Mischief Managed

I know I haven’t posted here in forever but here’s a Cloud Rat celebration for you ❤️❤️ Happy birthday Yzma! At 11 she is quite old but is still as sassy as ever and she loved her rodent chow/banana cake drizzled with honey and crushed peanuts 🥰

Also please turn your sound on for crunches

I heard you guys like Cloud Rats- here’s the female, Yzma, and some watermelon. Sound up for delightful munching sounds

Kronk the Cloud Rat has some important tasks on his agenda for the day

I am now officially ratless :/ Goose passed away in March which wasn’t unexpected. He was just shy of turning 3 and had quite a few health issues. Which left me with Essex and she was still spunky as ever (although 2 years old). I was really conflicted on what to do with her because I didn’t want her to be alone but I also didn’t want to rehome her at her age and just selfishly not wanting to give her up. But in May, the perfect situation kind of came around and one of my volunteers at work was thinking about getting rats and was excited to take her. She took her home and got 3 young male rats a few weeks later (remember Essex is spayed). Essex is realllly happy and loving having rats to cuddle and play with. Her new owner said she is still really active and sweet but she can see her starting to slow down so I’m not sure how much longer she’ll be around but I’m so happy she has had these last few months with friends and owners who have a good set up to take her out and play with her all the time. I kept meaning to do a big post looking back at the blog over the years but I just kept...not doing it. It’s been such an amazing experience and there’s a big part of me that’s really sad to not have the rats anymore because they became such a big part of my identity but I also know I wasn’t able to give them the social attention they deserved anymore. Everything else is great! Cats are doing well and idk if you saw on my other blog that we got a new cat- Feta :) She’s settling in really well!!Work at the zoo is awesome but very busy. I am on the steering committee for our Enrichment and Training Committee now which takes up a lot of time (in a good way) and I also took on being the Studbook Keeper and Species Survival Plan Coordinator for Brazilian Agoutis. Which has been a ton of work and I am still muddling through how to get started and do that effectively so it’s daunting but exciting to get involved in population management and with rodents no less!!We are also getting some exciting new rodent species at work- the endangered Perdido Key Beach Mouse and the Northern Luzon Cloud Rat. Which I am obviously extremely excited about. I will be one of the primary keepers for both species so my life is still full of rodents, just not my home :PHopefully I’ll do a big look back post at some point soon- but thanks for checking in. It’s really humbling and amazing that people still care! I just had a new volunteer at work the other day ask me if I ran a rat blog because she recognized me from tumblr. It’s been a crazy journey...

Hey look I still exist! Rats are doing well. Slowing down quite a bit- especially Goose- but still up to the same old tricks

General life updates I’m still at my job at the zoo (and plan on being there forever more). I love it and I’ll still occasionally post pics/videos from work. I’m happy to answer questions about the zoo if you’d like but please don’t send me hateful anons about zoos/zoo discourse or anything because I really have no desire to answer those in any kind of respectful manner. If you have questions PM me and I’d love to talk your ear off about my job because I’m passionate about it and my animals are basically the best. Still married and loving that as well. Honestly not too much to report- mostly working, dog training...and not a whole lot else lol. Hope you are all doing well!

Wow I have literally not posted anything rat related in moooonths because this blog is basically inactive but this one made me chuckle. Nope no chew proof hammocks- rodents gonna shred yo. However, in an effort to not be a smartass, I’ve found that hammocks with multiple entrances and exits tend to last longer- aka the “honeycomb” shaped ones made by many small animal hammock makers. The cubes are a big waste of money the rats laugh at you when you hang them up and immediately open up the sides. Or just make hammocks out of old bras or jeans and then you’ll care less when they meet their inevitable, shredded demise. Hope that helps and hello yes followers I am alive.

Hey guys- so this blog isn’t really active anymore- I’ve been focusing more on my dog blog/haven’t been on tumblr as much in general. I also lost 2 of the ratties- it was actually a little while ago but I forgot to update. I had to put Peabody and Rigby to sleep from respiratory issues :/ Which means I only have 2 guys left- Essex and Goose. Goose is about 2.5 now so he’s really slowing down. These are going to be my last rats unfortunately. With the dog and full time job they just aren’t getting the attention and life they used to get. I don’t have a good space for them to free range (especially in the winter when they can’t go out on the screened in porch) and I just find I’m not getting the same amount of enjoyment out of them that I once did. I’ll make a big post about my whole experience on here (which has been awesome) once the other two are gone but just a notice since I’ve been getting new followers that this is no longer an active rat blog :(

No sorry! All mine are fixed. There honestly aren’t many rat breeders around me anymore. Try Rats Are Awesome on FB- they have resources for breeders based on location

Do you have girls or boys? ½ inch wire is generally recommended for girls, babies, and small boys. Larger boys should be fine in 1 inch so obviously 0.8 inches falls under that. Hope that helps!

So proud of my city today. I know it doesn’t necessarily change policies but what an amazing show of solidarity and girl power. The streets of DC literally flooded with people- streets overrun with crowds extended way beyond the initial march boundaries- as many as 3x the number of people as expected. Let’s keep this momentum going through the next 4 years of hell