Extra Soy free treats and rattery/rescue update

Thinking back, all those years ago, I know that mom and I never used any of these treats that are available now and we did so without issue. So, both Rebecca and I (of  Rebecca's Sweet and Loving Rats  who is the other breeder that I am working with) have made a few choices with our study, since we are trying to keep as soy free as possible. We are going all natural with the chews, so we are giving them pig ears to eat AND I even found the most awesome treat at Wal-Mart along the same lines, which is a pig skin stuffed with sweet potato (soy free). I got some wet cat food for my pregnant and nursing girls (a few of my own, a bunch of girls that came in through my rattery) to supplement their diets with. I also picked up some Boost protein drink, to use in place of Ensure for any rats I get that are sick that need it. I would rather expose them to small amounts of soy rather than risk their lives just to keep them soy free.

Everyone got a chicken and baby food supplement tonight, so that helps also with keeping them on a healthy diet as well. I have some yogurt and some broccoli for later on in the week and next week. Having 30 cages of rats is not easy to try to give supplements to, but I do what I can. Thankfully 7 of them are going into foster later this week with another almost 30 that have been reserved, so that will bring the numbers down considerably. Still have a bunch of litters to work with, but once the numbers thin a bit, it will seriously help with making time for that.

We have 1 girl and 4 boys left from the litter coing available on March 25th and have another litter that will be available on April 7th. Not counting the 4 older boys that I still need to find homes for. A pair of himi boys and 2 black hooded boys. I will be moving some dumbos, most likely, in with the 2 hooded boys to help increase their chances of adoption.

Sadly, we have 2 rats that we have to have put to sleep due to health issues. This is not a decision that we take lightly, but we would rather have them put to sleep than to let them suffer. They are both, slowly, dying and rather than then linger, we have made the decision to put them to sleep and let them pass on with some dignity and without prolonging their suffering.

This will also leave a blue hooded alone as well, so we will set him up with a cage mate as well before adopting him out.

I do know the litters of mine that we are expecting will be very pretty and should go fast, which is a good thing. All dumbo, the father to 2 of the litters is a black verigated split cap, while one mom is a tan solid and the other mom is a dove berkshire with a ribbon blaze. I am really looking forward to these litters and expecting them both to be large litters, since both have been on a soy free diet for some time now.

Well, I guess that is all for now. Wednesday I am doing a large transport down to Lebanon, so we are geting busier by the day. We get to load up the car tomorrow, mostly and then load up all of the rats on Wednesday, so we can get down there so we have time to visit as well.

Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue

New rescues and breeders - Social Rats activity

We  have, in the past few days, taken in more rescues. Athena, a little 4 week old girl, found in an apartment building. The person who found  her went to all of the apartments in the building to see if she belonged to anyone, but no luck, so we are going to assume that she was meant to be a feeder but, as luck would have it, she escaped and found a local rescuer to take her in. She was brought to us by someone who works with a local trap/neuter/release program, so she took her in hoping to be able to find her home. She found me through Craigslist (to be referred to as CL from this point further) and rather than taking her to a pet store, which she thought to be her only option, she brought her to me. She is tiny and scared, but is being housed with some very social girls to help with her socialization and I will begin working with her this weekend. I wanted to give her a few days to relax and get adjusted before working with her. I want her stress level to go down first, as she may have actually escaped from the snake cage as she is terrified, but seems to want human interaction, just afraid of it, at the moment. 

Kitty and Maggie are a couple of older rescues that we took in, they are about a year and a year and a half old and they are the ones caring for Athena.

I also took in a group of rats for my breeding program as well. The mom, JoJo, is a beautiful black verigated dumbo and she came with 12 beautiful babies. Permission was obtained to breed them when I picked them up as I will never breed without permission. We also took in 3 males, 1 of which is already reserved.

Cameron and Little Boy Blue have been returned from their foster home, unfortunately, they have lice, so we are quaranting them and treating the lice. Mites was first suspected, due to the use of Carefresh, but it was later determined to be rat lice, most likely transferred from a rat that took up housing in their car and later died there (wild rat) and transferred via human touch, from car, to human to rats.

I am going to pick up 2 more rescues tonight, which are coming in because of allergies. That is going to be a bit of a trek, but because of the severity of the allergies, we are all left with little choice. I would not feel comfortable telling this woman that she would have to wait and deal with the allergies because I didn't feel like going anywhere tonight.

So, now we also have a new gate up, to block off the rat area from the rest of the house, to help keep our little one away from the rats and my mealworm colony. THis also means that I do not have to worry about having that section of the house child proof, which makes me feel better. The gate is a great addition and was paid for, thankfully, with donations and adoption fees. This helps to give me more leeway in cleaning cages and socializing, since I do not have to worry about protecting rats from the little one. THis also means that evaluation can wait for a day or 2 when they come in, so they can relax from the whole situation.

We are still working with the study, the other rattery got a virus from ours from some rats we brought in that had not been in quarantine long enough. We lost a couple here and the virus travelled to her rattery as well. We have completed a quarantine of more than 30 days, to be safe, and the virus is now finishing up on her end as well. Unfortunately, it claimed, in total, 3 litters of babies during pregnancy. The last was last night on her end. It claimed one of mine and 2 of hers.

It is our hope and our belief that by this time next year, if somethign like this happens again, that our rats will not be affected by it like they were this time. Taking the rats off of soy helped to clear just about everyone up though. Either the virus ran it's course in that time, or the the soy was depressing the immune system that much that when no longer offered, it gave their immune systems a chance to recover. I did notice, however, that those who would not eat the lab blocks are the ones who were affected the least or not at all by this virus.

Well, I guess that's everything for the day. Will update again in a few days on how everything is going. At the moment, I am restriction feeding, meaning that I give them just a bit more than they would normally eat in a 24 hour period so they are not able to selectively eat as much. on the 21st we will be going to the All Animal Expo to get more mealworms, we are looking to a get a few thousand this time. The ones I have now are breeding, don't get me wrong, but I want to seriously increase my colony so that I can keep to feeding the rats the worms as their protein source.

Tami
Social Rats Adoption and Rescue