A Strange 24 Hours...

What a strange twenty four hours! Last night at 8pm, David was called into work as they had a massive server failure so I was left in the lurch! He said he'd be about two hours, so I put Interview with the Vampire on to watch. He rang me to say he was going to be longer so I put Queen of the Damned on straight after. At midnight he rang again to say he would be longer still and that all hands were now on deck to try to fix the issue.

At four this morning he was still not home and he called me at six to tell me the server was still down. It was a major issue and affected a lot of major customers so it needed to be fixed. I rang him at three this afternoon and he was getting there with fixing it, and he finally came home at five pm. The poor guy had been up for 33 hours and had spent 31 of those trying to fix the same server. I cooked him scrambled egg on toast with sausage, mushrooms and fried bread. We settled down to watch The Matrix, and he fell asleep through it so I sent to bed at 9:30pm.

It is strange really, I have been alone all this time and will be until he gets home tomorrow night. I'm passed the mopping stage and I'm now comfortable with my company.

I'm one of those sorts of people who like their own company.

I noticed today that Black Mouse's babies have thier eyes open. They are fifteen days old. Honey Mouse's babies have their colour in - one is cream and the other cream and white.

Nutmeg's huge ratty babies are getting their colours. Four of them will be hooded, at least one of which will be black hooded. Two will be capped and the other either light in colour or white. All are healthy.

I will post pictures when I have charged the camera.

Our Babies are Growing Fast

Our babies are growing very fast. Honey Mouse's two babies are now eight days old and Black Mouse's are now fourteen days.

Nutmeg's babies are now two days old and are growing equally as well.

Our 2009 Breeding Program (Nutmeg's babies were the last of the 2008 breeding program) is opening up and our plans are being finalised. Our new rats have cleared quarantine and have entered the program for this year. This year will be incredibly exciting as we have introduced Dumbo rats finally into the program. These newcomers are our new males - Ubuntu (DUMBO Pink Eyed White) Charlie (DUMBO Siamese) and we are yet to name our other two new boys aside from their breeder prefix. They are (Top Eared) New Boy One (Pink Eyed White) and New Boy Two (Agouti Berkshire). WE ALSO HAVE A NEW GIRL!!!! She will be breeding this year, she has come to us already pregnant, so she will mate again later this year. Her name is Ginger (Pink Eye Cream Hooded).

Pictures of our bucks and does will follow shortly, as well as definitive plans and breeding dates. We have four pregnant females plus Nutmeg's young litter to consider as for now, but we should begin the first mating later on this month.

Pictures of our babies will follow also.

The Babies Are Here!

Nutmeg went into labour at 12:00pm, delivering seven healthy baby rats in around thirty minutes. I assumed at 12:30pm she'd finished labouring as she settled in with her young and went to sleep, she was also nearly the same size as she was before the prenancy which is another tell-tale sign labouring is finished.


I gave her a small piece of jam and cream cake which she had a few nibbles of before bedding down. I like to gove my does a little "congratulations" and "thank you" treat when the easy bit is over and the hard part of rearing begins!



Here are some photos of Nutmeg with the little ones in the birthing tank:

Suse and Cinnamon expect their babies soon; and Black and Honey, our mice, currently have two babies a piece. The rest of their litters, unfortunately, were taken away to be snake food. The rats, on a lighter note, will ALL be reared by their mums and then sold on as pets. Don't forget to email if you're interested in taking on a baby rat as pet, you can go onto the list to view them when their older.

Our home is somewhat of a menagerie, I suppose. We certainly have quite a lot of pets. Here's a definitive breakdown of whom they and of what species:

Dogs - Rosie, a female English Springer Spaniel. Rosie is nine months old.

Cats - Unix, a male black really fluffy moggy and Slashdot, a black moggy female. They are just kittens now, but when they are older they will have kittens of their own. Unix is three months old and Slashdot is five months old.

Rats - Nutmeg (and seven babies), a female Cream Hooded cross Siamese, Flapjack (the babies' father) a male is exactly the same but from a separate litter born to separate owners, Cinnamon is a female Silver Fawn Berkshire, and Suse is a female Black and White Hooded. Suse is the oldest and eighteen months and has provided us with four previous litters and is carrying her fifth! The other females are on their first litters.

Mice - In tank one we have a black self female who has two black and white babies, a honey blonde female who has two babies that are still in the "pinky" stage, and a cream rex male. They are breeding snake food, but we have allowed two babies per mother as not to shock the mothers by their whole litter vanishing and the remanding girls will go into the other tank as breeders and the males sold as pets. In tank two we have a chocolate self female and a chocolate and white capped male, the male is the father of the babies in tank one. The female does not seem to be pregnant yet. If she cannot carry a pregnancy then she will be sold on as a pet.

Corn Snakes - All hatched at different times between July and August 2008, we have a female Carolina Corn who we bought first. Next we bought an Amel Male, and then a Snow female. These will also be bred from and the hatchlings sold as pets.

Fish - We have a variety of fish in a ninety litre BiOrb in our lounge. We have three red comets, two blue orfes, two ghost koi carp, three gold fish, one fantail, two shubbunkins and one butterfly plec who keeps the tank clean of algae!

Well that everone. There is me and my husband as well.

All the animals have lots of love, even the snake food breeders. Everone is cared for in a humane way. No one is forgotten and everyone is in abundance of food!

Next time, I'll show you my model hobbies - my doll house project and my H.M.S Victory!

Pet Rats Avaliable Soon

A very happy 2009 to all who see and read this blog, both now and in the future please feel free to comment and email as well.

To start with, to everyone in the Wolverhampton and surrounding areas of the West Midlands, pet rats will soon be avaliable. My doe, Nutmeg, is heavily pregnant and we noticed today her vaginal plug had broken down, so it was to the birthing tank for her and we should have babies within around 48 hours or so. The babies, if all goes well, will be avaliable 6 weeks from now so please keep checking here for regular pictures and updates.

Here's a couple of pictures of Nutmeg taken this afternoon, heavily pregnant:


This gorgeous ratty should be popping her babies out incredibly soon. Nutmeg is a Cream Hooded X Siamese and so is the father.

We also have Cinnamon who will be giving birth this month also, she is a Silver Fawn Berkshire. Suse is also expecting any day now, she is black and white Hooded.

Please feel free to email me about this little lot of happy ratties. Please keep a look out for more ratty posts.