Why did we choose rats as pets? We get asked that a LOT! Rats are sweet, smart, affectionate and oh so cute. Take a gander at my pictures if you don't believe me! But let me tell you a story that will hopefully help you understand the charm and amazing attributes we often see in our rats:
We integrated /Rat.Com (aka Slash) into the cage with Jack, Peep and Goober on 12/24/03 - the three of them were very peaceable and so was Slash and intros had gone smoothly; we watched them for several hours in their freshly cleaned cage, and there were no problems.
I got up to take my medicine (having recently undergone surgery to remove my tonsils) and Dmitry glanced in on them as he was crushing my pills to add them to the syrup, and noticed Slash was laying on Jack and suddenly said "oh no, oh no" and moved Fernard, Tory and Butchie's cage to the side and grabbed out Jack, who was positively covered in blood. He quickly checked everyone else, and they were all fine, and looked Jack over more carefully - Jack had snagged a toenail, and anyone who has rats knows how badly a toenail can bleed (rats have a small vein in their toenails - this actually is one way to get a blood sample from them). To make matters worse, Jack had a tendency to bleed anyway.
Jack was a very large boy, but he was more than a bit shocky due to blood loss, so we cleaned him up, wrapped him in a towel, carefully removed the toenail, used a mild astringent (witch hazel) to keep it from bleeding any more, and kept him warm - we also brought out Goober, Peep and Slash to assure them that Jack was fine (because they were freaking out) and also so we could re-clean their cage, to get out the blood (which is part of why the other boys were so upset).
Here is the part of the story I always find most amazing: it was Slash, who was new to the group, who took it upon himself to keep Jack warm by laying on top of him until we noticed the situation and took care of it. Jack hadn't even had time to start trying to clean himself up, so it hadn't happened long before we noticed it and brought him out, thankfully. You see what truly amazing creatures, these little guys are?
(note: All rats mentioned in this story have since crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Due to the prevalence of a virus called Myco - that's the short term, but I'm too lazy to look up the long name - in their lungs, the average life-span of a rat is only about 2 1/2 - 3 years and that can be shortened if they end up having a flare-up of symptoms, which can result in scarring to the lungs, etc. Myco is a horrible disease and with the infrequent breedings we have done in the past, we dedicated ourselves to breeding only the healthiest rats who have shown no signs of active Myco infection - this doesn't mean they do not HAVE Myco, as all domestic rats are considered to carry it, it just means that they have a strong enough immune system to keep it at bay. In this manner, we had hoped to improve the overall health of the fancy in our own, small way. We have since discontinued breeding for personal reasons, but we will not stop keeping rats as pets!)
Well, enjoy the site! And if you should have your own little zoo, please come and join us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DoYouHaveAZoo/
Katy and Dmitry
