Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Rat Lovers! This is Jeremy. He is 2 1/2 years old and he has severe HED (hind end degeneration), which means he doesn't have use of his back legs anymore and he must drag himself around. Because of this, he gets little exercise and is overweight (hard to believe he used to be the runt of the rescue group I adopted). You would not expect him to be the most photogenic rat or an obvious choice for the Ratropolis Christmas photo, but yet - behold - how beautiful he is underneath it all! Just a reminder to see the beauty in everything and everyone. Perfection is a myth. Beauty lies in the imperfections.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Easter!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Blaze

Remi

Rex

Meet Remi, Rex, and Blaze

Recently, we decided to adopt three new boys from a local rescue: Remi, Rex, and Blaze. They are all bonded boys, possibly brothers, about 7-8 months old. Their original family loved them very much but had no choice but to give them up when one of the family developed severe allergies. It was a difficult decision for their family, but I want to assure them that these boys have found a loving home and we will do everything in our power to ensure they lead happy lives.

Currently, the boys are housed in our quarantine cage (a Martins R695). Once they can join the existing mischief, we will try to integrate them into the quad Critter Nation, currently housing Hammie, Jeremy, Lilly, Max, Sam, and Gandalf. If need be, the quad can be separated into two DCNs (or the top and bottom levels can be closed off).

Remi

Remi is a gray-colored rex rat - my guess is he is a dark slate blue, but I am very bad with colors. He is darker than Gabe was (our only other blue rat), but I do not believe he is a Russian blue as he has one ruby eye (my understanding is that Russian blue only comes with black eyes). I believe he is a Berkshire, and like his two "brothers," appears to have high white markings (in Remi's case, a lightening blaze and odd eye) - although he is past the highest risk for megacolon at this age.

Remi has a head tilt. It was treated by the rescue but did not resolve after two courses of antibiotics. It is possible that there had been an ear infection and that the damage has not healed or may never heal. It is also possible that a tumor may be in play, although he is a bit young for a pituitary tumor (PT) in my experience. We will be watching him carefully for any other signs of PT and will have our vet check him out to make sure there isn't something else that should be done.

Aside from the head tilt, he acts and behaves fine and appears to be healthy.

Rex

Rex is a black Berkshire dumbo with a lightening blaze and straight (normal) coat. He loves to pose for pictures!

Blaze

Blaze is a black Berkshire with a wedge blaze, normal coat, top ears. Blaze is the more timid of the three, but he is warming up to us nicely. He is a little camera shy.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dual Critter Nation Convertible Top/Bottom Level Liner

Convertible Level Liners Used on the Left Side of the Cage

Have you ever been frustrated by the fact that the liner color you need is only available for the Top of the Critter Nation and you need it on the bottom? Or Vice Versa?

I am trying out a liner design that could be used on either the top or the bottom as needed. You basically cut the fabric like you would for the top, but only cut one edge of the ramp cutout (I will call this the "notch"), leaving the other edge attached. I cut the short edge, but you could cut the large edge if you prefer.

Sew the fleece to the U-Haul furniture pad like normal, sewing around the notch. Use a small 1/4" seam allowance along the notch (to minimize the notch gap).

Cut one side of the ramp opening, but leave the other side attached.
Sew around the notch using a small 1/4" seam allowance.

Turn the liner right side out and top stitch as desired. In the liners I did, I added top-stitching across the surface of the liners to try to discourage the rats from chewing their way in between the layers of the liner.

The finished liner should look something like mine, shown below:

Finished Top/Bottom Convertible Liner

You can now use this liner on the bottom, using a large binder clip to secure the notch closed:

The middle binder clip holds the notch closed.

Or you can use the liner on the top, folding the portion of the liner that covers the ramp opening underneath the liner and securing with a binder clip as shown:

The extra flap of liner is folded under and clipped in place.

You may not want to go this route if you move heaven and earth to keep your rats from burrowing under the liners, as they will likely be able to get under using the notch when placed on the bottom pan. My current rats have mellowed as they have aged and while they did a lot of liner diving when they were little, they are less inclined to do so now. Only time will tell if this design holds up to my current rats, although I believe it will work as well as the standard design.

Happy New Year!

The Rat Room Remodel

The Remodeled Rat Room

My husband, Tom, always takes a nice two weeks off over the holidays. This year, he decided to devote a huge chunk of that time to remodeling Ratropolis (our Rat Room). Our Rat Room is in the basement and has always been a nice place for rat free range, but the room as a whole had a little bit of an unpolished basement atmosphere. For reference, below is a shot of the former Rat Room, featuring the same back wall as shown above:

The old Rat Room

The pale green walls left the room feeling rather cold, and the sump pump in the corner was loud, an eye sore, and a potential hazard. There was also a mess of cabling in the same corner that had to be kept out of the rats' reach. The floor was cold, hard, dark green concrete.

We decided it would be best to completely wall off the sump pump area of the room to create a large closet storage area and protect the rats from the hazards of the sump pump. My husband redid all the wiring and cabling back there so that everything is clean and orderly. Shown below is the new wall in the old rat room.

Wall enclosing sump pump and creating storage closet.

The rats in the old setup were limited in space by an aviary housing my remaining finches. We decided to move the last of the birds (just four left) into a flight cage (actually, a Critter Nation turned on its side) so that we could tear down the aviary and expand the rat room into the bird room territory. That effectively doubled the rat room in size.

We then decided to remove the ceiling mounted 4' shop light fixture and replace it with two LED fixtures with a dimmer switch, to give the room a classier look and to allow control over the amount of light in the room.

From there, we painted everything a nice warm happy yellow, with fresh white trim and baseboards. The yellow ended up being a little darker/brighter than I intended, but I like the way it turned out. I read once, a long time ago, about a study that showed that rats were happier and more social in a yellow environment when compared with a blue environment. I can no longer find any trace of that article, but that always stuck with me, and so when we wanted to warm the room up a bit, yellow seemed like the perfect choice.

We installed shelving for storage on the new back wall. We covered the floor with Allure Ultra waterproof laminate flooring (like Pergo, but made of vinyl so that it is waterproof). The final result is shown below.

The new wall with storage shelves and door to the closet/sump pump area.
A fan in the far left corner keeps the air circulating. 

Looking slightly to the left is the love seat for TV viewing.

The left wall with love seat and flight cage (modified DCN on its side).

The entry into the room with flight cage on one side of the door and
rat cages on the other side.

Different angle of the entry to the room.

The rat cages on the right wall.

The TV mounted to the wall.

View from the love seat.

The entire room is rat safe for supervised free range and now feels much more like a living space rather than a basement pet room.

DISCLAIMER: When I say "we" did something, I primarily mean "Tom" did it, with me sometimes being able to help as the gopher, hold this, find this tool, hand me the screws person. Tom is amazingly talented and hard working and truly amazing.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Bwahahahaha! Happy Halloween!

Rats in the News: Children with Rats as Pets Do Better in School

Article: Kids with Pets Do Better At School, Especially Rat Owners, Study Says

A study commissioned by Pets At Home which surveyed 1000 pet-owning children between the ages of  5 and 16 years found that children who have pets do better in school, with rat-owning children performing the best.

So the next time our rats run off with my boys' homework, I will have to remember that they are not, in fact, stashing it in their cage to shred for bedding, but rather, they are helping to tutor them. It appears to be working. My oldest graduated Junior High with a silver Presidential Award for academic excellence and my youngest finished his last year at grade school with straight A's and made it into accelerated math. Many thanks are owed to our many rattie friends for helping them to achieve such accomplishments!

Rest in Peace, Burt

It is always difficult for me to write these posts. Memorials always come up short of describing the rat we lost.

Burt was a very special boy. He was a great people rat and he really enjoyed life. He was a fighter, not letting his cancer get the better of him for most of the time he was ill. Even when he injured a leg and it became infected because of the steroid, he still sought to make the most of every day, despite his impaired mobility.

Burt's love of popcorn made these Christmas pictures possible.

He took beautiful pictures - you could always see the smile in his face. He was happy to be here and happy to have rattie and people friends around him. He loved food and was a master hoarder. I always knew that when he refused his favorite foods, it would be time to let him go.


Burt's last photo shoot on the 4th of July

Last Friday was that time. He wasn't eating and he was having difficulty just existing. His head bobbed up and down with every breath. I could tell he was miserable. He had experienced a bad spell earlier in the week, but he bounced back somewhat for a few days. When I saw him on Friday morning, I knew it was time to let him go peacefully. We had him put to sleep at our vets office at 11am on Saturday, July 17th.

Rest in Peace, Sweet Boy Burt. Play hard at the bridge. Your girls Bela, Ruby, and Jo are all waiting for you to join them, along with your first buddy from your original home, Ernie. You are truly missed.

Jeremy cuddling up with Burt on his last day.

Turkey Tail Mushroom

By nature, I am skeptical of supplements. There is not enough regulation and a whole lot of unsubstantiated claims. Those supplements that claim to cure everything seem to be the most likely to do nothing. However, in cases where I have experienced problems, when there is a supplement that has been shown to provide some benefit, I have not been adverse to giving it a try.

The biggest problems I see in my rats are cancers/tumors. I have had many rats die from such problems (pituitary tumors, lung tumors, internal abdominal tumors, and now Burt's lymphoma). Even when respiratory infections have been bad, there has often been an underlying lung tumor contributing to the problem. If there is anything I can do to prevent that, or at least to extend the lives of these rats, it is worth researching.

The supplement that keeps coming up regarding cancer in rats is Turkey Tail Mushroom. I did a little research into it and decided it was worth trying. What convinced me is the fact that the NIH actually funded a study that evaluated the effectiveness of Turkey Tail Mushroom. That study concluded that Turkey Tail Mushroom does indeed help the immune system to fight cancer. You can read more about that study and its findings in this article: Turkey Tail Mushrooms Help Immune System Fight Cancer.

That study and anecdotal evidence from rat owners who have used Turkey Tail Mushroom with positive results have led me to conclude that it is worth giving it a try. For now, I am using it with Burt. Burt's lymphoma is pretty well established, so I don't expect it to cure him, but it is my hope it may extend his life. From what I have read, you cannot overdose on this supplement and there are no known adverse effects, so it won't likely hurt.

You can see the large lump on Burt's thigh.

The product I chose to use is the one used in the study: Host Defense Turkey Tail. There are cheaper products out there, but when I choose this product, I know I am using the same product that was studied. The article I linked to mentioned that you want to make sure to use mushrooms that are US grown and US-certified organic, which this product is. Mushrooms are greatly affected by metals and organisms in the environment, so using foreign grown mushrooms or mushrooms not grown organically can carry risks. (I have no affiliation with this company and again chose it because it was the product studied by the NIH and because it meets the above criteria).

I have been using it with Burt since he was diagnosed in April. I have also been given him steroids, so there is no way to determine if any benefit I see is from the steroid or the Turkey Tail Mushroom. I started out by giving him half a capsule a day (I open the capsule and mix the powder inside with baby food (turkey and sweet potato) or other foods that I think might blend well with mushroom (eg, spaghetti). I increased that amount to one capsule a day when I saw that he liked the taste of the supplement and that it did him no harm (although some days I mix it in food that he shares with his two cagemates, so he only gets 1/3 the capsule on those days).

I would like to say that Burt's tumor is shrinking and that he is getting better on the supplement, but that is just not true and would be too much to hope for. His tumor has grown slowly to the point where it is quite large and I am starting to see his body undulate with his breathing - a common sign of cancer in my previous rats. So the cancer is clearly progressing. However, in the three months since his diagnosis, the lymphoma has not visibly spread to any other area of the body (he has no new lumps - although it may be spreading to internal organs - but the vet says his lungs are still clear and sound good). He is also eating well and has a positive uplifting attitude (ie, he is not acting like a sick rat). His eyes are bright and he interacts with us as normal.

A couple of weeks ago, Burt injured his right rear leg (the leg opposite the thigh with the lymphoma). Because of the steroid, his immune system is weak and the injury became infected. An abscess developed and the leg swelled up and was not useable. The vet drained the abscess and we gave his foot Epsom salt soaks while putting him on an antibiotic. His spirits diminished for a while, as he could barely move with one leg limited in mobility from the tumor and the other limited because of injury. I thought for sure that this setback would extinguish the fight in him and he would kind of give up, stop eating, and let the cancer take over.

That did not happen. His leg did not heal perfectly and mobility is still limited, but the infection was treated, and as he regained some of his mobility, his spirits returned to normal. You can see from his 4th of July pictures that even though he does have cancer, he does not acknowledge it. He continues to live his life as much like a healthy rat as possible.

Despite his lymphoma, you can see Burt is a happy rat
with good quality of life still.

I have no illusions, though. While his tumor continues to grow, his spine is getting sharper (I can feel it through his skin) and his overall weight is gradually diminishing as the tumor steals his nutrients. The writing is on the wall and Turkey Tail Mushroom is not going to cure him. But I do believe the possibility is there that the supplement is helping his immune system to fight and give him quality of life in these last days/weeks/months.

I don't see Turkey Tail Mushroom as being the cure to cancer. But I do have hope that it may help prevent or delay these problems in healthy rats. I intend to start adding it to the food (in smaller dosages - perhaps one capsule shared among all the rats each day) on a regular basis to the diets of the healthy rats. If it really does help the immune system fight cancer, it may help prevent the cancer from developing - or if it develops, postpone the start of that development so that they live longer. I don't have any personal evidence to say that it will do this, but given the number of rats who have died too young (two years seems to be a common age to start seeing these problems - 1 and 1/2 years for PT), it certainly wouldn't hurt to try it and see if my rats start living longer or if the rate at which I see cancer/tumors develop goes down any.

Happy July 4th!

 

 

Burt was our model for the 4th of July photo shoot this year. He is doing really well despite his lymphoma (and also an injury he sustained to his right rear leg opposite the tumor). His breathing is visible, a sign that the cancer is progressing, but his appetite is good and his spirits are bright and he just can't resist hamming it up for the camera. I love to photograph Burt - he always seems to have a smile on his face. Some of the other shots:

 

You can really see the tumor on his thigh in this pic.

Lilly was also up for some 4th of July pictures. She did marvelously well - a lot more outgoing than our first photo shoot attempt at Valentine's Day.