A Big Change - A Hiatus from Breeding

Hello everyone!

This is really difficult blog post for me to make and I have been procrastinating on posting for a while now, as it is to announce that I will no longer be breeding.

Due to all of the recent changes in my life since the hospital, I will no longer be breeding and adopting out litters. However do not fear! 7 of my rats have moved to True North Rattery, and Melissa, my good friend and the owner of True North Rattery, will be continuing to breed the happy, healthy and friendly rats that they always have, and that we have had here. 

True North Rattery is a longtime friend of mine, and I am so happy we were able to be breeding partners over the past years. They have the most beautiful rat room, the most excitable, loving, adorable rats, and even have cages and hammocks available for purchase at their rattery as well. 

For all of those on my messaging list and my previous adopters, I will be forwarding you to True North Rattery. I will be rehoming my rats save for 3 of my girls who will be staying with me <3

I am expecting to have around 6 babies and 10 adults available, including some dwarf ratties. 

I had paired Daze last week, so I may or may not have one final litter in one month, I will post updates on that!

Please visit True North Rattery here:

https://www.truenorthrattery.com

Become an adopter here:

https://www.truenorthrattery.com/become-an-owner

A huge thank you to everyone who has helped me become the best breeder I could be over the years, and so much love to every adopter who has given any of my babies a loving home. I could not have had a better experience over the past 4 years, they have been a dream come true.

A long overdue update!

I left my blog on quite the cliffhanger!

Firstly I'd like to announce (as many of you have already seen) that only 3 accidental litters were born in my rattery and I was lucky enough to have 3 very healthy mamas with litters totalling 17 little bouncy sweet babies.

The mums have been excellent with the little ones, and I could not have asked for more bright eyed adorable little ones. I would like to again thank everyone who offered their assistance if 6 litters had indeed been born, as I have messaged each of you, I am so thankful and so glad that there are so many members of our lovely community that are ready to help these little ones out if they ever need it.

Moving forward, the 17 babies have grown past 4 weeks of age now and will be ready for adoption quite soon! I am preparing to post them on my availability page.

Here are some adorable pics from the most recent litter! 

My biggest mistake - and my plan to get back on track

Hello everyone! I am finally making the post I've been too anxious to make, announcing the biggest mistake I have ever made as a breeder, my apologies for my absence (again I know agh 😥) and my plan to get back on track.

1. Starting with my mistake.

A week ago, cleaning cages, I put the girls from my most recent litter (Pippin x Casper born Jan. 2/18) above my boys in a DCN, separated only by a plastic level. 

To my horror, the a few days later I came back to see my boys resting alongside my girls, all intermingled between the cages. All 8 of the girls had been with the boys for at most 6 hours, as that was when I had been in the rat room last. However, it only takes a second for rats to be impregnated. 

I am now waiting on what I assume will be 8 litters. These girls are small and I worry for them as mums, but I am hoping that if all are pregnant, the births will go smoothly. 

My vet has been informed in case of emergency, and I am asking my family for help making nursing bins for the new mums. 

2. Alongside this, I have been absent from most communication over the past month and longer and I am so sorry.

It has been a long month of readjustment. As many of you know I was recently hospitalized for 2 months for esophageal dismotility and had a G-tube placed in my stomach to eat. I was very determined to get back to breeding as usual and was so excited, but have realized that I am not yet ready for the amount of internet work that I was doing before the hospital. 

These two incidences combined have been pretty overwhelming and I am only one person. I want to be able to get back to all of your messages and answer all of your questions and am doing my best to think of ways to reach out and get assistance doing so, I apologize that I haven't sooner. I was stubborn in thinking that I could run a one-woman show when I do need help. 

3. The plan

I have been talking to a few people about helping me out with messaging and some are "taking lessons" so to speak so I can get back to you in the most informative way possible.

I am also having friends help out when I am cleaning the rat room, and am so thankful to everyone who helped me out while I was in the hospital and afterwards. Their generosity is overwhelming. 

At this time I am very scared to have 8 litters on my hands and fear that I will be overwhelmed here. I have the cage space for 6 full grown litters, and am looking for foster homes for at least 2 litters to help me raise these kiddos. If you are open to fostering I would be providing everything needed for the litter that you raise and give my full attention to helping you out via phone or Skype if anything is needed.

In addition to all of this, if those of you who haven't received messages from me answering your questions could give me a text to book a phone call at 416 892 2697 that would be amazing. I will be able to help you out better over the phone at this time I believe and will be working on getting back to the messages.  

The boys from the litter will be available for adoption soon. I am uploading pictures as I am posting this. Availability announcements will still be done via email.

I am expecting at least 80 babies from the 8 litters. I am hoping that by some miracle none of the girls are pregnant in 3 weeks as 80 rats at one time (or more if all are pregnant) would be the most rats I have ever had here, and I am ill prepared but doing my best to catch up. 

Get ready for a million pictures, likely some confusion (or lots of confusion) and lots of babies for adoption. The next month may be wild. 

Cute pictures incoming&nbsp;

Cute pictures incoming 

 

 

The popular "Rat Taking A Shower" video

I'm sure you all have seen the absolutely adorable video of a sweet "rat" taking a shower with a whole bunch of soap, using their cute little arms to get all those hard to reach spots <3 If you haven't already, the video can be seen here:

Though this video is adorable, unfortunately there are a few issues surrounding it which I list below:

Soap should never be used while bathing rats for many reasons! 

Firstly, any scented soap irritates their upper respiratory system and can lead to respiratory infection. 

Secondly, a rats' favourite method of cleaning themselves is by using their tongue! Soap is not pleasant to ingest and is not safe to ingest in any quantity which a rat is sure to do during a bath.

Thirdly, there are oils on a rats' skin that keep them comfortable. Using soap would remove these oils and leave your rats feeling irritated, itchy and more susceptible to injury such as scrapes and cuts.

Baths for fleas/mites/lice

For those who are mentioning that this could be a flea/mites/lice shampoo and thus beneficial to the animal in question, please note that if you are treating your small pets for these issues you will be given drops of Revolution to put on the nape of their neck. No bathing or shampoos are required, and the drops are a 1-2 time application medication, therefore much easier and cheaper to use than any bath that claims it does the same thing! This also takes away the risk of ingestion.

This rat is not a rat!

I also wanted to mention lastly that this is not a rat - this is a young nutria! They look very similar but are very different species' :) If you love rats, you will absolutely love looking at cute videos and pictures of nutria! In this case however, they are doing their best to remove the soap from their fur. They are not cleaning themselves, but doing their best to get rid of the soap unfortunately.

Though we can appreciate how cute this video is, please do not try to replicate this video for the previous reasons! 

Keep all pets and wild animals safe and happy and avoid using soaps <3 Thanks for reading!