Heartwarming!

All snuggled up <3 Things are so far going well, in the second picture she was bruxing! I think she likes having friends to cuddle with. Looking forward to seeing her in the explorer, I dont think it will be too long, she just left the pile to eat then laid straight back down with them like she has always been there

Meet Oreo :D

I shouldnt browse preloved lol. Saw her ad and thought I would just enquire...

Her old owner sadly could no longer keep her so she has joined my crazy crew. Will be letting her settle in for a while before starting intros. She is a lovely calm and sweet girl who I think will fit in very nicely. She even bruxed for me within minutes of meeting me. Her owner also fetched me the inside tube from a carpet which is a perfect size for the rats to play in! How kind. Its just the kind of thing I have been looking for I do not know why I didnt think of it before. I shall have to ask at the carpet shop up the road, though getting it on the bus should be a laugh!

So intros soon. Pretty sure that they will go very nicely but I always worry a little when doing them. Will try get more pics when she lets me , she didnt want to sit still today.

Insomnia

I normally have this but I'm not still downstairs at this time (3am!) But the silver lining to the cloud is that the girls are out and about being active. Mocha is having a good old run in the wheel and Rave is ripping up a paper bag, probably with help, but I cannot see any of the others. The boys are all being lazy, but they were being active this afternoon.

Mocha is so cute in the wheel, I almost forgive her for nipping my toes during freerange. Little horror!

You dont have to be mad to live here...

But it helps!

I was looking for things the rats could have as a treat drink, as I'm sure they are sick of water. Apparently they can have cooled herbal tea, so I ordered two free samples for them to try (turns out they probably wont be able to have it due to it having liquorice root in it :( )

Once the sample had processed it said at the bottom "We will contact you for tasting notes" which cracked me up and I joked to my mum that I would need tiny notepads and tiny biros. She proceeded to do impressions of the rats discussing the tea, bizarrely they all had Irish accents.

She is a splendid mum

I don't know who finds the wheel more fun

Me or the girls lol.

I was in hysterics watching Luna in the wheel last night , she was running so fast it looked like she was just bouncing up and down.

In unrelated news Dexter has his booster jabs tomorrow... heres hoping he doesnt cry

What a lovely suprise!

My mum got me...well the girls... a silent spinner!!!

It arrived in HUGE box, did'nt have a clue what it was when I took it from the delivery man. But I was stunned on how big the wheel is, even though when I was first looking at wheels I measured about 12 inchs.

The girls love it, Mocha has already had a run in it, she worked it out straight away. Aeon has been in it too, even Pink had a small stroll in it before deciding it wasn't for her. Yet to see the other two use it but there is time yet.

I put it at the back of the cage to start but I took the basket off the door at the top so that I could put the wheel on the right hand side wall. This means I can watch them play in the wheel when I am sat across the room on the sofa. I will have to relocate the basket tomorrow, I may just cable tie it higher to the door.

My dog is an evil genius

Dexter was asking to be let out , so I took him downstairs to go into the garden. To get to the back door you have to go through the garage so I opened the garage door , he normally runs straight through. But the second I opened the door he turned around and ran back up the stairs and stole and ate the wrapper from my bun! He knew I wouldnt be able to stop him if he lured me downstairs first

I cant believe I was tricked by a dog!

Cage complete :D

Here it is in all its glory, all finished. Its still a bit bare at the back but with my ridiculosly short arms putting stuff at the back would be very difficult and involve me having to wheel the cage out whenever I change something. I'm pretty happy with it, they have to excercise to get places, and there are lots of places for them to sit.

top half

bottom half

top half with doors open

"what you doing?"

Homemade hammock tunnel

Luna foraging

Luna showing her hoodyness

Rave

Mocha

"butter wouldnt melt"

 And so they don't feel left out, some pics of the boys, doing their favourite thing

One of these things is not like the others...

Spot the difference

Mocha is starting to be an absolute little madam, She kept nipping Aeon and grabbed Luna's face and ear. She tried it with Pink but she just kicked her out of the way. Mocha was also humping everybody during free range tonight, I think shes starting to want to be boss so I shall need to observe that. Rave is 2 now so there may be a takeover shortly. She is such a cheeky girl though, she kept nipping my feet. Can do without my feet being nipped but I do love her personality coming through. They make an unlikely trio with friendly, easy going Aeon and sweet little Luna. I forgot how crazy young does are.

We have lift off!

On my cage filling project anyway! The sputnik arrived today, I have wanted one for ages! Finally got one, a lovely pale pink :D Though I was torn on what colour to get, there is pink with a purple top, purple with a pink top, black with grey, grey with black, blue with white, white with blue, green and yellow and light pink. Not sure why there is only one sputnik that is all one colour.

I also saw a black and red but they didn't have it on the site I ordered from (got some other things too) and it was nearly two pounds more expensive. I toyed with the idea of getting a black and grey and a grey and black and making a full black one from it. I think they should make more solid coloured ones , such as hot pink, black and purple. I would buy those. Or make it so you can buy a top and bottom separately, mix and match. Black with pink or purple would look good, as would black and white, yellow and pink, purple and green....Someone should organise a sputnik swap shop.

Anyway I digress, my Sputnik is a lovely pale pink. You can choose whether to stand them up or flip them over and attach them to the ceiling. I put mine on the ceiling as there was a space to fill. The girls have had a look in it, someone has even nibbled it! I hope they don't ruin it! I tried to get a picture of Aeon sat in it earlier but when I went over to the cage she climbed out for a fuss. Better luck next time. I have put it quite near the shelf so that they can get in and out easily, I'm thinking of perhaps moving it so it is further away and putting an extra hammock near it so that they can use that. Will see how they get on with it.

Its here :D

In the cage...notice the tiny nibble in the middle of the entrance!

As well as the Sputnik, I ordered more Tap A Drop, so I can keep my living room smelling all citrusy ^_^

I also got them some hemp seeds, which they had today and enjoyed. I gave them as treats, as they have had quite enough yoggies this week. The giving yoggies seems to have worked as they will mostly run down to see me if I open the bottom door. Except Mocha today she decided hemp seeds weren't enough motivation to get out of bed. They also tried pepper today which had a mixed response. Yellow pepper was taken quicker than the red pepper but it all seems to nearly have gone so I think they like it :D

Hopefully the rest of my cage decorating things arrive tomorrow, plus I might plan some more hammocks. My mum said she will make me some, she is brilliant with a sewing machine, whereas I would likely sew my fingers together haha. I normally buy my hammocks but the rats goodies budget is well and truly blown for a few months at least. I only really need a few spares anyway.

Ratty Enrichment

Now I have opened the explorer up, I have decided to do more things to have the girls really thinking. The boys have proved themselves to not be big thinkers, their scene is to curl up in the hammock watching the day go by or sleeping. Unless this involves nuts in shells, they are happy to open them, as it involves food.

Feeding wise, I normally just throw it in for them, I stopped using a bowl a while ago for reasons I cannot remember. But I actively scattered the food today, with the girls I mixed it in the substrate so they will need to really dig for it. I will see how this goes for a week but I'm sure they will find it interesting. Plus it is a good excercise for Pink as I have put her on a diet. It was only implented today as I kept her out of the cage for a while after clean out and feeding but I think she knows as she wee'd and poo'ed on me. Thanks Pink....

Another thing I did for enrichment was putting nuts in a small cardboard box with the lid closed. They seemed to work out something was in there, but they haven't opened it as of yet. I'm sure they will work it out, though I had hoped to see them do it.

I'm hoping that my things to decorate the cage with arrive tomorrow. Then I need to decide where stuff is going, although I have drawn like two plans already lol. Then I can get pics :D Really hope that it doesnt look bare still, when I have finished.

And some Dexter news as I haven't included him in a while really , He seems to be getting better with his shyness, We have had two people to the house and after a bit of barking he asked for a fuss off them, even jumping up, which is naughty of him but its nice to see him less fearful. Hopefully he will keep going from strength to strength with this, we haven't been able to get him out for a good run due to roadworks cutting off our regular bus service...

They were meant to be destructing the railway bridge near us on christmas day , while the trains and buses werent running and there was less traffic. They sorted out the train tracks but due to "inclement weather" (really, in DECEMBER?!") They cannot finish the job currently. On the transport website the first estimated completion kept changing and now it is estimated finished on the 31st of march. Which is quite frankly ridiculous, we were wondering how we would cope without buses. Lucky for us a firm (not even the firm that usually serves our area!!!) has put on a free shuttle bus which will help immensly! I want to call them and thank them profusely haha.

Awwwww

I went over to spend time with the girls today, and Aeon was in the top of the explorer. I sat next to the cage and opened the bottom and she came running down to me <3

I like to think it was me she came to see but alas I suspect that it was the hope of yoggies, which she got. Mocha still wouldn't come out, I hope she comes out soon while I'm there. The cage change about has made her nervous :(

Pink and Rave also came over for yoggies, sadly they both don't have the word gentle in their vocabulary and nearly took my fingers off!

The hairless boys amused me today, they seemed to be working in tandem. They were all asleep together, then one had a drink so they all went.

Its done :D

Well I did it! completed it this afternoon, the explorer is now one big cage :D

The girls dont seem that impressed sadly, the three new girls are hiding currently, although Aeon and Luna were lured out with yoggies. It's the first time I have given them yoggies but they sure learned quickly that they taste yummy. Mocha wasn't coming out from hiding no matter how long I waited. Pink was asleep in the igloo, and Rave took off alone to the top half to sleep in the hammock. I love having the cage like that as I can sit on the floor with the door open and fuss the girls (well if they come over I can!)

The build didn't go smoothly though. I thought I had it alltogether but when I washed the tray with the notch to go on the second floor, I noticed that the notch didn't match up with the side that had a hole in within the cage. So I had to take it back out, after fighting to get it in , so I was more than annoyed. I had to get a spare nut out of the tool box aswell , as one of the ones I had for the cage was no where to be found. I think that things that need constructing that they should come with extra parts because some vital pieces ALWAYS go missing. Well they do for me anyway lol.

I have found something to coat the bars with, Japlac, so I will have another little job to do before long. I was horrified when my mum said I would have to take the cage to bits again to do this. I assured her this was not happening that it was only the bars that were rusty and it was only the bars that were being treated. Is she trying to send me grey?!?!?!

My next job is definately kitting the cage out with fun things for the girls, as it looks a bit bare. They dont seem to mind though, they are more concentrating on having more climbing to do.

D.I.Why?

Well This afternoon I had the "bright idea" of taking the explorer to pieces, in order to clean it and put it back together tomorrow. This didn't happen. Most of the screws kindly refused to come out so took some persuading with a pair of pliers.

Once it was apart, I started rebuilding it. It is rebuilt except for a few more screws to put in it. I'm hoping I have enough nuts, a couple seem to have run away which is less than ideal. Hopefully even if there is one missing it wont matter.


I'm pretty pleased that I managed to put it back together myself, I thought it might be impossible. There were a few times when the air was blue though , when I put some parts on the wrong way round *blush*

Once I have put the screws in I need to get the tray and the shelves out of the garage and then add the girls. I cant wait to see them running around with all that space :) I hope they love it. Also got some things planned to make the cage more interesting, so will probably have to have an ebay spree soon.

Ahhh I cant wait to finish, I think I have earned a hot bath

RIP Trouble

The post I knew was coming , but dreading. My little Trouble passed away at nearly 31 months old. He was plagued with a fair few problems towards the end, but always greeted me with lots of licks and bruxes. He was a truly special boy who will be sorely missed.

I decided to introduce the hairless boys to Taz and Quinn so that I wasn't left with a boy alone. It is going quite well, a few squeaks but Atari is a drama queen so I expected it. But Taz and the hairless boys soon snuggled in the igloo but Quinn wasn't bonding

I have infact just removed Quinn as he flew into a rage at the hairless boys, and they are all petrified of him. Will let him calm down and try again but it might be that he wont accept them. Trouble was quite a pushy rat too. It means that Taz and Quinn might have to be a duo still but I really dont want this as it leaves the potential for a lone rat.

Now my explorer is empty in the bottom , in the next week (hopefully) I will be dismantling it to rebuild so that the section with the gap is in the middle and not the bottom, so that it is one big cage instead of two smaller ones. I'm looking forward to it, but i'm also not lol, as I can see it taking a while. Will be worth it though.

I'm also looking for things to decorate it with...I have lots of stuff but I want to kit it out some more for them. I hope they appreciate it haha though looking for new things is always fun. Internet window shopping