn’t actually drink any beer except for the couple of drops left on the top of the bottle after I was finished with it.

They have always been interested in the scent of beer though. I’m not sure why that is, but it is pretty funny.

Pixel: “So is this where the beer comes out??”

Pixel Beer Bottle

Pica: “Maybe it’s behind this label…”

Pica Beer Label

“Aha! Found it!”

Pica Beer Bottle

“Sweet, sweet beer….”

Rats Beer Bottle

To be honest, they had more fun playing with the paper packet my tea bag came in than the beer bottle…

Rat Tea

Rat in the Garbage!

Posted on November 26th, 2007 in by Cassi

Earlier I got the boys out to play and set them in the kitchen as usual. I went back in their room to fill up their food dish and wipe down the shelves. When I came back to the kitchen I heard a strange rustling noise. I look over at the garbage can and see Pixel looking back me. His little face looked so shocked that he had gotten away with getting into the trash! As soon as he saw me he jumped out and ran next to the fridge… with his prize of course. He had found a piece of pasta from dinner that I’d thrown away. Luckily the only thing wrong with it was that it landed on the stove top instead of a bowl. I’m glad he didn’t make off with something gross or rotten, or raw (like the few bits of raw chicken I threw away, which were buried under a few other things). Well now I know to make sure no boxes are too close to the trash can. :P

And Now Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Rattie Cuteness

Posted on November 10th, 2007 in , by Cassi

Here are some pics I snapped of the rat babies while they were playing tonight. I think these came out really cute!

First, here they are trying to get out of the kitchen into the living room where I’m standing. Like the remodeling they’ve done to the doorway?

Rats in the Kitchen

Here’s Pica sitting in my hand.

Pica in my hand

And here’s Pica being cuddly in my lap. He loves to have behind his ears scratched. :D

Pica Scratches

Rat Freerange Playtime

Posted on October 4th, 2007 in by Cassi

Freerange playtime is so important for the ratties. First because it’s great exercise. Rats can get big and squishy and overweight pretty easily, so letting them run around a little each day helps them stay in shape. But also they’re very curious animals. Being in a cage all day can get extremely boring for them, and when they’re bored they become destructive. By giving them some time to explore and use their brains they stay in a happy mood.

Here’s what I do to give my boys some time to play in a safe, enclosed area. Everyone does playtime differently, but this works best for me. I block off the kitchen and lay random “toys” around on the floor. You can see in the picture below how I block the doors off. I got 2 sheets of “hardboard” from the hardware store and then I prop heavy objects against them to keep them from moving. The toys are mostly just cardboard boxes, other empty containers, and things that roll around. They love to crawl and climb over (and under) everything - including me. They get to run around for about 45 minutes a night before going back to the cage for dinner. Here are the two pictures:

rat freerange gate

rat freerange play

Lap Rat Picture

Posted on September 22nd, 2007 in , by Cassi

I just wanted to share this cute picture of my lap rats. :D They love chewing on socks for some reason. You can see Pica chewing on my foot in this pic.

Lap Rat Picture

Rattie Play Time Pictures

Posted on August 28th, 2007 in , by Cassi

I finally got a new charger for my camera battery (yay!!) so I took a ton of play time pictures tonight. Unfortunately, they’re always on the run, so I only got about a half dozen good ones.

Also, when I was at Petsmart yesterday I picked up one of those kitty teaser toys, with a stick and some string on the end. Pixel was all over it!

pixeltoy.png

pixeltoy1.png

Finally Pica warmed up to it - he was a little scared of it at first.

picatoy.png

But mostly Pica likes to hide out in between the counter and the fridge.

peekaboo.png

He also likes to chill on my lap.

laprat.png

And finally, here’s one of Pixel trying to find my ear!

ratear.png

There will definitely be more rat pictures to come!

Crafty Rat Baby

Posted on August 18th, 2007 in by Cassi

Sorry for not posting for so long! Things have been pretty busy around here, but I had to share this story.

I had the boys out for play time tonight in the kitchen. Well, I thought I had the place rat-proofed pretty good. Apparently I didn’t. Pixel found a small hole under the cabinet next to the dish washer and crawled in! He wandered around the under side of the dish washer for a while until I managed to lure him out with a Cheerio. He’s such a little trouble maker! He was also wriggling his way in between the cabinet and the fridge. I duct taped off both of those areas, but I think I need a better solution. As long as I keep an eye on him while he’s playing it should work for now. I wouldn’t mind him going in between the fridge and cabinet except that there’s cords back there and I don’t want him chewing on them. Pica, on the other hand, is a little ratty angel. :D

Anyways, more pictures and info on play time to come soon!

More Rat Pictures

Posted on August 6th, 2007 in , by Cassi

Some updated pictures of Pixel and Pica from play time a couple days ago. They are really growing fast! The picture quality isn’t very good because I had to use my cell phone, but I touched them up as best I could.

Pixel:

peekaboo.jpg
Peek-a-boo! I love ths picture! :D

cleaning.jpg
He only stopped playing long enough to get himself cleaned up.

Pica:

handhugz.jpg
Pica’s the cuddly rat boy.

picajump.jpg
“What do you think? Can I jump all the way over to the table?”

Sometime this week I’ll try to make one or two of them into LolRats. The one I made before seemed to go over really well.