New Pets!
Well, it's been a while (again) and I have some news I feel like sharing.
Yesterday we went and got a new pet - we were undecided at the time about what exactly we wanted, the selection was chickens, cockateels, or rats. We both wanted chickens, I wanted the rat and Matt wanted the cockateel.
We had already explored the local pet stores in search of pets, none had chooks, some had $25 rats and some had $70+ cockateels. One had some creepy looking stick insects. We had a look at the stores on Chapel St. too, unfortunately, they didn't have much different. Eventually we decided to search a little further - all the way to the city.
We went to the pet store across from the Victoria Markets, the markets were closed that day so unfortunately we didn't get to check out what they had for sale. The pet store however was quite open. No chickens though.
They had 8 little rats, all dark greyish brown with white paws and bellies, and all male. When we first arrived they were all hiding in a tiny little plastic igloo with their heads poking out the door. They also had some cockateels - two grey, one white.
The grey ones were pretty lively, running around like crazy, chasing the funny little quails around, the white one was seperated from the grey ones, and sitting quietly on it's perch.
The decision was finally made on price - did we have enough money to buy the $65 cockateel right then and there? Nope. We had a nice cage for it to live in, and some food for it, but not the money to buy one. The rats however, only cost $15, so we could afford one of those easily. We had a tank for it to live in, but no food or litter.
The pet shop staff were friendly, and let us handle the rats, it was hard to really judge which one looked the friendliest as there was no way to tell them apart properly, they all rocketed around the cage, or hid inside the igloo, no time to really notice any destinguishing markings that they didn't share with another of their litter. The little fellow we chose has a white tip on his tail. He was one of the ones rocketing around outside the igloo. I figured, he looks pretty healthy, he's really lively, and seems pretty unafraid, so I'll pick him.
I had read some things on the internet about picking a healthy rat, they all spoke about things like bald patches, a dull coat, discharge from the ears, scabs on their faces or damage to the tail. None of the rats showed any of these things, they were all pretty happy and healthy.
They weren't being kept on wood shavings, which I hear is bad, instead they were being kept on these brown pellet things which looked sort of like rabbit food. They had some interesting looking food, and some things to play with, the main thing being a wheel. I guess because the pet store would only ever have young rats they didn't need anything that would be more entertaining to older rats, but the wheel still bothered me.
The staff all had experience owning rats, and had lots of tips on care. They didn't ask us much about where we were keeping him (though they did ask), or make us sign a 'no breeding' certificate, or even try to push us into getting two. I know many people say having two is a good idea so they don't get bored sitting inside their cage all day, but I don't plan on having him stay inside his cage except for at night, and it will be much harder to keep track of two rats outside the cage.
Anyway, I chose one, and we bought the recommended food and recommended litter and we went home with a lil' rat in a box.
We made him a little cardboard house to sleep in ('til he destorys it) with some loo paper (unscented, unbleached) for him to shred and make into bedding. I put in a food bowl and a water bowl and we left him to his own devices overnight. He spent most of his time hiding in the box, and hasn't got around to shredding the paper yet, although he has moved it around a bit. He has definately been eating as the food bowl was pretty empty when I got up, and there were a bunch of seed husks at the entrance of his house.
I brought him out for a while so he could get used to my smell, and he wasn't timid at all, he took some presuading to get him out of his little house, but once he was out he didn't seem to mind being picked up or climbing around on me. He had fun exploring inside an old shirt I put on the floor for him - We haven't finished rat-proofing the place we're going to let him roam free, so I couldn't let him run around on the ground unsupervised yet, and he might not be ready to do that either. Maybe it would bea bit much of a shock... Soon though, soon!
I'm a little cautious about bringing him out for too long, because what I see as happiness might not actually be happiness. I haven't had a rat before so I don't know if his body language is telling me he's full of stress, or if he's curious and enjoying what's happening. He sniffs everything over, and is active, and explores wherever he finds dark places (inside the sleeves of the jacket I'm wearing for example). He jumped a few times when I made unexpected movements, but never ran away when I tried to give him pats. I'm guessing he's fine, but I don't know. Rat behavior assessment anyone?
Matt wanted to call him Idort, but I wanted to call him Fimmeon (10 points if you can guess where either name comes from). I won! Admittedly without much of a struggle, Matt thinks he's bad at naming pets... I named the cat, neither of us named the bunny, but I put forth a lot of names he rejected... poor thing never got a name in the end. We named our last bird together though. Anyways, our newest family member is named Fimmeon, also, he's hungry. But I'm not going to give him a sweetroll because that would probably make him sick. Sausages on the other hand... actually I don't know if rats can eat sausages. I'd assume so, they're omnivores... but I'd want to keep the intake down because of the protein... or something. I dunno.
Yesterday we went and got a new pet - we were undecided at the time about what exactly we wanted, the selection was chickens, cockateels, or rats. We both wanted chickens, I wanted the rat and Matt wanted the cockateel.
We had already explored the local pet stores in search of pets, none had chooks, some had $25 rats and some had $70+ cockateels. One had some creepy looking stick insects. We had a look at the stores on Chapel St. too, unfortunately, they didn't have much different. Eventually we decided to search a little further - all the way to the city.
We went to the pet store across from the Victoria Markets, the markets were closed that day so unfortunately we didn't get to check out what they had for sale. The pet store however was quite open. No chickens though.
They had 8 little rats, all dark greyish brown with white paws and bellies, and all male. When we first arrived they were all hiding in a tiny little plastic igloo with their heads poking out the door. They also had some cockateels - two grey, one white.
The grey ones were pretty lively, running around like crazy, chasing the funny little quails around, the white one was seperated from the grey ones, and sitting quietly on it's perch.
The decision was finally made on price - did we have enough money to buy the $65 cockateel right then and there? Nope. We had a nice cage for it to live in, and some food for it, but not the money to buy one. The rats however, only cost $15, so we could afford one of those easily. We had a tank for it to live in, but no food or litter.
The pet shop staff were friendly, and let us handle the rats, it was hard to really judge which one looked the friendliest as there was no way to tell them apart properly, they all rocketed around the cage, or hid inside the igloo, no time to really notice any destinguishing markings that they didn't share with another of their litter. The little fellow we chose has a white tip on his tail. He was one of the ones rocketing around outside the igloo. I figured, he looks pretty healthy, he's really lively, and seems pretty unafraid, so I'll pick him.
I had read some things on the internet about picking a healthy rat, they all spoke about things like bald patches, a dull coat, discharge from the ears, scabs on their faces or damage to the tail. None of the rats showed any of these things, they were all pretty happy and healthy.
They weren't being kept on wood shavings, which I hear is bad, instead they were being kept on these brown pellet things which looked sort of like rabbit food. They had some interesting looking food, and some things to play with, the main thing being a wheel. I guess because the pet store would only ever have young rats they didn't need anything that would be more entertaining to older rats, but the wheel still bothered me.
The staff all had experience owning rats, and had lots of tips on care. They didn't ask us much about where we were keeping him (though they did ask), or make us sign a 'no breeding' certificate, or even try to push us into getting two. I know many people say having two is a good idea so they don't get bored sitting inside their cage all day, but I don't plan on having him stay inside his cage except for at night, and it will be much harder to keep track of two rats outside the cage.
Anyway, I chose one, and we bought the recommended food and recommended litter and we went home with a lil' rat in a box.
We made him a little cardboard house to sleep in ('til he destorys it) with some loo paper (unscented, unbleached) for him to shred and make into bedding. I put in a food bowl and a water bowl and we left him to his own devices overnight. He spent most of his time hiding in the box, and hasn't got around to shredding the paper yet, although he has moved it around a bit. He has definately been eating as the food bowl was pretty empty when I got up, and there were a bunch of seed husks at the entrance of his house.
I brought him out for a while so he could get used to my smell, and he wasn't timid at all, he took some presuading to get him out of his little house, but once he was out he didn't seem to mind being picked up or climbing around on me. He had fun exploring inside an old shirt I put on the floor for him - We haven't finished rat-proofing the place we're going to let him roam free, so I couldn't let him run around on the ground unsupervised yet, and he might not be ready to do that either. Maybe it would bea bit much of a shock... Soon though, soon!
I'm a little cautious about bringing him out for too long, because what I see as happiness might not actually be happiness. I haven't had a rat before so I don't know if his body language is telling me he's full of stress, or if he's curious and enjoying what's happening. He sniffs everything over, and is active, and explores wherever he finds dark places (inside the sleeves of the jacket I'm wearing for example). He jumped a few times when I made unexpected movements, but never ran away when I tried to give him pats. I'm guessing he's fine, but I don't know. Rat behavior assessment anyone?
Matt wanted to call him Idort, but I wanted to call him Fimmeon (10 points if you can guess where either name comes from). I won! Admittedly without much of a struggle, Matt thinks he's bad at naming pets... I named the cat, neither of us named the bunny, but I put forth a lot of names he rejected... poor thing never got a name in the end. We named our last bird together though. Anyways, our newest family member is named Fimmeon, also, he's hungry. But I'm not going to give him a sweetroll because that would probably make him sick. Sausages on the other hand... actually I don't know if rats can eat sausages. I'd assume so, they're omnivores... but I'd want to keep the intake down because of the protein... or something. I dunno.