Rats! Rats! Rats!

Hello and welcome to the The Flower and Izzie Spot - Everything Pet Rats! This blog is meant to be informative and fun! It will have information regarding rat ownership, such as health issues, information on veterinarians who will see rats, bedding, food, cages and rat hierarchy and personality. It will also be a lot of fun as well. I plan on posting fun stories about rats, pictures, links to videos, etc. If you have any stories you would like to post about your rats, or just stories about rats in general, have any health tips, have information on the vets in your area who see rats, would like to tell us about the funny antics of your rats, please e mail me at: flower.and.izzie@gmail.com, and I would be more than happy to post them on this blog! Don't forget to send in pictures of your rats as well! : )

A little about me and how I got started in the world of rats. Growing up, I had hamsters. I always loved my hamsters and it gave me a love of all small rodents. In 1992, I became a pre-school teacher. The administration asked that we all had a class pet (a small one). My mom had a friend who's rat had had babies. They were giving away the babies for free after 6 weeks old, and my mom asked if I would be interested in a pet rat for my classroom. I had never had rats before, but I loved rodents and was willing to try rats. My rat was a PEW (pink eyed white) rat, and just as sweet as could be. She was wonderful with the kids, and they adored her. She never tried to bite them, and she let them all hold her and play with her. I let the class name her, and being that I had a class of four year olds, they named her Whitey. : ) At the end of the school year, I took Whitey home with me, and she became my pet rat. She was wonderful!

Five years later I got an itch for another rat. I went to the local pet store and picked out a rat and brought her home. I named her Cappuccino due to her coloring. Unfortunately for both Whitey and Cappuccino, I was young and did not know that rats really needed a cagemate, so both were lone rats. I also did not know about pet store rats. Cappuccino was sick from day one with mycoplasma. I had a wonderful vet, and Cappuccino spent a lot of time at the vet's office and on antibiotics. Unfortunately she only lived a year due to her severe mycoplasma. She was just as sweet as Whitey and I adored her.

In 2007, after not having rats for about 9 years, I wanted to have rats again. This time, with the internet being a wealth of information, I did my research. I found out about pet store rats, and I found out about how social rats are and that they really need a friend. I found a good breeder about an hour away from me, and went and picked up two wonderfully sweet girls that I named Flower and Izzie. They were sister's from the same litter. They both stole my heart immediately, and I became a proud rat mom again. These two girls made me realize I never wanted to live my life without rats again (as heart breaking as it can be at times). Flower got sick early with an intestinal tumor, and died at one year and ten months old (our wonderful vet did a lot for her, but there is only so much that can be done with a rat who has an intestinal tumor). Izzie hung in there for quite some time after Flower passed. She died just shy of two and half years, due to complications of a stroke. I miss both girls very much, and thus, am dedicating this blog to my lovely girls who brought me back into the world of rats, and who made me very happy. I will tell their stories in another blog post.

While Flower was sick I started to look around for new rats who could keep Izzie company after Flower had passed. A friend had rescued some rats and was looking for a new home for them. I took them in just days after Flower passed. I named them Jasmine and Blossom in honor of Flower. After a two week quarantine, I did intros, and unfortunately, it didn't work out. Jasmine is a sweet rat, but very rat aggressive (not to Blossom, because they are sister's from the same litter and already lived togther) and injured Izzie so badly, she needed sutures. I still kept Blossom and Jasmine, and am very glad I did! They are sweet, and very funny. : ) In talking to some people on a rat list I belong to, I was told that adult lone rats sometimes do better with baby rats. Off to the breeder I went again and got 2 dumbo rat girls who were sister's from the same litter, whom I named Hoku and Nani (Hawaiian names, as my now husband and I got married in Nov. of last year and we were planning our honeymoon to Hawaii. Hoku means star and Nani means beautiful). Unfortunately that did not work out either, as Izzie was aggressive toward the babies. So, unfortunately Izzie lived the rest of her life solo. My husband and I gave her a lot of attention though.

So, I now have Jasmine and Blossom together in one cage and Hoku and Nani together in another cage. Jasmine and Blossom are one year and two months old and have been with me since August of 2009. Hoku and Nani are ten months old and have been with me since September of last year. Jasmine and Blossom are both all beige, though Blossom does have a white tummy. That is the only way I can tell them apart; their faces look identical. : ) Hoku is a black capped dumbo, with a white body, and Nani is a grey hooded dumbo.

That is my rat story! Thanks for reading my novel, and be on the look out for more posts here at The Flower and Izzie Spot - All Things Rats!!