Saturday, January 23, 2010

Poppy has a tumor.

Well my babies are all around a year old now. So I fear this may be the start of age issues... But Poppy has a growth under one of her arms. I first noticed it around Christmas and it was about the size of a grape for a few weeks and then all of a sudden it is as big as a ping pong ball! It is very disturbing to me. She does not seem bothered by it at all, still runs in her wheel, eats and lets me touch it. I did some research and am pretty sure it is a mammary tumor (has all the classic symptoms) I want to take her to the vet, but with Blue's bill ending up being close to $450 and Christmas I am so broke right now. I hope it does not get any bigger for awhile and maybe I can take her in next month. I am also very worried about surgery of any kind on a rattie now, Blue was the first rat I took in for surgery and she ended up dying b/c of complications from the surgery. I still regret that choice and worry for Poppy.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Change of plans

I have decided to close the rattery. It has just been too hard with everything else going on in my life. I love my rats so much and would rather just focus on a few special babies at a time. I very much enjoyed having newborn babies around and watching them grow is amazing, but it really is such a huge responsibility and I felt like the work involved was really taking away from the actual enjoyment of being a rattie owner. Also loosing Little Blue really made me think about things more and realize I could not be there for each rattie if I had so many. So I placed all of my last litter into adoptive homes and will be adopting two of my "older" girls (Camille and Drew) to Keith at Carolina Blue Rattery. Camille came from him in the first place and has never been breed and Drew is so he can continue the mink line that I uncovered within his lines. :) It was a hard decision, one I thought about for a few weeks. But now I am glad, relieved and at peace with it. This leaves me 5 special rats to spoil. My two boys Toby and Felix: who are absolutely wonderful and so sweet to each other and my three girls: Poppy, Ember and Chile. Poppy and Ember are biological sisters and have always been inseparable, but they instantly welcomed Chile right into their hammock when she was just a tiny baby. They both mothered and cleaned her from day one. This is more like the way it should be for me and my 5 babies.