How Big Do Rats Get

Last month I had a couple of people ask me how big rats get. It's a tricky question because they actually can be many sizes. Over the last 15 years I've had some really big rats and some petite rats like Flower. So I thought I would just show you. This is Ares, Brodie, Hades and Jasper. Brodie was the smallest of the bunch and he's the one to the right in back of the two facing front. Jasper who is facing front was the biggest rat I've ever had. I'll post more pictures of him later in this post. Right next to him is the black and white rat and that's Hades who was almost as big as Jasper and then next to him was Ares who was a little smaller. 

Lucky who was my 3 legged rat was really big too. He was just under 3 lbs and was 17 inches long. 

Then there was Marbles who was a medium size rat at just 2 lbs and 15 inches long. His fur is curly and missing in some places because he is a Rex rat and he had the hairless gene but his fur came out all wonky. 

And this was Marbles brother, Patches. Patches was the smallest rat I've ever had. He was the size of a small hamster with a small tail and he only weighed 1.2 lbs. He was also a Rex and has soft curly fur. 

Jasper was the biggest rat I've ever owned. He was 19 inches long from nose to tail and weighed a whopping 3Lbs. I sat him next to a paper towel roll so you could see how big he was. 

The paper towel roll was 11 inches long.

And his tail was about 8 inches long. 19 inches all together. 

And then there's Flower who is petite and small. She is a hairless rat. I haven't weighed her because my scale broke a while back but she's not more than 1.5 lbs and she's not long at all. Not that she would sit still long enough for me to measure her. lol 

Most times male rats are bigger than female rats and female rats usually have more energy than males. When males get older they usually turn into chubby, laid back lap rats who want to be held and petted. Female rats usually keep that energy they have most of their lives and are zip, zip zipping around like the energizer bunny. 

But that's not always the case. This was Romi. She was my first female rat and she turned out to be a very big girl and she loved to just lay on me or next to me and be petted. She was almost 3 lbs and about 16 inches long. 

Romi was like Flower and loved to hide in my shirt and even sleep there while I was watching a movie on the couch. While she did have a lot of energy she would also cuddle when she felt like it too. 

These are not all of the rats that I've had but as you can see they do come in all sorts of different sizes. I hope I answered some of your questions.

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a 'Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to samples like these at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.
Did you know you can sign up at Tomoson and get free products too. You can also sign up at these sites and get products at a great discount. No Kidding Coupons, AMZ Review Trader, and Elite Deal Club.

This week I received:

A set of 2 dog bowls for review.

Did you get anything free this week?

Why Does Dawn Dish Liquid Make My Sponge Stink?

I had been using Palmolive and before you ask why I didn't just use the dishwasher...I am the dishwasher. My apartment complex is too damn cheap to have dishwashers in the apartments. 

Anyway, I had been using Palmolive and I received a coupon for $1 off of Dawn so we tried it. I like that it cuts grease better and that I don't have to use as much to get my dishes clean but it leaves my sponges with a really rank odor even after the first time I use it. I've tried washing my sponge out really well after doing the dishes, I tried boiling the sponge, microwaving the sponge and even using a new sponge each week. It doesn't matter what I do, Dawn leaves my sponges and dish cloths with a musty, moldy smell after using it with them. No other dish washing liquid does this to my sponges.

So I left a question on the Dawn FB page and this was their response. 

I know I'm not the only one who has had this question because I "Googled" the question and there are a lot of blog posts, articles and forums about this so it's not just me. I may have to use a different dish liquid now.

Do you use Dawn? Have you noticed this?

Review: Stainless Steel Dog Bowls

Product Description

Stainless steel Dog Bowls with rubber bottoms that wont slip

This Bowl didn't slide all over the place when your dog is eating.

- Made With Highest Quality Materials Available 

- With rubber bottoms that wont slip 

- Beautiful Design in Stainless Steel.

- 2 Dog Bowls for the price of one 

- Wont Slip to prevent scratches and damage to hardwood floor 

- Very Easy To Clean (Dishwasher safe) 

- Holds up to 32-ounce

First thing I want to mention is that my bowls came with stickers attached to the inside bottom of both bowls and even after scrubbing them, there's still a sticky residue that will not come off. I really don't like that at all. I'm hoping that over time if will fade away but it's very unattractive right now. It makes no sense for the company to send out dog bowls knowing that water and food are going to be put into them and knowing that not all of the sticker residue comes off easily. 

These bowls are bigger than the small bowls that we got when we were given our dog last year. They are a good size and the rubber seal on the bottom of them do help them not slip around the floor. Falcor, my dog doesn't usually like to stick his face down inside a bowl to eat his food I think because he doesn't like getting his chin hairs and whiskers dirty with dog food. But these bowls are bigger than the bowls I had been using and now he eats out of a bowl instead of a plate but he's still a messy eater. 

At least the bowls stay where you put them. I get annoyed if he scoots the plate or bowls all over the kitchen floor and I accidentally kick the water bowl with my foot and water goes flying everywhere. That didn't happen when I used these bowls. 

Disclaimer: I received this product for free in exchange for an honest review. 

Product Review: W-Star Multi Use Adjustable Child Safety Strap Latches Locks

Product Description

Home is where the heart is, but it can also be a very dangerous place for new crawlers and walkers. 

The baby is so curious about everything that they enjoy opening the cabinets, drawers, appliances and even toilets. 

They always make a mess in the room and even hurt themselves sometime. Such things really confused parents. 

The Child Proofing Cabinet Latch is the solution. 

NO screw, no drill, no damage to you furniture. 

What you need to do? 

Adjust the flexible yet durable strap to the length you need, peel back the paper on the 3M adhesive and press on the flat surface or corner that you need to keep your little one out of. 

Marvel at how well it sticks and the ease with which you can quickly open the lock, yet it is too difficult for your toddler. 

My Review

My grandson is almost 3 years old and anyone who's been around a 3 year old knows they get into everything. Since my daughter lives close to me, I see him often and like to give my daughter things for him. So I gave these to her and knew they would be easy to install since you don't have to drill holes or use screws to hold it in place. 

She placed one on the corner cabinet door and tried prying the door open and she couldn't get it open so we knew that the little one wouldn't be able to get into the cabinet. Plus it's easy to open after you get them installed. These are so much easier to install and use than those other latches that you have to try and screw in tiny screws into the wood under the cabinet doors.

If you'd like to buy this product, you can find it here. 

Disclaimer: I was given this product for free in exchange for an honest review. 

Flower's Cage Set Up

I know on Monday's I usually post the Happy Raturday post but the lady that run's the fb page that I get the pictures from is away at school for the next few weeks so I thought I would post a rat related blog post instead. 

Flower has moved into the bigger cage and she's loving it. Yes, both Scribbles and Flower have been solitary rats. I got them that way and they weren't social at all and didn't like other rats so they stayed by themselves. Rats should be kept in pairs or more because they usually like the company but if they are rat aggressive to other rats, sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Flower seems to like one of her new beds. This is the same bed that Lucky used to sleep in and as you can see in the pictures below...he was a lot bigger than she is. lol She is my dainty little girl.

Lucky was a big boy. When people saw him, they always remarked at how big he was because he was a huge rat. Flower is so much smaller than most of the other rats I've had.

When Lucky slept on his back, he just about took up the entire bed. But Flower has a lot of room to stretch out in it.

I put 2 hammocks, 1 fluffy bed, 1 hanging fleece tube, 2 lava ledges and 1 fleece cube in the cage and she went around sniffing everything before settling down for a nap. 

The ramps are covered so that their feet don't accidentally get stuck in the little holes in the ramp. I usually just buy big stretchy socks and snug them up over the ramps. They re easy to pull on and off and cheap enough that I can just throw them away and use a new one when they get dirty.

She spent a lot of time in this bed before checking out the hammocks and cube.

I always put a baby blanket inside her cube so she has something to cuddle in when she sleeps. This is how the blanket usually looks like after a few days. She totally destroys it! it's no wonder I am constantly buying baby blankets and shirts because she's a chewer and loves to chew on my shirts when she comes out to pay too.

Here's what Flower's cage looks like now.

Last year I bought a box of 48 fleece throws because I used the fleece to cover the shelves in the cages as well as on the bottom on the cage. I now have 6 throws left because they love to chew they to bits. 

And after she got all settled in, we shared an ice cream cone.

Product Review: Resistance Bands Barbells

As most of you know, on June 10th of this year I fell and broke my Humerus in my right arm in 3 places. While I'm almost 100% better I still can't move my arm behind my back like I used to before the fall. I'm still doing the PT exercises and still trying to get back the strength I once had in my right hand and arm. So when I was given the opportunity to test out this exercise kit at home, I jumped at the chance because I've been using household items such as cans of vegetables as weights and doing stretching exercises without any equipment. 

Using these resistance bands has been interesting and hard at the same time. Hard because I used to be able to pick up a gallon of milk with my right hand and now I just can't do that, but I'm hoping now that I have this exercise set, I'll be able to strengthen my hand and arm up again and be able to get back to normal. 

This kit was really easy to get started with with easy clear instructions and everything is included that you would need to start out. Even for a total beginner, this was easy for me. It comes with a DVD which was really helpful so after watching it, I started with just one arm exercise a day because my arm is still stiff and if I over do it, it hurts a lot. But after 4 days of working my arms, I could tell a slight difference in the amount of weight I can hold with my right arm, and my shoulder seems not as stiff as it was. I plan on working with this for a few weeks and seeing if this will help strengthen my injured arm, but so far so good. 

Disclaimer: I was given this product for free in exchange for my honest review.

Recipe: Pumpkin Pound Cake

2 weeks ago I spotted a recipe for Pumpkin Pound Cake on FaceBook. So I copied, pasted and put the recipe away in a folder in my email until I was ready to make it. I kept seeing it popping up on fb so I decided to just make it because you know what next month is, right? It's pumpkin everything-month!

Here's the recipe

1 box yellow cake mix

4 eggs

3/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup oil

1 cup pumpkin

1/4 cup water

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Bake 350 degrees for 45 minutes -

So I added all of the ingredients and mixed and poured it into a greased and floured baking pan and baked for 45 minutes. 

Just ignore my baking pan. This one is 30 years old and has seen better days. I need new ones. But it gets the job done. lol So after baking this is what the cake looked like and let me tell you, it smelled so good!

This cake came out light, fluffy and super moist! I don't put icing on my cake because I don't like icing. But this cake didn't need it, it was so good. 

Do you like pumpkin flavored things? Think you might try this?

Review: Yellowstone Fugitive by Saige Silver

Book Description

Outlaw Tess Robinson will do anything to avoid prison, even if that means braving the harsh terrain of the Yellowstone wilderness alone. Grizzly shifters Dean Stamper and Jace Dixon are hot on the trail of the curvy young fugitive, but they’re soon grappling with a huge problem: Tess is their fated mate! 

Now the shifters have a difficult decision to make: Should they arrest the woman they love and condemn her to years in prison, or break the law themselves by harboring a fugitive? 

Soon they realize they have a much bigger problem on their hands. A sociopathic drug kingpin is on a mission to find Tess and her bears. He’ll stop at nothing to quench his thirst for blood and vengeance. Will Dean and Jace be able to protect the mate they’ve waited a lifetime for? 

This is a full-length standalone grizzly shifter novel with a HEA and NO cliffhangers! Contains adult content, 18+ only

My Review

I've never been to Yellowstone so I kinda like books set in this place because I get a sense of what it might be like to be there. When Tess gets pulled over because one of her break lights is out, she fights back the panic and tries to stay calm. But the cop can see she's nervous and asks her to step out of the car. And that's when everything goes wrong...Instead of getting out of the car, she starts the car and drives off really fast, finds a place to park and leaves the car. She had no other choice though, if the cop had opened the trunk, he'd have found the drugs and she's be on her way to jail. 

Best friends, Dean and Jace took the job in the wilderness of Yellowstone so they could be closer to the outdoors. Being bear shifters, the city life just wasn't the life for them so they left their jobs as city cops to be forest rangers so they could let their bear's run free in the forest of Yellowstone as much as possible. 

It took just one look at the fugitive photo of Tess and Dean volunteers to go and find her and bring her in. But just looking at the her photo gave him a surge of lust that went right to his nether regions. As Dean and Jace set off to find her, Tess is making her way through the wilderness. Tired and sore she spots an old run down cabin and decides to spend the night and that's where Dean finds her. 

Even though Dean and Jace know she's a fugitive, there's just something about her that draws them both in. Fated mates? Could be but how will they live happily ever after when someone is out to kill her and she's facing charges for being a drug smuggler?

I like that more authors are adding curvy heroine's because not all of us are a size 6 and we like to read about women that we can relate to, so this was a big plus for me.

I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

If you'd like to read this book, you can find it here. 

Disclaimer: I was given a free copy in exchange for an honest review. 

Freebie Friday!

Welcome to another edition of Freebie Friday, where I tell you what free samples and full sized products I received in the mail and how you can get them too. Someone asked me why I do a 'Freebie Friday" each week, so I'll tell you.

A while back I listed all the free samples and wins that I had received that previous year and so many people didn't believe that I could have gotten so many free things. So I decided to prove it by taking a picture every week and sharing the sites that I found the links to the freebies at. So now you too can get great free samples coming to your mailbox each week.

  You can find links to samples like these at Hey It's Free and Freebie Shark.
Did you know you can sign up at Tomoson and get free products too. You can also sign up at these sites and get products at a great discount. No Kidding Coupons, AMZ Review Trader, and Elite Deal Club.

This week I received:

A box of 48 Colored Pencils

Impress Glue on Nails

I also cashed out enough points on eRewards to get a $25 Starbucks gift card! This survey site is by invitation only (they have to invite you, not me) but it does pay off so if they ever sent you an invite, accept it. 

Did you receive any freebies this week?

Review: Tom Box Subscription Box

I found out about this monthly subscription box when a FB friend posted a picture of what she received in her Tombox a couple of months ago. So I looked the site up and decided to give it a try. Now it says that the boxes start at $10 a month but I went through the questions process and was told my box would be $16  month. Not sure how someone gets the box for $10 a month. But you can personalize the box and get even more stuff than this. I could have gotten double the make up for an additional $6 or a pack of disposable razors for an additional $12. I chose not to take advantage of either of those things. 

I really think this is a great box for women because you get your choice of pads or tampons, jewelry and name brand make up. I know whatever I can't use or don't want, my daughter will gladly take. But this would also make a great present for someone.

This is a "That time of the month" box. 

It comes with either pads or tampons *You get to pick which you want*

A Beauty Product

And Jewelry

This months box came with:

Always Pads
A beautiful gold tone necklace
Hikari Mascara
Evolvh Leave in Conditioner
Suds Lavender Chamomile Bath Salts
Eslor Skin Care Introductory Collection Pack

Product Review: Set of 4 Deluxe Metal Plastic Die Cast Construction Toy Vehicles Playset

Product Description

Set of 4 free-wheeling construction vehicles

Metal Plastic Die Cast vehicles

Each vehicle measures 7 x 3 x 3 Inches

No batteries required

My Review

Little kids, both boys and girls love playing with dump trucks and cars. Especially if they have other kids to play with them. So when I was given the chance to get this set for free, I jumped on it because I have a grandson who is almost 3 years old and I thought he would love this set of trucks. He already has some little trucks and cars and my daughter told me he loves playing with them. But most boys do so that's really no surprise. 

I liked these because they are bigger than the small matchbox type cars and trucks so they are a little different from what he already has and different usually means, play with right away for kids. Toys are always a hit when my grandson comes over for a visit so I know he'll enjoy playing with these as well. 

They are made well and seem pretty sturdy. I expect he'll have hours and hours of fun with these trucks. 

Disclaimer: I was given this product for free in exchange for an honest review. 

Product Review: Icetek Sports Multi-Purpose Credit Card Size Pocket Tool

Product Description

Multi-purpose credit card size pocket tool. 13 tools include: letter opener/blade, scissors, rulers, tweezers, Special features include magnifying glass, Straight pin, pressurized ball point pen and Phillips screw and LED mini White light.

My Review

I really like these thin pocket tools because they fit in a pocket or wallet and can be stored anywhere that you might need one in a hurry. As you can see the scissors and some of the other things come out pretty easy and go back in just as easy. But I had a hard time getting out the blade and straight pin. It didn't come with instructions or any paperwork letting you know what all is in the case. So that was a bit of a drawback for me. 

But if you know someone who likes these types of things, then this would make a great gift or add on gift to a basket or stocking stuffer. 

Disclaimer: I was given a free product in exchange for an honest review. 

Happy Raturday!

Welcome to a new weekly blog post I'm calling, Raturday! I've seen Caturday and while that's really cute, I think the rats needs some photo time so everyone can see how cute these little animals are. I've gotten permission from Rat Logic's fb page to share their pictures on my blog. So get ready to smile because these are cute. 

*click pictures to enlarge*

RIP Scribbles

I rescued both Scribbles and Flower at the same time, March of last year from a lady who no longer wanted them. He was very friendly or social but after a few weeks of interacting with him, he became such a sweet boy. When I shared my food with him, he'd always put him paw it in and it made me laugh.

He played in the ball pit..mostly just walked through it and ignored the balls.

Was always ready to come out and say hi.

And posed for pictures last Halloween. 

Falcor always wanted to play with him but he just sat there eating his food ignoring the dog completely.

And posed for more pictures. He loved coming out to play, share my food and get some cuddles with us.

Then a few weeks ago he started getting sick and I started him on antibiotics right away. He got better and then got sicker really fast. The last week he was with me, he was so spoiled, he got pretty much anything he wanted including ice cream, baby foods, cream of wheat, meat balls and of course yogies. 

Scribbles passed away yesterday afternoon. He was 2.5 years old. 

RIP my little man.