rat picspam

[ratcreature]

It's been ages since I posted photos of my rats, and it's just not right for my journal to miss out on pet picture spam for this long. *g*


This is Ignatz eating pasta (he edged away from the camera, obviously worrying about the noodle, that's why he's in the far corner of the cage and the light isn't great):


This is Ignatz grabbing his share of the scrambled eggs:


And Emil enjoying his (scrambled eggs are their favorite food ever):


Another one of Ignatz:


Here I try to hold Emil back from the camera so that he'd remain in photographing distance, but he'd rather investigate. Or possibly beg for food:


Krümel looking cute while he grooms himself:



Here is a series of Ignatz and Krümel playing with each other:

Comments

[iamza.livejournal.com]

That one of Krumel (ack, sorry, I can't figure out how to put the deeltekens on top of the u) sleeping is adorable! And I love the pictures of them playing with each other -- they look like they're doing that air-kissing greeting thing in the first of the play-pictures. :-)

[ratcreature]

He's not actually sleeping in that picture, at that moment he just had his eyes squeezed shut because he's scratching himself as part of the grooming.

(BTW, if you really want an ü in html without having the key, you can type "ü".)

[cereta.livejournal.com]

N'aawwww!

[ratcreature]

Rats just can be ridiculously cute.

[brownbetty]

N'awww! Do they get dried pasta, or cooked?

[ratcreature]

Both. They like it better cooked, just like they like most things better cooked especially grains and vegetables, they are like humans that way. So I give them some cooked when I have pasta myself. I usually share a bit whenever I have cooked food that is suitable for rats, just like they get part of the fruit I eat. Rats are very practical pets in that regard.

They get pasta as uncooked treat otherwise (and cheaper than the pet store treats), which is better for their teeth getting use.

[brownbetty]

Yeah, I guess rats are pretty well adapted to eating most human foods. Are there foods they need to avoid, like dogs and chocolate?

[ratcreature]

Yeah. I've heard from some that some kinds of avocado can be actually toxic for rats, it somehow seems to depend on the species of avocado though. I'm not entirely sure about this, but have never tried to experiment, for obvious reasons. All kinds of cabbages are bad for them because of gas, same with pulses, because they are even worse equipped than humans to digest either, and you are supposed to be careful about stone fruits, because they have small amounts of cyanide compounds, presumably mostly in the stone, but most pet books say to feed at most small bits, probably because rats are so much smaller than humans. Citrus fruits are supposedly bad for rats' kidneys especially for male rats, so they shouldn't have that.

Also apparently they metabolize common cinnamon (the cheaper kind of the two) differently from humans which can have toxic effects on them, the latter I only know because here there was this huge press thing some years ago around christmas about how large amounts of Christmas cookies could have harmful effects but most said it was kind of nonsense because they tested on rats which digest the spice into different compounds, so I took away from that that I could eat them, but not my pets. But of course you aren't really supposed to feed rats spicy, salty or sugary things anyway, not that that prevents them from trying to grab your tastier food when they can smell it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bettina_/]

Awww, so cute! :-)

[ratcreature]

They really are. I'm endlessly amused by movies who try to use rats of all things for some kind or creepy or scary atmosphere in tunnels and such, because even though I agree that the wild ones are a nuisance as vermin, they still look pretty much the opposite of scary, so it works about as well as tiny monster squirrels would.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bettina_/]

Yeah, I don't think rats are scary either. Well, I wouldn't want to have wild rats anywhere near me (even though they can look very cute), but pet rats are very cute :-).

[red-eft.livejournal.com]

Aww, ratties! They're so cute.

[ratcreature]

yeah, they have cuteness powers, that they used to train me to give them treats whenever they stare at me with their "I'm a poor, starving rat" look. *g*

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

Awww! They're so cute!

[ratcreature]

Small and furry -- an unbeatable combination.

[devildoll.livejournal.com]

What a bunch of cuties!

[ratcreature]

Yeah. And the best thing is, most pet rats have an even enough temperament that you can just pick them up and cuddle them without protest on their part (though bribery with food always helps to make it more popular). Krümel even loves belly rubs. He'll lie next to me on my bed, and turns on his back to get his belly rubbed. It's adorable.