Family Pets

Most families that I know have at least one pet of some kind. This is true in our family as well. We have two cats, a black long hair we call Ebony, and a White and Orange short hair tabby mix we call Keeper.

However, my favorite of our pets are technically the boys' pets, but I think I play with them more than they do! We have rats! Yup, furry bodied, naked tailed rats. Up until yesterday we had two of them, girls that the boys called Ana and Kylie (I have no idea where the names come from, I just ask and they name). Yesterday though we did something that I think is FANTASTIC! We found a ferret cage for a great price, and I had been looking to get a larger cage for the girls simply because I think animals should have as much space as possible to call home. So, at the pet store I was purchasing a glass water bottle for them (they have chewed through 3 plastic ones in the past month), some fresh bedding, some pelleted food because all that was left in their mix was seeds, and a few chew toys (Rat teeth never stop growing and so they much chew them down or they will cause problems).

Well, those of you who know me KNOW that I almost never walk out of a store with only the items I intended to purchase, so while there we bought another little rat. The boys call her Hannah, and she is still a little nervous around people, but I'm sure my tempting treats offered each morning will earn her trust in no time at all. So here we were with a HUGE cage and only 3 little ratties in them. I was browsing online and found a family who was moving and looking for a new home for their two little ratties, I read on and found that they were females, so I contacted the family and "Yes, we do still have them, and we really need to find them a new home". I got the address (less than a mile from our home) and off we went. We arrived and the girls were just too cute not to take home, so into our shoebox they went and we headed home.

We now have 5 little girls in our cage, and two more will be arriving soon, as we are rescuing them from being snake food. Now don't get me wrong snakes have to eat too, but these two are just too cute to be snake food, and since the snake doesn't really care what the food looks like I think these two would be better served as pets. :)

I thought I would post a few pictures of our girls and their new palace, oh and in case anyone is wondering our Cats are terrible hunters and are actually afraid of the rats. ;) When the rats are on the floor playing the cats are high up on the furniture or they are hiding in my room. If a rat happens to get near enough a cat to sniff the cat screams and runs, literally screams and runs.


Here is the cage itself, 4 feet high! The three ratties you can see in the picture are Ana, Kylie, and Princess.










This is Hannah (the little black face in the corner), she's still very shy and likes to stay in the corner whenever possible. There is also a bit of Kylie in this picture.




This one is Kylie in the front and little Gayle in the back corner.






They all love this giant cage, and they all get along great. When I went in this morning with nutrigrain bar they were all at the front of the cage whiskers a twitchin' waiting for the treats they knew were coming, well, all except for Hannah who perked up a bit in her corner, but refused to come out. I gave her a piece in the corner which she happily took and ate. Princess kept trying to convince me she didn't get any and needed more, when actually what she was doing was taking the piece and running it to the back of the cage in the opposite corner from Hannah and burrying it, they are rodents after all and as such they will hoard food.