rats.page

Colorwheel's Rats!

This is my first rat named Maxwell Taber, or just Max. He was named after a character in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (an odd book & a great movie). Max's parents were rescued from NIH.
     His mom, Byss, was a silver fawn rex and his dad, Studmuffin, was an agouti rex. My sister bred them. I told her I wanted a fawn rex female, if there was one in that litter. Max was the only silver fawn rex & he was a male, but I took him anyway.
     He was born in Florida and my sister flew (with Max in her shirt :) up to Maryland to give him to me as a high school graduation gift.
     He escaped from his cage and hid in the piano the day I got him. Luckily, I got him out quickly, the little bugger. His favorite snacks were oatmeal, raisins & bananas. He got a bath every month, but he never really smelled. When he was a little baby, he didnt seem to mind baths. But as he got older, he would spring out of the sink or up my arm to get away from the water. In the summer, I used to carry him outside to feel the sunshine, but he preferred to lay on my lap, wrapped up in a towel.

My brother Stephen with Max on his shoulder.

Max's mom, Byss with a hooded hairless.

Phil, a BE fawn hooded rex. He was one of my sister's other rats.

     Parry was my first female rat. Ever since Max died in May, 2001, I had been wanting to get another rat. I finally got two in September, from separate petstores. The first one I bought was Parry, a self sky blue. The other was Calvin, a champagne hooded. When I first got her, I thought she was a male (stupid me). When I took my new ratties out to play, I noticed that she was a female and Calvin was a male. Uh-oh.
     I also noticed that they were sneezing, so I brought them to the vet at the PetsMart where I worked at the time. They said that both rats had respiratory infections. So they put Calvin on Baytril, but not Parry, because she was pregnant!
     When I got them, Calvin was so young that his balls hadn't even come down, so I know Parry was already pregnant when I got her. I had Calvin neutered so he could be together with Parry after the babies were weaned. When Parry had her babies, my sister took them to her house becuase my parents would throw a fit with so many rats in their house.
     Parry gave birth to 12 babies, but she died suddenly when they were only 18 days old. Poor little Parry. Two were already dead when I went to my sister's house to pick them up, so I could take them home and hand feed them. Then five more died within the next two days.
     Five of the little ones survived, three females, and two males. I named the boys Harry and Ron, and I named the girls Stormy, Sugarfoot, and Hammerhead. My sister adopted Hammerhead (later renamed Verse) to live with her dumbo double-rex named Lyric, I kept the other two girls, and one of my co-workers took the two boys (renaming them Scabbers and Mouse). I wish I could have kept them all!

This is a poor picture of Parry. It doesn't show what a lovely blue color she was. But it's the only one I've got of her :*(

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