Aaa-Chew!

Most animals have little things they do that are unique to that type of animal. Dogs will wag their tail, cats purr, well rats brux. When a rat is bruxing, they are grinding their top and bottom teeth together in order to file them down.They tend to do this more when they are happy. I often hear my rats bruxing while they sit on my shoulders. With this cute trait also comes a habit which can be very annoying. Rats love to chew things. In fact, they are quite infamous for their gnawing talents. This is a habit that can be maintained simply by giving them things that they are allowed to chew like newspaper. You can buy edible houses and huts, or like me, buy the large food pellets that are designed with your little critters chewing needs in mind. It is actually necessary for rats to brux and chew in order to keep their teeth from getting too long. The teeth of rats continue to grow throughout their entire lifetime and if they grow out of control, it can prevent the rat from eating properly. Charlie and Linus have never chewed anything that they weren't suppose to chew. Even the paper bags I give them to play in manage to last for months before I throw them away. Usually they only chew the corners out so they can freely come and go through both ends of the bag. From the very beginning I fed them the large pellets which helped to satisfy any urges they might have had to chew. Not all rats are as well-behaved as mine, but most can be influenced by the steps you take in preventing their bad behavior.

My New Roos

Months had passed since the ice storm and Matt and I had finally gotten settled into our new home here in Lexington. The days seemed to be getting longer and I had more and more time alone while Matt was at work. "I need something to occupy my time," I thought. Rats! I began looking up various things about rats to better educate myself this time around. By the end of the day, I had made up my mind. I was going to have a pet rat.

The weeks leading up to the big day consisted of research. I learned that having two rats is more beneficial than one, because they are very social animals. They need to be loved all the time and with a job and school I wouldn't be able to give them attention every hour. I also watched a lot of videos that showed how to care for rats, such as their eating habits, bathing, and even common health problems they develop. Once I knew more about the rat itself, I felt it was time to purchase a home for my little critters.

For over a week, I was on the hunt for a cage;not too small, not too expensive, and easy to clean. It arrived in the mail a few days later, and immediately I dove into the assembly. Now I could almost see them playing inside.

Finally, the big day came! Matt and I went to a local pet store that he had went to quite frequently a few years back. The lady took us into the rat room and thats when she showed me Charlie. He was so small and furry! She introduced him as a dumbo rat, which means his ears sit more on the side of his head than on top. It kind of makes him look like a really cute possom. His coat was mostly white, with a thick grey/brown stripe down his back. He was an obvious yes! After asking if she had any black rats, out came Linus with his pointy nose sniffing, and in the box they both went. It wasn't until after I had brought them home that I decided on their names. It was practically the first thing that popped into my head. Charlie Brown and Linus Van Pelt;what a pair.

When Harry Met Sally...

It was the summer of 2008 when my boyfriend, Matt, got a pet rat named Sally. She was somewhat lonely at times, and after some thought, he decided we would buy another rat and breed a litter for his 10 year old snake, Malachi. The drive was long, and after our trip to the rat lady, we released the newly named Harry to do his deed. When Harry met Sally, the sparks must have flown because within a few weeks, Sally had made a nest of newspapers and bedding, and one night gave birth to 13 little pinkies.

To watch them grow hair and open their eyes as they stumbled around the cage was so cute. At about 5 weeks old we separated the boys from the girls, but only a few weeks later discovered one of the boys got a hold of Sally and she gave birth to another litter of 12 more baby rats. Now we were in a little bit deeper, but we made sure to separate this litter ahead of time. We ended up with total of 26 at one time.

They became very talented escape artists from early on. There were countless times that they figured out how to squeeze through the tiniest slither or pile on top of each other until one could reach the top of whatever they were in, just enough to grab hold and pull themselves up. One morning we awakened to find some of the girls inside the house with the guinea pig and surprisingly we always managed to catch them all again.

By the time they were all full grown Ratties, we had already named a few of them. Big Ben was the largest of the boys. Stuart had a tan stripe down his back and he always was first to the cage to be pet. In with the girls were Amilia and Camilla(tan and white),Georgetta, and Sally. As time went on, it became more and more difficult to drop them into that death box. Our little rat army was all I talked about for months. It was so new to me and I learned how smart and personable they really are.

In January, we moved to Lexington and they were left in the care of Matt's mother. Soon after we had left, a terrible ice storm passed through western Kentucky and left hundreds of people from our hometown without power for weeks. There were no grocery stores open, no way to communicate to one another and no way to keep poor Malachi warm. His cold blooded body couldn't withstand such extreme temperatures. Just days after his death, Matt's mom knew there would be no way to continue feeding 20 rats in such a rough time, so she gave them to a friend who owned a large hungry Boa. O what I would do to be able to pet Sally's head one more time.