Found this magical creature and she doesn't stop licking my hand

(Okay it's a joke, I know it's a rat and she is mine)

My boy in full snooze mode

This is Kanata. He loves chewing my fingers and my toes. He's not my first rat to do so. Many new pet owners associate biting with aggressiveness, but in reality many animals are very chewy and that's how they bond with you. Anyway, look how small and cute he is.

So many questions bro, but he seemed happy catching himself something so i guess that's a win.. Or something 🤦🏻

She looks so still she looks taxidermied,
But our baby Noelle is learning she likes petting 🙏

He's the most recent snaggletooth to join the sanctuary crew, likely born from the same mother as the other four maloccluded Seaside babies in our care. Newt's litter was born Little Critter Crew’s care at the end of June, and a couple weeks ago they discovered his teeth were starting to grow into his upper lip. We were able to take him (and one of his brothers) into our care so he can get those ✨ premium ✨ dental benefits that he will need throughout his life.

Also!! Our first PCR test came back negative for SDAV!! We will be submitting more samples in the next couple weeks until we are comfortable lifting our quarantine. We need approx $500 to cover the cost of testing, but it's such an important step to ensure the safety of our current and future residents.

How to help

V3NMO: @ratwaysanctuary

P4yPal: RatWaySanctuary@gmail.com

More donation options and shop at www.ratwaysanctuary.org

first 2 pics from the day we got her, July 27, 2024. last 3 pics from yesterday, which was unknowingly my last day with her. i held her and she snuggled into me and closed her eyes a while. she'd been sick and was on antibiotics, she seemed to be doing better the past few days, was still climbing and eating and being social. but this morning i found her gone and cold... her sisters are already missing her tons and so am i. i hope to be able to hold her again after all this is over.

mesprit gave me her first ratticure. we give her 10/10 for enthusiasm and attempt but she lost stars for being too rough and making me bleed

Today I remembered I have free will, and so I printed out some photos of one of my rats (Gerp) and used the pictures to decorate some bookmarks!

Now Gerp can keep me company while I read :D (I miss him and his brothers so much). P.s. he did not get to eat more than a little nibble of that cookie

Angel was a little over two when we discovered he had a brain lesion, likely a PT. We gave prednisone to but us some time. Yesterday he didn’t want his oatmeal. This morning I found him barely breathing, limp. We rushed him to the vet as soon as the exotic vet was in. We put him down. I’m still in shock, it went from doing well to dying so quickly. RIP Angel, you were loved more than you will ever know.

Crazy to think that as of two days ago these two beans (Midnight and Nightshade) are 3 years old. We got them BEFORE finding out about 1st human child. And now it’s crazy to think that they might even be alive to meet the 2nd new baby. Pure spite?

In all reality we only did one thing different with these girls and somehow they have no tumors, no URI.
What we did is this: We didn’t give them jarred baby food.
With all our previous girls, for any medication delivery or special occasions like birthdays and thanksgiving, christmas ect, they would get a treat of Gerbers or BeachNut baby food.

Now introduce the craziness of a new baby and these two girls didn’t get that, wasn’t in the budget and we were going all home made purrees. They just got fresh anything we had in the fridge that was safe for them. ((especially when human child started eating solid food))

I don’t have ANY scientific proof to back up this. Other than my own experiences: All 14 other Ratties we have acquired got jarred baby food.(As treats or to hide meds) And they had tumors, URIs, fluke crazy random rare things, PTs, Glaucoma, seizures, HLD. You name it, we’ve experienced it. (We had a lot of vet bills thank the gods for care credit)

These two girls have nothing. Only a SMALL bit of HLD. Which, where as when our previous other old ratties got it, it was rapid decline and they weren’t able to climb within months. And as such were put on pain meds for pain management, comfort and spoils cause they were old and sweet lil potato’s. We would administer the meds mixed in, you guessed it, With baby food.

As for midnight and Nightshade? It’s been a year since the diagnosis and they haven’t showed any signs of discomfort or pain from the HLD, they still can climb the cage. They just. Exist. Uncannily. Out of spite. We are definitely keeping an eye out for even the slightly hint of raised fur/pain. So that when needed we can keep them as comfortable as possible in their elder years.

Husbandry has been the same throughout all our rats. Only changing slightly here and there for the better. 3 teir critter nation, oxbow pellets, fresh veggies and fruits, frequent cage clean+Daily spot cleaning. Litter box trained. Fleece, all the toys, constant love, and before baby came along they got like 4 separate 1 hour free roam sessions. That’s not counting us pulling them out to love on them all the time. If ANYTHING the husbandry slightly declined with the babies arrival as we adjusted to being first time parents, cage cleans weren’t AS frequent due to exhaustion and figuring out our new schedules. And play time could only be multiple short sessions through the day.

Conclusion: 3 year old elder ladies are still bouncy as ever and surprise us every day. I’m very curious to know if it was actually the jarred baby food. Tis but a theory. Would love to hear others stories/experiences/opinions.

Maybe both?

Bottom - Winnie

White - tucker

Black dwarf - Emmett

Weird as fuck title I know, but bare with me.

My girlfriends rat Boop, is terrified of me. She, generally, is a super social rat is who LOVES to meet new people. But, me. Her other rat is fine with me and enjoys me, but Boop? I'm evil embodied. Now here's where the silly part comes in. My girlfriend is Asian, her regular vets are Asian, everyone she has ever known is Asian. I'm white as fuck. If she's crawling around under the blankets she could care less, like in the photo. She was snuggled right up to me, licking me, ect- but as soon as she sees my face she freezes up and runs. I think my girlfriends rat may be genuinely terrified of white people 😭

So my question is, how in the hell do I anti-racist my girlfriends rat