Skittles

Skittles!

Skittles is one of the more entertaining rats that my friend Alex and I received off someone who couldn't look after them anymore. She is a bit brain-damaged, but is fully mobile. She has a tendancy to turn her head upside down to look at you, which is very odd for a rat! :)
Despite her problems, she is very cute and friendly.

Skittles lives with her 5 sisters in a big cage next door to Echo and her babies.

Echo

Echo Face

Pretty Echo is a good rat, and she loves white chocolate buttons more than anything.
She was given to Alex and I for breeding with her male rat Splat, as Splat's three brothers had died recently, and I had just lost the last of my girls.
She was a little worried at first, but now she's really friendly and a good mother to her babies.

Echo and Splat (and their babies) were all stars of a short film directed by Alex for the local TV station. Hopefully, I'll get a copy to put on here sometime..



Echo Very Pregnant !


Echo After Giving Birth

The proud mother! (Possibly telling me to get away from her newborn babies.. :)

Badger & Aero : Growing Up Fast!

Babies @ 13 weeks Badger & Aero

Aren't they beautiful girls ? They look more like little teddybears as babies :)

New life! - Badger and Aero

1 week old babies!

Badger (family name :) and Aero

More like twins than the litter we were expecting, but they make up for it in boundless energy and comical fights. How can anyone hate such beautiful creatures ?
When they're first born they have no eyes or ears, and are completely reliant on their mother. They squeak almost constantly when awake at first (just like humans) :)

Daughters to: Echo and Splat




Babies @ 2 weeks



Babies in jar

Badger and Aero in what has become known as 'the birthing jar' as Alex - carer of Splat & eight others - called it after many of her rats were born in it.



Baby Aero

Looks just like her mum :)



Baby Badger

Not too common to see a girl-rat asleep on your lap, it's more of a boy-rat thing.



Tiny Baby Badger

She is smaller than it looks in the picture, the 'huge' box is a bird-box.. :)

All good rats go to heaven..

This part of the blog will (increasingly) be dedicated to our much missed babies who have died.


Mavis


Mavis running/waddling

Mavis was a lovely rat, although red-eyed.. :O
She got fatter and fatter and had the widest butt ever seen on a rat, but then had some kind of accident with her tail and lost tons of weight.
She developed some kind of brain problems, possibly due to loss of balance from her damaged tail, and falling. I hand-fed her for 2 months before she died, she died in my arms.


Badger


Badger face


Badger eating malteaser


My beautiful baby Badger. She was the cleverist rat I've known, she learned her name in days and knew many tricks. She was sister to, and lived with, Mavis.
Badger died 2 weeks after Mavis, although she seemed perfectly well. I found her with her head in her lap, an unusual position for a rat, and blood coming from her eyes and mouth (not nice)
When she seemed in pain, I took her to the vets to be put down. She was smiling at me to the end.

Badger's relatives:
Mavis, Snoop, De Niro, Pacino

Badger's parents:
Stuart, Chloe


[31.08.2005]
Cheena

The first of the 'new' batch of rats to die. Unfortunately she died before I could get a picture of her, but she looked very much like Badger (above) - she died quietly after being quite ill looking for a month or so. By this, I mean that she had lost a lot of weight, and was not eating properly. The day before she died I saw blood in her eye, which is never a good sign.
She was named because she looked like Pachino, who was brother to Badger and Mavis.

Cheena's relatives:
Skittles, Snowy, Mary, Dot & Ethel (Girls)
Henry, Eric, Vinnie, Boris, Badger, Beaver, Marshall & Xzibit (Boys)