Weekly Rat Facts: Using Fleece As Bedding

I use mostly fleece material for everything in my cages. The liner for the bottom is fleece and the covering for the second level is a cotton baby blanket. The hammocks are also fleece. 

I also use fleece beds inside the igloo's so they have something soft to lay in and I put a cotton baby blanket inside the bed so they have something to burrow into and cuddle with. 

This is what one of the fleece beds looks like. 

Lucky's cage also has fleece lining the bottom, a baby blanket clipped onto the shelves so it's softer on his feet and a fleece hammock.

This picture shows what the binder clips are and how they are used to hold the fleece material or baby blankets to the shelf.

Marbles loves to burrow into his baby blankets. 

My boys have always loved the fleece cubes. Of course they chewed the heck out of them, but the love sleeping in them.

You can find fleece cubes, hammocks and 3 tiered hammocks like the green one in this cage.

I like using fleece because it's soft, easy for them to walk on and easy to clean. When it gets too chewed to keep, I just replace it and since it's pretty cheap, it's cheaper than buying the good bedding like Carefresh and less messy.

This red spider hammock has been around for years. I'm surprised that none of the boys who have called it theirs, have chewed it up. This was Brodie. 

Lucky in the same red spider hammock. They just love this thing.

I don't sew so I buy all of my fleece cubes, hammocks and cage sets from The Little Red Ladybug

This cage set pictured above and the one below are just 2 of the many she has made and as you can see you can pick from many different colors and patterns and get all matching if you want. 

I started out with a cage set just like one of these and have just replaced the things that my rats have chewed up, mostly I just buy new hammocks and cubes *cubes not pictured here*. 

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.

This week I received: 

A free bottle of Nasacort nasal spray, coupons and pamphlets from BzzAgent.

If you'd like to get free products to try at home like this, just visit the BzzAgent website and sign up for an account. 

Review: Lone Wolf by Shelley Munro

When you fall out of step, that’s when everything falls into place.

R.J. Blake begins a new session tutoring young werewolves in the old ways—before the introduction of the shift-suppressing drugs that allow their kind to live secretly among humans. He expects nothing out of the ordinary. Until sexy, smart, aggravating-as-hell Corey Wilson arrives. Older than the others, son of a powerful Los Angeles pack leader, Corey is an instant temptation he cannot afford.

The last thing Corey wants is three months stuck in the Yellowstone wilderness, followed by the stifling life his father has all mapped out for him. One glimpse of R.J., though, sparks a determination to seduce the older man before he leaves. Yet as R.J. guides him through the sometimes terrifying process of rediscovering his heritage, a deepening respect calls to his artistic soul and fuels a burst of creativity.

When their time comes to an end, Corey senses hesitation behind R.J.’s insistence that theirs was simply a summer fling. Inspiring him to take a leap of faith with consequences neither of them saw coming. A dangerous plot that reaches from the heart of their love to the highest office in the land…

Warning: This book contains a young werewolf intent on seduction, an older werewolf determined to resist said seduction, werewolf politics and brutality, a little spilled blood, and hot, naked manlove in the great outdoors.

My Review:

R.J. helps young werewolves understand their wolf side at the camp he works at and things are going great until an older boy joins the camp, turning his emotions upside down.

Corey is rebellious, sarcastic and completely full of himself. So when he sees something he wants, he goes after it and right now he wants R.J. 

A new van load of teenagers has come to the werewolf camp to find out about their werewolf side. For most of them this will be the first shift they've ever experienced. Werewolves are forbidden from shifting and have to take shift-suppressing drugs so they aren't found out but there are some that believe they shouldn't have to take the drugs.

At first Corey comes across as snarky, rude, full of himself and a rebel. But as we get to know him we see that's really just a facade and underneath he's a pretty decent guy. I really enjoyed the banter between R.J. and Corey. The relationship between them really pulls Corey out of himself so by the end of the book he's ready willing and able to stand up for what he believes in and it's nice to see that change in him. 

R.J. And Corey have to hide their feelings because if the wrong people find out, things could get really bad for both of them. Getting to know what werewolf life is like for these characters was very interesting. Shelley Munro brings her characters to life, the descriptions used, created an interesting world that drew me into the story within the first few paragraphs. 

R.J. has his own demons and they get in the way of his happiness for a little while. Sometimes it takes one person taking a chance and pushing just a little bit harder for some to see they really are worth the risk and that's what R.J. has to find out. 

I found the twists in this story to be big ones, the twists and turns coupled with secrets, a conspiracy and more danger than anyone saw coming is what made this story so intriguing. 

This story has action, intrigue, characters you're going to hate and a great love story. So if you like werewolves, romance, action, danger and a great love story then you'll love this book. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. 

I Have New Babies!

This little girl is Flower and yes she's a hairless rat. Isn't she cute though?

And this is Scribbles and he's a male. 

They are both about 6 months old and so now I have 4 rats in my family. Scribbles looks a little like Lucky in the face and if this little monkey will sit still long enough for me to get a picture of his face I will post one. 

I adopted them from a family friend who no longer had the time to care for them. 

Flower is the first hairless rat I've ever had so expect at least one article about hairless rats coming from me sometimes soon, after I've done some research.

I bought a large box of 24 fleece throw blankets in various colors and made sure there were some pink ones in there for my new girl's cage. Now I know I have enough blankets for the cage cleanings plus I had to replace some of those old holey blankets that Marbles and Lucky love to chew on. lol 

Interesting Facts You Might Not Know About Me

I collect Dragon statues. The little baby dragon hatching from the egg is the first dragon statue that Ken bought me when I was pregnant with out daughter 23 years ago. 

When I was pregnant, I was 2 weeks over due and my doctor told Ken and if he drove over speed bumps in parking lots that it might trigger labor. So for a few days ken got me in the car and he would drive over the speed bumps in different parking lots. He had fun..me not so much. He'd drive forward and then backwards. He thought it was hilarious fun. 

When my daughter was younger most of the kids in my neighborhood didn't want to come to my door because they were afraid of me. I guess I'm intimidating. 

When my husband took time off of his apartment maintenance job because he broke both of his ankles, he was asked to walk the new guy through some of the things he'd be responsible for. We had the new maintenance man over to our house a few times and I even invited him to dinner with us once. A few months later we found out he'd been arrested for killing his room mate, wrapping the guy in plastic and shoving him under his bed...where he stayed for 2 weeks! The maintenance guy even slept in the bed that was on top of the room mate. Talk about being creeped out. 

When I was 9 months pregnant my husband started wearing a pager *yes it was that long ago that we didn't have cell phones on us all the time* so I could page him if I went into labor. He got a page from me one day and since he worked at the apartment complex we lived at, he was close. About 2 minutes after I sent the page Ken and his work buddy came running into the apartment calling my name. I had locked myself in the bathroom and wouldn't open the door because a BEE had gotten into the apartment and was buzzing around the living room. I screamed at him to kill the bee and I would come out. He and his work buddy started laughing but killed the bee and when I finally came out of the bathroom he told me only to use the pager for labor emergencies. His work buddy told me he had run all the way across the apartment complex to get home and was still laughing that it was for a bee. 

Yes, I have a Bee phobia. A big one. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Lucky- March 17th 2014

Hope everyone has a nice St. Patrick's Day. 

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. 

Japan's Rabbit Island

When I first saw this video I thought maybe those rabbits were hers and she just took them for a walk. *Hey, crazier things have happened.*

But it turns out that on an Island located near Hiroshima and Shikoku there is this island called, Ōkunoshima where bunnies roam free and tourists come to play, cuddle and feed them.

During World War II this island was a top secret military site where they made poison gas for chemical warfare. Bunnies were brought there to test the effects of the gas but when the war ended the workers released all the bunnies. *Some sources say that a few bunnies were released from school children in the 70's but no one knows for sure how they got there*

There's a hotel on the Island and you can buy pellet food to feed the bunnies.

If you want to read an article on bunny island and see some really cute photos just click the link below.

 Ōkunoshima's Bunny Island

Weekly Rat Facts: Rat Bite Fever

I know some of you probably heard about the 10 year old boy who died from Rat Bite Fever last month, right? So I wanted to touch upon this illness and what it is and how his death could have been prevented. 

What Is Rat Bite Fever?

Before I say anything else I want to say that if you buy, adopt or take in a pet. It's your responsibility to make sure you know as much as you can about that animal. Including what illnesses they can get, how to treat them, how to care for them and what illnesses and diseases you can get from them. If that little boys family had taken the time to find out about rats, they would have found out that albeit rare, a person can get rat bite fever but it's treatable if caught in time. This child did not have to die because he had pet rats and even though it's not politically correct to say so, his family is responsible for his death because they didn't research rats.

Too many people see animals as throw away or disposable. That they don't need, deserve or warrant respect, care and responsible ownership and that thinking is just wrong. 

As soon as I saw this story on the news, I started writing an article about it to get the real facts out there, especially after seeing a couple of complete idiots on the news talking about how Petco should have vaccinated the rats before selling them. Well the fact is there is no vaccine for rat bite fever and rats don't get vaccinations like dogs and cats do because it's not needed. If this person on the news had done ANY research they would have found that out, instead they chose to do as many people do and just guess at it and in the process looked like a complete idiot to those of us who know what we're talking about. Good grief, a little research is all it would have taken. 

Now I'm hearing from the rat community that people are tossing their pet rats out in the wild because they are afraid they will get rat bite fever. These people are idiots. I don't usually call people out like this but this is the most inhumane thing you can do. Domesticated rats cannot take care of themselves out in the wild, they will die!

If you don't want your pet rat any longer and are thinking of just letting it go free, I beg you to reconsider and at the very least take him to an animal shelter where he has a chance of being adopted but more importantly will be taken care of in the mean time. 

One other thing...stop buying rats from pet stores. They buy their rats and most other animals from puppy mill trype breeders who could give a damn about their health, breeding or well being. They are in it for the profit, that is all and they will sell you sick rats because these puppy mill type breeders do not care. 

Instead, adopt from animal shelters and put these puppy mill breeders out of business. 

Rats already have a bad enough reputation and a lot of people see them as pests not worthy of any affection or care and this rat bite fever story is going to make things a hell of a lot worst for the little guys because people don't take the time to learn. 

Information cures ignorance so I also wrote an article that I am asking everyone to share on Twitter, FB or anywhere they can. I can only hope that more pet rats don't get thrown out in the cold because of this one incident. 

Freebie Friday! + Review of Real Time Pain Relief

This week's Freebie Friday is a little different because I was contacted by Donna Morrow who sells a product called Real Time Pain Relief Lotion, who after reading my blog post on Neuragen asked if I would be willing to try a few free samples of Real Time Pain Relief for Ken's neuropathy. Of course we said yes. Any product that might help with the shooting pain, itchy pains and stinging pain is well worth a try. 

After getting the samples and talking to Donna who was very helpful, we knew the directions said to apply to the affected area, wait 5 minutes and apply again. 

We tried this product three times a day for 3 days with no relief in Ken's neuropathy pain. The lotion has a pleasant smell and did not dry Ken's skin out so that is a plus. While this product may work for other types of pain or even another person who experiences neuropathy pain, it did not work for us. It never hurts to try something you haven't tried before so I thank Donna for sending us the samples to try.

Pictures With My New Camera

So I broke down a couple of weeks ago and bought myself a new camera. I decided on a Nikon Coolpix and so far I'm pretty happy with it. My old camera, while it would take ok pictures as long as there was enough lighting, it didn't have a flash so indoor pictures were a bit harder to keep from being blurry. 

This camera seems to take great indoor pictures of my rats, which is what I was hoping for. Too many times pictures of the rats are blurry and I have to take 30 pictures to get one good one. Not any more. Here are some of the pictures I've taken with the new camera.

Here's Marbles my 4 year old rat. It may look like he's got some hair loss going on by his ears but he's a rex so his hair is sparse and completely missing in some places. 

Marbles hangs out on the bottom shelf of the cage because he has hind leg degeneration and can no longer walk up the ladder. But he's getting around slowly there on the bottom. He likes to move from the plastic igloo to the box and back again. In the morning I find him in the igloo and at night he goes over to the box. He's a bit anti social and doesn't like to be petted and when I try he will grab my finger with his teeth and push me out of his house. lol Poor grumpy old man. 

Here's one of the pictures I took for Easter. 

Lucky always gives me this look when I open the cage door. he's either thinking, "food or treat? or pet me?" lol 

Lucky looks a bit cross eyed in this picture. 

I really like my new camera. No more blurry pictures. 

Book Reviews

Hey guys, I have a few books reviews up for you to read if you feel so inclined. Just click the links to go to the review. 

The first one is Half Off Ragnarok by Seanan McGuire. 

Second one is The Witch Who Cried Wolf by Sarah Makela. 

Third one is Lone Wolf's Captive by Sherilee Gray. 

Have you read any of these? After reading the reviews do they sound like a book you'd like?

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. 

Why I Will Never Do Business With Hewlett Packard *HP*

I want to share something with you all. My brother, Bill bought a color and a black ink cartridge from Walmart and brought them home. The color ink cartridge worked just fine but the black ink cartridge did not work at all because there was no ink in it or the ink was dry. He took it back to Walmart but they said because he had opened the package he would have to call HP.

He did that and the operator would not help him unless he gave the operator remote access to his computer to run a diagnostic on it, as well as the serial number to his printer. Now what they needed a serial number for I have no idea but he did give it to them and they said that his printer wasn't in their computer system so he must not have sent in the warranty card. What that had to do with the faulty ink cartridge, I have no idea.

Thankfully he was smart enough not to give them remote access to his computer. The operator had a distinct accent so Bill asked him where he was located and wouldn't you know the operator was in India. He wasn't even dealing with a US operator. After getting no satisfaction on the phone my brother asked me to write to HP and see if they would send him a coupon for a replacement cartridge or just send him a replacement cartridge. It's really very simple. They sold a faulty ink cartridge and all he was asking for was an ink cartridge that worked. So I sent HP an email and this is the response they sent back to my brother.....

"Hello Bil,

Thank you for contacting HP Total Care.

I greatly appreciate that you have forwarded your concern and have given us a chance to assist you in this matter.

Bil as you have already opened the cartridge thus we would not be able to provide you the refund or replacement for the same. I do apologize for the inconvenience you have faced and I do understand the value of money but as from our end we do have our limitations for the replacement. I hope you do understand our part and accept my sincere apologies for the same.

I understand the inconvenience that you may have faced during this transaction. Had I been in your place, I would most certainly have felt the same.

I would also like to provide you the web link for the compatible ink cartridges with your printer.

I would request you to please order ink from our website to get the genune product for your printer:

www.shopping.hp.com

If you need further assistance, please reply to this message and we will be happy to assist you further.

For information on keeping your HP and Compaq products up and running, please visit our website
at:
http://www.hp.com/go/totalcare

Sincerely,

Arnold
HP Total Care"

Now please read the entire email and first off you will see that not only are they NOT willing to do the right thing and send him a replacement ink cartridge for the faulty one they had on store shelves but they want him to buy a new one right from their website. I have also read this email a few times and the language is just...strange. " I hope you do understand our part and accept my sincere apologies for the same." Who talks like that?

They got my brother's first name wrong, It's Bill not bil. And they spelled genuine "genune". I call foul on this email. Sure looks to me that someone not in the US probably responded to the email and that's why this email looks and sounds strange. Probably the same guy that wanted remote access to my brothers computer. O.o

So as you can see, there's a very good reason for not doing business with HP. If you happen to have a problem with one of their products, even a simple ink cartridge...they WILL NOT help you.

Do Not buy Hewlett Packard *HP*, I know I won't be.

Weekly Rat Facts: Rats Like To Chew

So this is what Lucky's Space pod looked like after he was done chewing on it. This was new about 3 months ago. It's made of hard plastic, so it took him a while to chew in into submission. Every time he laid in it his butt stuck out the bottom but he didn't care. lol 

I bought him a new one and put it in his cage this morning when I cleaned it. He thanked me by chewing on it right away. lol 

Little stinker. 

Rats like to chew. They will chew on anything and everything so if you put them on the floor for free range time you have to make sure they don't get a hold of any wires because they will chew on them. 

Rats chew all the time to wear down their teeth. Since their teeth constantly grow then need to wear them down or else they will grow right down through their jaw. Some rats have misaligned jaws and their teeth don't wear down evenly and in those cases, their humans have to cut their teeth with clippers. A vet will give you the right clippers to get the job done right. To do that you have to wrap the rat up in a small hand towel or cotton blanket like a burrito and train them to let you open their moth and trim their teeth. You can also take them to the vet's office and let them do it. 

I give my boys hard dog biscuits, wooden bird toys and other hard toys for them to chew on to keep their teeth worn down. But Lucky loves to chew on his space pods. I might as well just buy another one right now because I know I'll need another one in about 3 months. lol 

Lucky chews on things more than any other rat I've ever had. He's pulling on my shirt here. Most of my shirts have holes in them because he's fast.

He can chew a hole in my couch cushions in 5 seconds flat. I just sewed another hole up on this couch. looks like I need that needle and thread again.