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Moonstruck Burning
Perfect.
Miracle <33 (Lots of pictures)
(And other rats)

Miracle.
Warning: There are pictures in this section that show a rat missing most of his tail. They are not gory, and his tail is healed now. But it is rather sad/disturbing, so if you would rather not see those pictures, you should either not click on them, or scroll past. :3
Miracle started out life who knows where. But he ended up in a Petco in the Chicago-ish area. There, he got in a fight with another male, which resulted in an injury to his tail. Whether people either didn't notice, or just didn't care, it went untreated, which resulted in a bad infection. Finally, they did something- They threw him in a freezer. He ran around the freezer for about an hour and a half. He chewed off the end of his tail, as well. Someone figured out he wasn't dead, and they put him into a tiny, dirty aquarium where he sat without any interaction apart from being fed/watered. The infection got worse. A friend of mine happened to hear from a worker there about him, and when she saw him, had to take him out of the situation. He was treated with antibiotics, and miraculously both lived, and did not have to have (what remained) of his tail amputated.

Despite all this, he's a very sweet rat. In the Days that I've had him, he's learned to start trusting me. When you pick him up, and scratch his head, he starts bruxing up a storm (A thing rodents do similar to purring in cats.). However, due to his past, he will attack any male rat that is introduced to him. Whether it is hormone related, or whether it is due to dominance-fear, it means that for now, he must live alone. In the future, he will be neutered and will be housed with gentle does, so that he can have the social contact from other rats that he needs so much.

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Miracle again
Miracle getting scratched

None of my other rats have nearly that interesting of a back story. xd But, they deserve introductions anyway. <3

Jacob
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Jacob is a black berk dumbo. He's an adorable little guy, very licky and very clingy. xd He is one of my 'special guys', because he's always been so loving from the start.

Quil
Quil is Jacob's brother, and a split-cap dumbo. His body is white. He is the official pocket-rat. Always hanging out in pockets (or sleeves razz ) and just relaxing and chilling out.

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Jasper and Emmett
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Jasper and Emmett are brudders, they're also standard-eared mink variberks. Unfortunately, they look a lot alike. xd Jasper was originally the shy one, but now he's almost as outgoing as Emmett. Luckily, Emmett has held true to his name, and is growing to momentous proportions. Currently, he's a smidge bigger then his brudder, and also is the biggest of my 4 original rats. Their markings keep changing a bit (a trait passed down from their mother) but typically Emmett is the one with more white on him.

Demetri

He's very sweet, a bit shy, but very sweet. He's a beige/dark cream rex (Curly haired) with a headspot, and his eyes are ruby. (Not to be confused with pink!) I don't know much about him yet apart from the fact he's amazingly cute, loves to be cuddled, and has curly whiskers.
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Curly whiskers

Sam

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I think he's the rex boy's brudder. He's very sweet, quiet the first day and now very outgoing. He's always one of the first to start crawling up my arm in the battle for "Who can get to the shoulder first". gonk
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Felix
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He is a blaze black berk dumbo, and unbelievably sweet. He is THE WORST about the puppy-dog eyes, and insists on being on my shoulder constantly.
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Laurant, Aro, Charlie
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The three hoodies are brudders, too. They were born March 14, 2008 to a feeder rat rescued from a tank. And what good luck that they were rescued, too! They are wonderfully sweet and entertaining little babies. They're just wee little things yet, but awesome little boys.


More rat pictures:
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X


Quil, Emmett, Jasper, and Jacob all share a Feisty Ferret cage that is nearly as tall as me. Miracle is in his own cage (I don't know the exact dimensions) and the 6 babies are all in the other. Next Thursday, I'm getting another giant ferret cage for the babies. It will be.. entertaining. xd 4laugh






User Comments: [9] [add]
Futo Maki
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commentCommented on: Mon May 19, 2008 @ 05:47am
Rats! I love them!
I have one rat but I think she is either old and losing the ability to control her bladder or she may have an infection.
I adopted her at a Petco too ^_^ She was easily startled but very kind. I don't think she's marking since it's pretty bad. She pees on her shelves and like four times on my boyfriend (not little bits, but lots) while I changed her cage.

My last two rats I bought at Petco and they ended up dying. One to serious respiratory troubles and the other to a tumor. sad I will never buy a rat again. Those poor things are not bred properly I think and bred on materials that could inflame their systems.


What a horrible story for Miracle. Man, if that was me I would relentlessly assault that Petco for it's inhumane treatment to the poor thing.

You have some adorable breeds! I've always just had hooded and I love them but someday I want a dumbo or a tan one.

How do you like pellet bedding?
I used carefresh but it had too much dust for my last girls and I switched to the white carefresh(expensive)this crinkly brown paper one. I also line with brown bags since Penny loves to chew them up. My cage is pretty big and currently only houses Penny. I may adopt another but not until I know if Penny has an infection or not, and not until I have more moneh crying
I can't get any other pets since I have a lizard too. One rat, one lizard and I used to have a fish.


commentCommented on: Mon May 19, 2008 @ 10:49am
It does sound like she's getting older and having some kind of problem, either chronic UTI's or bladder issues. sad One of my boys (Felix, the blaze) marks SOMUCH compared to the others, but I just consider that to be some of his 'charm'. xd

Pet stores often breed for quantity, and not quality. :/ Respiratory problems are common, because if a baby rat grows up in a really dirty place, their lungs can be permanently damaged. Short life spans and cancer are so common, but some of that has to do with domestic rats in general. I have a friend who's very involved with rats/rat rescues, and she's been thinking of starting a breeding program and breeding wild rats into domestic, because hybrids typically end up living several years longer, and with a better resistance from cancer. It's interesting stuff. surprised (If she does do it, she's interested in using my blaze as a 'stud' because he has a good personality, and blaze-patters are dominant, and would pass to the offspring. No one will take a normal 'wild looking' rat, but blaze-rats are easily placed. :3) She doesn't want to breed if she can't find homes, and I think her mission to lengthen rat lives is a lot better then breeding for a certain color/etc. (Plus, she's rescued HUNDREDS of rats- the majority of mine in some way can be traced back to her, though most had different fosters. xd )

Hopefully the Petco can have some serious repurcusions taking against it, but we've yet to hear anything back. :/

Dumbos are deadly with the puppy-dog eyes. The ears just kind of.. Sucker you in. I really want a merle someday, but I don't think I really have a favorite kind right now. I don't really 'favoritize' hoodies, but somehow I have 4 black hoods. xD

The alfalfa pellets really work the best for us. :3 I mean, really most the boys don't actually live in it, they just use it in litterboxes. But it never stinks, and is pretty cheap. I wish I could use it with my rabbit as she's stinky, but something tells me she'd just sit there and eat it all day. xD I use crinkly paper stuff for the bunny, and mix it with pellets for the mice and hamsters. :3 I usually give it to the rats for bedding, and they have fun with it. (Or I use it in treat/toy things)

If you're interested, I know a really good rat-related forum, and often they have people there who foster rats and could help you out. ;D I don't know where you're located, but the group has pretty big sized groups centered around Chicago (Where I'm around), Indiana/New Jersey/ and I think they even have a decent Canadian population and California population, too. There's other smaller areas, and a lot of teh people are even willing to drive rats and make 'rat trains' to transport them to homes. :3

I'm setting up a fishtank soon. x3 I want a large freshwater tank, but I'm not sure what I'm going to put in it. I really want some angelfish and puffers, but I really like how the blood parrot ciclids look, I just.. don't really want a ciclid tank. gonk



Miss Kupi
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Futo Maki
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commentCommented on: Mon May 19, 2008 @ 08:30pm
I'm in California smile

Sounds like you are certainly an animal lover. heart

I haven't successfully litter trained a rat before... >.>
I wish I could but I guess I just don't have the persistence.

I've always had hoodeds. They just seem to be the most common. I haven't owned a mouse in over 10 years and I've never had a hamser, even though they look SOOOOO cute. Felix is really cute, super cute. I don't know if I have any pics yet of Penny.

This was one of my last two girls, Ren, she was such a cutie too. crying
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commentCommented on: Mon May 19, 2008 @ 11:11pm
psst T___T Rats needing homes by LA? And there are tons more on the forum, too, in other parts of Cali. So if you don't see anything, it doesn't hurt to post and see if anyone in your area does know of where you can find some, should you decide you're ready for more. razz

You don't even want to know the amount of pets I have. xd But it's what I do with most of my day, and it's not the worst way to spend my time. whee

My boys all took to it pretty well, but only use the box maybe 90% of the time. My older group of boys currently just had Felix added to their group, so they've been acting all nuts and tipping the box over like crazy. >.<; They all started out in a cage where they had the bottom covered in filler, and then were later moved to a cage where the same filler was in boxes, and they seemed to have understood. You're sposed to go on poop patrol and put the 'stray ones' in the box. xd It takes more daily work (I probably spend about half an hour spotcleaning the cages and changing the boxes) but in the end, the cage smells nice for longer, and changing it/washing it down inside at the end of the week goes faster.

Petco seems to only get in Black hoodies. O.o I'm not sure what it is, it just seems like that's all they ever have. razz It's a dominant color/marking, my black hoodies had a mink-hooded mom, but their dad must have been a black hoody.

Ren was such a cutie! heart An expert at the "Can I come out and cuddle now? T___T " Face. Mine are deadly with that.

Felix
Quil I took those a few days ago. xD; You can't tell by looking, but Felix is like a month younger then Quil. @__@



Miss Kupi
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Futo Maki
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commentCommented on: Tue May 20, 2008 @ 07:21am
Sadly LA is like 7 hours south TOT

That's a really active adoption forum!
I'll bookmark it and keep an eye out.
Thanks!


commentCommented on: Wed May 21, 2008 @ 10:08pm
OMG, I love your ratties so much! Keep the pix coming!



Giabrenna
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Kansai_Gal
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commentCommented on: Fri May 23, 2008 @ 06:15pm
Rats are real sweeties, but I've become allergic to them. crying no rats for me

As a former pet store employee, I heard a lot of bad things about PetCo's animal care from some people who worked there. That said, even if the corporate policies are in place, if the employees are lax/uninformed all the rules in the world won't help.

It's also sad that since [chain] pet stores can't sell animals that were injured (like missing an eye from a fight), they don't actively post signs up saying "free mouse with a deformed tail" or something. The otherwise healthy animals just doomed to live in the hospital room till god knows when.


commentCommented on: Mon May 26, 2008 @ 09:01pm
Kansai- I wonder sometimes if I'm not slightly allergic to them. I'll get sneezy if some of then are near my face for awhile, but it's not enough to bother me.

Yeah, the quality of chain pet stores is SO varied, one may be good, another bad. One near my has an excellent bird section, and I've spoken to the 'bird lady' there for quite awhile. However, the same chain has a horrible bird-section in my city.

I didn't know they couldn't sell the injured ones. surprised And here I thought they gave Miracle to my friend just to get him help/stay out of trouble.



Miss Kupi
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Kansai_Gal
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commentCommented on: Thu May 29, 2008 @ 07:03am
I get a red rash and hives within minutes. I don't know about airborne... I have so many seasonal, airborne allergies I don't know if I could tell.

Every time I go into home-grown pet stores, I see their breeder populations and the babies and I think "this can't be good..." But at the same time... I just can't see the breeding operations that ship the animals to pet stores, could be the same thing. I'm biased against that particular store because they have dozens of really intelligent parrots I see every time I come in locked up in cages. They need at least an hour a day of socialization, and it's that much more important when they're young. crying

Well, I don't know about Petco, but PetSmart has that policy. Also, PetSmart can't sell animals of the wrong sex because they're only allowed to sell one gender in the store. So if they get a female in at a male store, they have to adopt it out. Then again, that's bad news if it's a female. xd Speaking of that, they don't allow any babies born in the store to be sold either.
(I took home a female ham with one eye (at a female store) and a male mouse another time 'cause I knew I would only be getting one more animal in either scenario. ...then I ended up buying the male mouse some buddies cause I thought he'd be lonely (p.s. they SMELLED).)


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