Titania has been gaining weight like a champ! Here’s her weight gain so far, from breeding to today (less than one week from the due date)!

 2/26/08: 264 grams.

2/27/08: 265 grams.

2/28/08: 268 grams.

2/29/08: 272 grams.

3/1/08: 271 grams.

3/2/08: 271 grams.

3/3/08: 274 grams.

3/4/08: 285 grams.

3/5/08: 285 grams.

3/6/08: 286 grams.

3/7/08: 285 grams.

3/8/08: 296 grams.

3/9/08: 298 grams.

3/10/08: 305 grams.

3/11/08: 314 grams.

3/12/08: 310 grams.

As you can see, weight gain varies day to day. Things like extra treats and exercise affect weight gain, as does the fact that Titania is still a growing young girl herself! I’ll post more on her weight gain as things progress. Let’s hope that she will deliver an on-time, healthy, happy litter!

 Any bets on how many are in there?

SGR Sleeping Oberon and COVE Titania of RIZL were paired Monday night. I don’t yet know if Titania is pregnant. Weight as of today is 266gms. Here are some pics:

Obie gets a bath before meeting Tiny.

A handsome Obie!

Cute Tiny!

Tiny says, “Is that BOY I smell?”

Obie says, “That’s  GIRL I smell!”

More pics in their thread on Goosemoose!

Yes, it is blurry- but it’s the exact right angle. Just wanted to share with you the exact head I’ll be breeding for in my standard eared rats. This is SGR Fortissimo, who also posed as our weight check model yesterday. This is the profile you want in a rat of show quality. Health comes first. Temperament comes first. But when those are fairly well handled (though they can ALWAYS improve) and you have the luxury of adding type to the list of traits you’re selecting for- this is it, baby.

Keeping track of your rats’ weight accurately is an excellent preventive step to alert you to any sudden weight gain or loss, which could be a sign of anything from pregnancy to pneumonia! Today, I’ll share how I do the weight check my ratkids receive every two weeks. When Titania is pregnant, she’ll get to do this every day!

Our model for today is SGR Fortissimo, a handsome Russian Fawn gentleman, and my largest rat in both length and weight.

 To weigh your rats regularly, all you need is a kitchen scale. One that uses grams is most accurate. I bought mine at the grocery store for under $15! Check the baking supplies aisle, as gram scales are most often used to weigh ingredients for baking.

 

Of course, most rats won’t just sit still on the little scale. That’s what a big Tupperware container is for. Set it on top of the scale and make sure to zero the scale before adding a rat- wouldn’t want Fortissimo to get a complex because of those extra few grams added to his weight!

 Now, it’s time to add one rat.

 

Fortissimo, at the tender age of seven months, weighs in at 586 grams! Time for some enthusiastic belly kisses and a chocolate chip before returning him to his cage and weighing the next rat.

I want readers and Rizzle Rat Rattery fans to meet each of my rats, and not just those who are with me as potential mothers or fathers to the next generation of Rizzle Rats. In fact, only five of my 13 rat kids are with me on breeding contracts. Today, I’d like you to meet one of my eight pet-only rats.

 

Crimp is a beige rex, although most of her rexing has faded as she has grown. She was born in my home on March 10, 2007, as part of a litter I fostered in preparation for starting my rattery. Crimp was to have been adopted by a nice couple with two sons, as a companion for a ratty they’d rescued from abandonment at a local pet store. Things fell through with the adopters, however, and while she’d been waiting for her forever home, my SO’s brother had become very attached to Crimp. We decided to keep her, and have never regretted it!

 Crimp is posing on top of a Wonderrodent Cube.

 

Welcome to the Rizzle Rat Rattery Blog, Rizzle Me This! Here you will find rat care information, pictures of Rizzle Rat Rattery residents, daily updates of litter members when we are lucky enough to have eepers, and basic information on rat color genetics, as well as an inside look at life with the Rizzle Rats.
 
If you are a current or future Rizzle Rat adopter, a prospective rat parent, a fellow breeder or pet owner, grandparent to rats, or simply curious about what life is like with over a dozen rats, you’ll want to add this blog to your reading list.
 
For this first post, allow me to introduce myself. I’m the Rizzle Mom, and go by Saydrah on most rat related corners of the net. I live with my SO and roommate in Green Mountain, Colorado. Sharing the house are, at the time of this posting, 13 rats, one African Pygmy Hedgehog, my Corgi/Border Collie mix, and one cat so soft we often accuse him of stealing his coat from a rabbit. Home is small and generally fairly chaotic, but we like it that way- life without pets would be so boring! I am a member of the North Illinois Rat Organization (a Rat Society of America affiliate) and the North American Rat Registry. I am a small scale rat breeder expecting my first litter in March of 2008, with my primary goals being health and temperament.