ratties!

as well as the two cats living (illegaly) in the apartment, there are 3 rats & 2 foster rats (temporarily lived here from a rat rescue place - they've gone back now). i've never had any experience with rats before, and some of the stereotypes of them being dirty/smelly, mean, bitey are really not the case for PET rats! all omnivorous animals do have smelly poo, but if you clean the cage often enough, they really don't smell. and these rats are all so friendly! because they're used to being handled. when i open the cage door, they all rush forward and try to hold onto your hand (they hold onto your finger/hand with both hands - so cute!) and sniff/sometimes softly lick it! nyoooohhh and when you wet your finger with water, they'll often lick it off your finger! anyway, conclusion: rats are quite great pets! more interested in humans/sociable than mice. and more trainable apparently. but too bad they only live for a short time (2 years). anyway, let me introduce the boys.

this is remy (hard to photograph rats! they're always moving...)

this is how they sometimes sleep - with their heads rolled in towards their body. or most of the time, just on their side with legs stretched out. looks like they're dead. but just asleep.

remy has such a nice fur colour & cute black eyes, and he's the nicest too! very polite. probably because he's the only one that's neutered.

these two are panda (black/white) & simon (albino)


panda is the most brave, he's always the first to come up when you approach the cage, and likes to grab your paper towel/wet wipes when you're cleaning the cage floor. i didn't realise that albinos have a poor eyesight until now! so at night, sometimes simon will bob his head from side to side to help focus. it was kinda creepy the first time -__-" simon also likes stealing wet wipes. you also have to approach him slowly through the cage bars, so he can smell you first. and so that he doesn't think you're a cat and nip you.

and now the foster rats: tin tin & fatty (his full name is some long thing like fatty mcfatfat)
(all the photo below are of tin tin..)

inside the upside down house


eating antibiotic disguised in peanut butter

when they eat, they hold the food in both hands! they even shell peas!

the only photo of fatty: accidentally part of the background..

they didn't have names when they came, but the owner & her housemate gave them one. fatty was not fat, really. he was just big compared to tin tin - nearly twice the size. and he was really quick in grabbing whatever foods that were offered & nibbled on them with super speed, imagine the sound of a speedboat/lawn mower engine starting after you pull the string. tin tin was really tiny and easily scared - zoomed off easily when you approach. but one afternoon, he was breathing really heavily/making weird noises, sitting hunched in a corner, with his hairs all standing on its end. and after some google research it was decided that he had a mycoplasma infection (respiratory infection). so after giving him antibiotics/special treatment by giving first choice of frozen vegetables (which they prefer in this order: peas, corn, the yellow cube stuff - still don't know what it is), i grew attached to his cuteness! especially when he was no longer scared/looked forward to my feeding him vegies on my lap T__T! by the time the rat rescue person took them back yesterday, he gained some weight, and not so small compared to fatty. tin tin is such a cute rat, hopefully he goes to a good home.

enough rodent tales. here's a picture of a googly-eyed & blushing stone sucking fish from the mekong river.

(source: national geographic)