paperheartrats

It looks like there are a lot of boys in Hailey's litter!  The final count is 7 boys, 3 girls. I believe there were 2 male and 2 female rexes.

I also got a nice surprise tonight!  I got an e-mail from Ed at CBS news - he was the one who put together the segment with my rats in it!  He told me they are re-airing the segment on June 28th!  I will post again when I know a time range of when they're showing it - but for those of you who missed the segment the first time around - set your TIVOs :)

Hailey had her babies right on time tonight :) There are 10 of them, all dark eyed, and all look well fed and healthy!

Kit Kat doesn't appear to have gotten much of a belly.  I've separated her into a maternity cage - there's always a chance it's just a small litter - but I think she might have fooled me this time around and just taken advantage of the extra treats...If so, I will try to breed her again and will also breed Violet's litter at the same time, since her breeding didn't work out last time either.  Hopefully the second time around I'll have better luck!

I will get some photos of the new kids and update my site tomorrow evening.

I have made a few changes to the front page of my site - added a few small pictures in.  I hope it looks okay on other screen resolutions or in other browsers - if anyone sees any problems, please let me know so I can fix it! Thanks :)

Well Kessy did very well at our show this weekend!  It was the Northeast Regional Conformation Show, a German-style show for German Shepherds only.  Kessy was 3rd in the working female class which would sort of be like the Best of Breed class if it was an AKC show - but it's a German show, things are named and done differently.  To compete in the working class the dogs have to have a schutzhund title.

Also on Sunday she was breed surveyed as Kkl2, which means she is suitable for breeding.  To be breed surveyed the dog has to have a show rating, an AD (which is a 12.5 mile endurance test), hip and elbow ratings, and a schutzhund title.  They also have to do a short bitework routine to show they have the proper temperament and drive to be bred.

Here is a video of Kessy's bitework.
 

And some photos from the show!

Podium shot - sorry I cut myself and the other dogs out, I look like a BLOB!

 

Off-leash gaiting is required in the working class.






All dogs are measured to be sure they fit within the height standard.







So it was a successful weekend for us!!!

I will be working on getting caught up with ratty e-mails today and tomorrow!
Also - Hailey is definitely pregnant, she is looking pretty large!  KitKat also has a belly, but it's not a huge one.  I think her litter might be fairly small, but we'll see!  I've been wrong before ;)
 

Well, my new rats from Serendipity Rodentry came home today!  As always - many thanks to Shanna for meeting up with me and of course for these beautiful ratties ;)

I got a few photos when dropping these guys off at their QT location.

Here is the handsome russian silver rex.  I think his name will be SERR Gambit of PH.  He looks like a little scruffy teddy bear - super cute!


Here is the handsome SERR Bernie of PH.  Shanna said she called him "burmese' and that he knew his name...so I thought it would sound the same to him!  He is a nice solid boy!



Here is the pretty PH SERR Flower.  She and her brother Rocky were from a co-breeding between myself and Shanna.  For some reason she reminded me of the skunk in Bambi whose name is Flower...so that's where her name comes from :)



And here is Rocky, he's an agouti hooded dwarf.  He is precious!



And last but not least...well I haven't come up with a name yet for this little girl yet!  But something will come to me before long :)  She's a beautiful black self dumbo.

And I just wanted to post for anyone who will be e-mailing me over the next week or so - responses will be delayed, so please be patient.  I have a BIG dog show in CT this weekend, and between work, scheduled rat pickups, and preparing for the show, I will not have much time to sit at the computer.  After the 25th, things will calm down - until then, most nonessential e-mails will have to wait!  I will respond as soon as I can when I get home from the show early next week.  Thanks for understanding!

Whoops - I almost forgot to mention that it looks like KitKat and Hailey are both putting on weight, so I think their breedings were successful!  I will post again when I know more :)

I have added a couple new pages to my Links page.  The first is a Past Breeding Rats page - something I have been working on for a while.  I have included all rats used for breeding with links to their individual pages and offspring.  This will be used as a guide to help track health, longevity, etc.
I've also made a photobucket album for my dog photos and included a link on that page.
http://s545.photobucket.com/albums/hh391/paperheartrats/My%20Dogs/?start=all

I keep forgetting to post these, but I have a few cages I am looking to sell.  I will also post them on my site soon but here is some info for now!

The first is a My First Home for Exotics.
I only used this cage for a few weeks.  It's in excellent condition.  There is some very minor rust on the bars from where it was left outside in the rain.  It comes with all ramps and levels, but no hammock, wheel, or food dish.  I will recoat the bars before selling.
I don't have any current photos but here is a link for it at Petsmart:
http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753352&utm_source=googleproduct&utm_campaign=5124704&utm_medium=cse&mr:trackingCode=F8ECD052-4519-DE11-B0EA-001422107090&mr:referralID=NA

And a photo from when I first got it.  I am asking $50.


The next cage is my old boys' cage.  It's a Martin's F-477, powder coated.  It can be seen on their website here:
http://www.martinscages.com/products/cages/ferret/
Overall it's in good shape.  It's a very large cage and can hold up to 12-14 rats.  A small amount of the PVC coating has been chewed off.  I added solid shelves made of cloroplast.  These are cut to size and have been slightly chewed also.  I have some fresh "shelves" to put in, but I think these are still usable but can replace them if whoever takes the care would like.  The top section is removable for a travel/hospital/isolation cage.  Bar spacing is 1" square - not appropriate for dwarf rats or standard sized rats ~8 weeks or under.
More photos are available by request.  The cage is available to be viewed.  I paid $285 for the cage and am asking $150.   There is a litter tray for the bottom, but I forgot to include it in the photo.



Last cage is a smaller cage, probably more of a rabbit cage but could make a good rat cage with a little modifying.  I have 2 of these cages - one has a tray and one does not.  I would take $25 for the one with the tray and $15 for the other.
I believe they are 18" tall by 24" by 24"  There is only one small shelf in the back.  Shelves, hammocks, or levels would need to be added.  It oculd also make a good hospital cage for an injured rat.  The bar spacing is 1" x 2" so again not suitable for very small rats.  These cages are clean without rust or wear and tear.




 

I have a lot of people who ask me how I first got into rats.
Today, I found some old photos of the first rats I ever got from a breeder.  They were very special girls!  Telly was a silver fawn, and Sazi was a champagne.  Telly lived to be 2 years and 9 months old and her sister made it to 3 years and 4 months.
These photos were taken in May of 2000.  Telly was about 2 1/2 at that point, and was starting to look old, but Sazi still looked great.
I never bred these girls, they were just pets, but they started me on my journey with rats over 10 years ago.  They were very special girls!

I realized today that I haven't posted here in a long time.  So I thought I'd post a few updates and some recent photos of my guys :)

First of all, I started a new job about a month ago.  I am working primarily on weekends (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday).  This will make pickups in the future a little tricky since I know most people prefer to come out on weekends.  I can still do weekend pickups but they will have to be after 6 PM.  On weekends I may not have time to reply to e-mails and will do my best to get to them as soon as I can the next week.

I am working on a few changes and updates to my site.  I've changed how the rats' names are labeled and also the titles to some of the pages.  Not major changes but I think I like how it looks.  I am also adding a link to my new photobucket album.  I am working on uploading ALL of my favorite rat photos for people to view.  I love to take pictures so this will be my chance to share my rats with everyone.  Right now, I am just getting everything uploaded.  I may leave the album as one large folder, so people can just do a slideshow and see all the photos.  It seems easier than if I was to separate them into individual folders...I think.  But once I get everything uploaded I will put name labels on all of the photos.  I will also be making a folder for photos people have sent me of adopted rats - and would love more!  I think I am missing some off my old computer.  I will try to get them off the computer and uploaded soon. 
If anyone has a problem with me uploading their photos into a separate album, please let me know and I will remove yours!

Here is a link to the main album.
http://s545.photobucket.com/albums/hh391/paperheartrats/rats/?start=all

I also dug up a few of my rat photos from around 1998-2000.  Not the best quality, but they were scanned years ago.

Most of the babies from my current litters have gone home now!  Right now, there are still 3 girls and a boy available right now.  The boy could go home with Indigo, who is on my Available Rats page.  He was born in January and is a very cute russian blue variegated dumbo.

Here are a few photos taken this week.  Enjoy!!
And happy Mother's Day to everyone ;)







Monkey -



Bailey -




 

 

I spent several hours today working on a new page for my site.  I think it turned out pretty well!  It's the "About Me" page at the bottom of my main site - www.paperheartrats.com/

Apparently I have been having more problems with e-mails...I have sent e-mails that people haven't gotten, and people have sent some to me that I haven't received.  I will try to figure out some kind of solution - but for now, I just made in AIM screen name - paperheartrats.
I will leave it on most of the time, so if you don't get through to me via e-mails just send me a message on there.  I may not be at the computer to reply, or my husband may be on the computer, etc - but I will get back to you as soon as I get the message!

I realize it is not ideal, but until I can figure something else out it's the best I can think of!  I will do some research about new e-mail providers this week.

Now for ratty news -
New litters are being bred this week, so I am hoping to have babies available in May.  I do still have some babies left from the January litters - mostly siamese, a wheaten burmese, and an agouti.
I also have some adults that are looking for new homes.  Check out my adoptions page for more info!

I just wanted to make a quick post - I know a lot of people have been wondering where I am and why I haven't responded to any e-mails in the last couple of weeks.  I was in the hospital and got back early this week - tired but getting better fast.

Then two days after I got home my husband got into a car accident.  He's okay but my poor truck's not looking too hot at the moment :( Unfortunately he decided to drive it to work that day...

I have some family stuff going on tomorrow, but I'll try to sit down tomorrow evening and Sunday and really work on getting back to all the e-mails I've missed.  I might not get everything done - but I'm working on it!

I did post some new pictures of the babies.  I need to get some of Sienna's litter, hopefully I can do that tomorrow.  And I want to update Ophelia's babies too now that everyone's eyes are open.

Well, Ophelia and Sienna both had their babies (very) early this morning.  Ophelia had 11 babies, 3 with light eyes which could be either siamese or champagne.  Sienna had 10 babies, I think I see more light eyes than dark but she was a little upset when I tried to get a look at her babies so I'll give her some time before I bug her.

Echo and Saffron's babies are doing well, and I'll try to get pictures up tonight!

I just wanted to post a few quick updates.
First of all, here are shots of Echo and Saffron's litters.  First - Echo's babies!  I see 2 russian blue or russian blue agoutis and one black or agouti capped.

And here is Saffron's litter:
I see quite a few colors so far...siamese, black, agouti, wheaten burmese, and maybe burmese.



Unfortunately Saffron was not able to feed her babies :(  She was doing a great job taking care of them but she was just not lactating.  So the babies were given to Echo to raise and she's been taking great care of them.  They are still a bit small so I can't say they're totally out of the woods yet, but I am hopeful that everyone will make it!
This is the first time I've had this happen but it's the reason I always try to do litters in pairs!
 

I spent some time tonight taking pictures of KitKat and Twilight's babies.  There are 150 pictures, and they are CUTE.  They are slowly uploading right now, here is a link to their photobucket album - hopefully they'll be finished uploading by the time anyone reads this!
http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s129/phgsd13/december%20babies/

*EDIT* Photobucket isn't cooperating with me, it's not letting me upload a lot of the images and I'm not sure why.  I wonder if there's a limit to the size of an album?? I may try to create a new photobucket account to see if it'll work that way.  I'll post a link in my next entry.

I will be doing reservations of these babies soon, but I want to wait a few more days.  The little burmese dumbo boy from Kit Kat's litter is a bit of a runt, and I want to see if he continues to catch up before reserving him to anyone.  

I am trying really hard to catch up on replying to e-mails but they seem to come in faster than I can reply, especially since my internet was down on Friday afternoon/evening through Saturday which was the time I'd set aside to sit down and work on that.  Oh well, I am working on it and I appreciate everyone's patience!
 

Oh, I knew I forgot something.  It looks like Sienna and Ophelia's breedings were successful and are due around January 3rd - both of the girls are looking pretty big.  So everything is on track at the moment!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!  My Christmas present was a new computer which I will be setting up tonight.  So I may be unavailable till tomorrow but once I do get set up I'll have an e-mail marathon :P

Anyway, the good news - Echo is having her babies right now, it looks like there are 2 so far.  And Saffron had her litter on the 24th - there are 11!  I will post head counts for both litters tomorrow!

I have to run to do some shopping with my sister but will be back as soon as I can tomorrow!

I almost forgot to mention, I'll also be updating photos of the babies as soon as I can get online again and then will be starting reservations so keep an eye out for e-mails :)

I just finished taking and uploading individual shots of both litters so check them out! 

Here are group shots - KitKat's litter


and Twilight's litter



I also have an adopter who is looking for a rat sitter for about 2 weeks.  She is located in Willingboro NJ (close to Cherry Hill/Burlington) and has a small group of girls.  The dates are January 30th to February 16th.  I know a lot of adopters check this blog pretty frequently, so if anyone's in the area that can rat-sit, please drop me a line!

I might be a little hard to reach until after Christmas, things are going to be pretty busy here for a few days.  I'll check my e-mail at least once a day, but may only be able to get back to "emergency" e-mails.
Thanks for understanding - I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!!
 

The babies all look to be doing well!  Here are pictures I just took -

 

First, KitKat's litter.  The 5 boys are on the right, and then the 3 girls are on the left.

I think I see quite a few colors...black, burmese, sable burmese, russian blue and maybe russian blue sable and russian blue burmese, and 2 that are most likely red-eyed siamese.  We'll see in a few more days about what colors everyone is for sure!  There are 3 dumbos total.

Here is Twilight's litter.  Again, the 2 boys are on the right and the 5 girls are on the left.



One of the boys is light eyed and standard coated - he's most likely a beige or fawn.  The other boy is a variegated rex, probably agouti.  He's got a very pretty blaze.  There's one agouti berkshire girl.  Out of the girls I think two are hairless and two are rex.  One is standard fur, and she looks like she's going to be a blue variegated/dalmatian.  She will probably be staying here.  The others I can't tell too much about quite yet.
I'll post more pictures soon.
 

Well, I have some bad news to report. Two of KitKat's girls didn't make it.   One was very runty (she's the one on the left side of the girls' photo in the last post - even at just a day old she was much smaller) and I'm not sure what happened to the other.  But the other babies are all doing very well.  There are 3 dumbos out of the 8 left in KitKat's litter.  It looks like both litters have a very nice range of colors and - more good news - it looks like there are two or three hairless in Twilight's litter!  Hairless have a very distinct curl to their whiskers, very different from rexes.  There are two hairless that I'm pretty sure about, and one that *might* be rex + hairless.  She will just look like a regular hairless, it will just change the look of her whiskers a bit.
One of Twilight's boys has a very pretty blaze.  He and one other look like they'll be black.
There is one black in KitKat's litter.  The others will be shades of burmese, russian blue, siamese, and if I'm lucky, american blue.

Also, Indy and Ophelia and Cricket and Saffron were bred on Friday night.    Sienna was bred with Templeton, and she does look like she's got a baby belly so here babies will be due right around Christmas. 
More to come soon!

Sorry I didn't get the baby pics up last night, I had no power till pretty late :( But here are the baby pictures!!

KitKat's boys


KitKat's girls:



Twilight's boys (only 2 - one light eyed one dark eyed)



And Twilight's 5 girls:

 

Well I got a head count of KitKat's babies last night - there are 10, and it looks like an even split of males and females.  I will recheck later today.
I also peeked in on Twilight not too long ago - she's having her babies right now.  I will do some baby pictures and final head counts of both litters later tonight.

I also wanted to post that I wlil be doing an "evaluation" of some of my young guys and will be deciding which to keep for breeding and which to adopt out.  I may have a few nice young adult boys availble soon - I will be thinking about Boogie, Romeo, and I know I also have one of Stanley's "twin" brothers to adopt out.   I will post again when I've decided.

Well, I just went into to feed the gang for the night, and KitKat looks like she's just finished having her babies.  I will try to get a head count later tonight or tomorrow.
I know I posted that Twilight's litter was due last week.  I'm not exactly sure how I did it, but I miscalculated the date.  She was bred on the 19th, I went back and double checked the journal entry LOL - which makes her due tonight or maybe tomorrow.  So - somehow I left a week off when predicting my breeding date.  She is huge and I do expect babies any time.

I have gotten behind on e-mails again, but will continue to work on those tonight and tomorrow!  I appreciate everyone's patience.

I've been planning some "renovations" to my cages, and got the boys' cage done yesterday.  It was more work than I expected, but I am really happy with the results.  I haven't gotten to make any matching hammocks because I can't seem to find my good scissors...I need to pick some up tomorrow!
The boys' have a primary colors theme in their cage with litter boxes, food dish, and igloo painted to match..  The girls' cage won't be as bright - they only had the chloroplast (the stuff used on the shelves) in black in the size that will fit their cage.  Thanks to Terri for the chloroplast idea - I am crossing my fingers that they don't decide to chew it!!

Here's the cage, pre- rats and hammocks...I think it looks prettier in person LOL
 

I hope to get the girls' cage done tomorrow!

I'll update again soon with a head count of the babies and about Twilight's litter!

I am currently uploading the new baby pictures, by the time I post this they should be done!

Other news -

Echo was in heat a day or two ago, so I know that breeding was not successful.  Her potbelly must have just been from all the turkey she ate on Thanksgiving :(  I decided to breed her to Indy - hopefully it works out, if not, she's nearing the 1 year old mark and will be retiring!  If this breeding is succesful the babies should be due on or around Christmas.

Twilight is most definitely due in the next few days.  I believe I can also feel some babies in KitKat's belly, and when that's the case they're usually due in about 7-10 days, so I'll put her due date around the 12th-15th at this point.
Templeton and Saffron were also bred, and are also due around Christmas.
I don't think the breeding with Sterling worked out so that's on hold for now.
 

The next group of e-mails for baby reservations have gone out!  I will give this group an extra couple of days to respond because of the holiday, so will wait until MONDAY to send out the next round.

I took some adorable pictures of the babies tonight - here are two of my favorites:

Check the rest out here:
http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s129/phgsd13/rats%20-%20christmas/

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!