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Mink N Mese Rattery, Vassalboro, ME (2024)

03/23/2024

Hey all, figured I'd provide an update. For the past few months now I've noticed how I just haven't been feeling it when it comes to my rats anymore. I still love them and enjoy them, but I guess my drive to breed has really just been lacking in comparison to my other species I work with. I've been finding it increasingly harder to get up and work with my rats as in depth as I need to for maintaining them for breeding and doing pairings and they don't deserve that.

I've found myself feeling a lot more passionate and driven to work more with my rabbits and geckos, so I think I'm going to make a rather big announcement.

This will be the closing of my rattery.

I really appreciate the support from those who followed me and the other breeders I've had the honor to communicate and work with. However, I've reached a point where I think I'm going to rehome what rats I do have besides those from other breeders who'll stay with me until their passing.

And no, this isn't spur of the moment nor was it something as a result of the recent drama with others. I've been considering this for months now and I think maybe it's really time.

So once again, thank you so much to those who supported me during my short time as a rattery. Y'all mean a lot to me and your support was what helped me grow. And if possible, I hope maybe you'll find me down the line through my other page, Seeing It to Believe, where I keep a more generalized update of my life and the changes going on with my animals there. Especially so regarding my reptiles and rabbits as I further delve into them. There are other external big changes going on in my life, but I'll still keep up with what I can.

Until some day, wishing everyone the best!

This page will inevitable be deleted, but I'll keep it up for a few days just so people who follow know where they can turn to if they'd like to.

03/19/2024

Isabella Brunelli of Through The Stars Rattery & Exotics pulled me into a bunch of issues and drama with another rat breeder (Sara Joyce with Joyceful Rattery) some time ago and it's been some downward spiral ever since in which I've been getting dragged into constantly until suddenly being used as a scapegoat now despite my efforts to be neutral and otherwise attempt to offer myself as a mediator.

Isabella was notorious in the past for some incredibly unethical behaviors and practices, and while they've improved heavily as of present, they still are behaviorally unsound and constantly seeking all kinds of petty, useless drama and often trashing other breeders with a small group of people who follow her, alongside consistently going back and forth on conflict with Sara Joyce.

I had initially offered to work with Isabella slightly in an effort to help her along and see her improve, but it seems that she only was in it for her own desperate attempt to make herself look better to people from her past, and it shows in her behavior with how she continually talks down and trashes people. Her and Sara had been back and forth constantly on liking and hating one another to the point they are some kind of weird, toxic love-hateship of the sorts. And unfortunately as both had contacted me and I offered to help out with their improvements as ratteries since they both had potential, I was stuck between their constant struggles for power between each other until I got used as some scapegoat for their petty arguments they keep getting into because they refuse to just cut ties entirely.

I did end up joining a group created by Isabella and becoming a mod there more to monitor her behavior and that of the people she closely associates with, and needless to say, I wasn't satisfied with the stuff they said or even did there. So I also have added a screenshot of that mod chat, but two names are blocked out since those are a personal friend and I which we really didn't care to engage in the group's hive mindset they had. We primarily just monitored the people there and noticed how toxic it was getting.
Eventually I got fed up with it after the attempt to push everything onto me and being shown them both making false claims behind my back about me, so I am officially putting this up.

Yet despite blocking, Isabella attempted to contact me in several ways even going as far as to text me.

I have made a google document which as I keep going back through messages with both of them, I'll see about getting more and more screenshots of proof of their toxic and drama-heavy behavior.

03/09/2024

These three ex-feeder breeder gals went to their retirement home last night with an awesome previous adopter who has been very devoted to her rats. So I'm glad they went to someone who ready to work with them for the rest of their days! It's great knowing these gals get to live their retirement out in luxury.

03/03/2024

While obviously the rattety is a big thing I do, feel like it doesn't hurt to show everyone a small peek of my life outside of the rattery. So, enjoy some cows.

Personally I don't think is hurts to occasionally show people you're more than just your hobby/business even on said page. So you all may get to very occasionally meet some of my other animals. Those who I'm friends with on my personal page of course get to see that often. Haha

02/18/2024

I have a very, very sad announcement to make.

Seems that due to a family member leaving fabric close to my boys cage last night, I lost one of the boys. Normally I do daily checks on everyone around midday, so didn't even think to make sure everyone was okay until I went up and did some cleaning today (bit later than usual though). I found out the sad way the boys had pulled that fabric in through the bars and tore it up, and that did mean the threads got tangled on a large chunk of my boys. And sadly this means one of my boys ended up strangled in the process.

CLIF Bashful (Togo) has officially crossed over the rainbow bridge, way too early for his time.

I was honestly lucky it was only one, some others had it all over their feet and one all over his tail, couple had it pretty tight so it left marks but no severe damage. However, it was the unfortunate fact I even lost anyone that was really crushing.

RIP Togo. I'll make sure to give your brother extra attention for you.

01/09/2024

Big news for the rattery!

So, seeing as everyone is all situated, I will now be introducing the rattery's newest residents who're currently in quarantine for a month.

After a lot of talking, discussion and eventual planning I officially have done a stock exchange with Core of Light Rattery from Massachusetts, thanks to a personal friend of mine providing transport between the two of us, to help further along my own lines and add a variant I've been after for quite some time: Marten!

Needless to say I am quite excited for this and have been waiting for a good while to try and get my hands on marten, so it's a big step to be able to have finally achieved this goal and hopefully this will open the door for future marten in my lines.

I would like to especially thank Core of Light for their openness to working with me with all the talk and planning for this exchange. I don't think I could've reached this goal without their help.

The siamese girl will likely be outcrossed with CLIF Sleepy "Balto" for her first litter while I wait on the marten boy here to get to the 6 month mark. So that should hopefully further add more good blood from my CLIF boys into my animals. Since she is a bit of an older girl she'll retire after her litter with the marten boy and I should hopefully be able to continue producing martens from there on out!

01/05/2024

Alright, so there's going to be a major update on my breeding. I'm going to currently shift my focus onto my current outcross line between Togo and Hershey. Due to such, this also goes into the fact I will actually be entirely dropping my Harley Silvermane project line.

So what is to come of that? Well, it will depend. I'm going to do one or two things here:

1) My first and most probable option realistically will be culling off all animals within this line. Unfortunately due to the moderate to light MA (it was much more severe, breeding selectively has reduced it a bit which is progress at least) and mainly the moderate skittishness seen in most of the rats in the line barring few instances of very naturally tame babies, it's just a situation where I don't feel I have the drive necessary to keep up with this line.

2) My other option, and one I'd do so very selectively, is releasing this bloodline out to another breeder with the actual drive to work it. However, this would be done only after a LOT of discussion with said breeder and ensuring they know exactly that they're getting into and what specifically to expect from this bloodline. There'd need to be a lot of constant discussion and making anyone aware of what is happening with this line and what I expect them to be ready for and ensuring they have the drive to follow through with this project. It's not impossible, but not something I'm as keen on keeping with anymore.

Now! Does this mean I won't ever have harley again? No. I actually have a personal friend who, if things go well, should be bringing me some much better and significantly more stable harley line animals come July. And that's another part of why I think I will drop this current line I have in favor of starting over entirely with new and better genetics from my friend.

So, that being said, for any breeders in New England (or maybe beyond) who would be interested in taking on the project line I have, feel free to reach out. I won't be making any final decisions quite yet, just for now holding onto the rats I do have until I either decide it's just best to cull or find a breeder who has the drive and ethics to manage this line to where I even feel comfortable releasing to them assuming if any at all.

12/22/2023

Cassidy, a Himalayan Harley girl I am holding onto for a friend.

12/22/2023

Update on the CLIF Bashful "Togo" x Hershey litter. Cute as heck and while a couple are tad squirmy, are otherwise good in hand. My potential keeper is the best so far so I'm hoping he stays that way.

Also I realized I accidentally mixed up Togo (CLIF Bashful) and Balto (CLIF Sneezy) in the last post, that's my bad. They're pretty much twins so I usually gotta check who has full blue balls and who has half blue balls and still occasionally mix up the two. Haha. Thank goodness for my google spreadsheet I keep with this info to refer back to. 😅

12/10/2023

Just a few photos of the CLIF Bashful "Togo" x MKME Hershey litter. They're super cute and hopefully the ones I like for prospective keepers turn out well tempered.

12/01/2023

Individual photos of the 6 babies

12/01/2023

CLIF Bashful's "Togo" kids have officially opened their eyes!

11/22/2023

Forgot to post this up since I have been busy, but CLIF Bashful "Togo" is now a dad after I bred him to my girl Hershey for one last litter out of her before she aged out. Normally I don't breed females so soon after a litter weaned, but she is one of my best girls and I also wanted to have some more genetics from the CLIF boys in my lines.

Furthermore, I'll do a full coverage post, but CLIF Bashful "Togo" and CLIF Sneezy "Balto" turned a year old on November 9th. Its wild to know they've been with me for as long as they have.

11/04/2023

Small update to break the radio silence. Here are the three harley babies from that one litter I had from my project line. Definitely nice and fluffy, the silvermane boy is exceptionally soft.

10/17/2023

Nice little bundle of growing babies! This is the project litter and I'm so excited to work out of them for future silvermane harley stuff. I'm especially happy I got a nice little harley mink male who I'm keeping alongside the silvermane harley.

10/03/2023

Some of the highlights from my harley silvermane project line! Really loving the little harley silvermane baby and the mink harley. The standard dumbo mink berkshire girl is pretty chill though and so is the black silvermane sister.

09/30/2023

Did a proper tally on this litter. The females already are being held for someone who has been waiting very patiently for a good while now, but all males will be available. Due to odd number it will have to be a duo and trio send out together. Though it may be best as I want to ensure the little albino boy also gets placed due to the fact many tend to overlook albinos and other red eyed variants normally.

09/30/2023

Some pics of a handful of the babies in the Lark x Hershey litter. These guys are so calm in hand and if they stay like this they definitely got mom's easygoing temperament.

All of this litter is entirely pearls (and one albino). These guys will be released to pet only homes upon 8 weeks of age.

09/28/2023

We did it! Harley silvermane achieved! Not only that but got a handful of other really nice babs. Outside of being available to other breeders who are willing to WIP this line with me, sadly these will not be made available to the public so any babies that don't make the cut for me will have to be culled while this line is so fresh. Its always so hard deciding these things.

09/25/2023

Normally don't highlight these guys since they're not part of my pet program, but just some nice little photos of some of my feeder bin girls.

They're actually part of a colony and mostly bred to produce feeders as I do have reptiles and that is where most of my culls go to since I much rather not waste a life.

Just because they're feeder breeders however doesn't mean I won't treat them fairly and humanely. Despite that I do give these girls and the other rats in their small colony the same kind treatment and special treats all my rats get.

09/25/2023

Some Lark x Lyrebird babies! We even have some silvermanes, too. Hopefully we landed a harley or two in this litter as well, but we shall see. Also looks like we have a mink or two which is going to go into my mink bloodlines.

09/13/2023

Officially revealing my current major WIP project. Lyrebird here is definitely pregnant so now I'm waiting for those babies to arrive!

She's going to be the foundation of one of my biggest projects, being for a silvermane harley line. I bred her back to her brother, Lark, who is a pearl silvermane. Both carry for harley as well since the dad was harley. Normally I wouldn't do silvermane x silvermane just because I try to avoid any of the issues with the babies dying in utero and causing very small litter numbers to be born, however Lark and Lyrebird were the only ones of their litter who were the best road to good temperament. So I'll have to just troubleshoot from there instead.

Due to Lyrebird's momma having MA, I am going to be slowly working that out of this line though as I keep breeding. So this means this bloodline may not be available as even pets for a good while, only exception I'm open to making is other breeders willing to work on this line with me. She is showing signs of rusting so hopefully will be working that out of her line, too.

The nice part is that Lark is a pretty strong pearl silvermane so hopefully his kiddos will also turn out that way. Furthermore, because these two's momma carried for mink, I'm hopeful that it'll mean I can get some more mink going to outcross with some of my other boys down the line. If things go well, I'd love to get Mink Boy one or two last litters in before he goes, as he isn't exactly a young blood anymore. However, he's definitely one of my best males and would make some great options for future minks in my rattery to keep the mink bloodlines going.

However, look forward to hopeful silvermane harley lines coming to New England some day for all my New England followers!

Pic was taken as is because she's a very go-go-go kind of gal. Sits still in hand for all of a minute before something shiny catches her eye, so this definitely is easier to get a picture of her.

09/12/2023

It's been a while since I've updated, but Hershey dropped her baby DLC today! She was bred to my pearl silvermane boy, Lark. This litter will be Hershey's last and likely I will consider keeping one or two, depending. However, Lyrebird, Lark's sister, will also be having babies in a week or two it looks like and that's an exciting one since I will hopefully get some silvermane and possibly some harleys out of that litter. Lark and Lyrebird will be part of my ongoing harley line project which unfortunately due to being out of my blue himi trio, it does mean the line will likely not be released to the public for a while until I'm content with both behavior and have selected away from any maternal aggression issues.

07/15/2023

Alright! Bit of an update, but I'm finally settled in! Yep, that's right, settled in. I've actually moved back to Maine to live on my family's farm and help out in raising livestock. This doesn't mean I'm done with rats, though, as I'll still very much so be breeding while here, too! However due to my lines becoming more condensed and me sorting through my bloodlines overall, do expect that I'll be very lowkey on what is released as pets to the public until I've got things stable and where I want them in terms of my animals and their temperaments.

Hopefully will be giving everyone a bit of an update soon, though! Including a handful of available babies I am making sure are where I want them at.

07/03/2023

Unfortunately despite the initial success with Feather and Song and their first litters seems this round was a pretty bad one. Song had a lot of babies become FTT as well as exhibiting MA this time. Feather ended up eating her entire litter. Sucks, but it's what comes up in breeding any animal at times. This does mean the two girls will be retiring and I will likely be getting some new stock for my female side of things from Carlie. However I will be working on a much heavier WIP line from these girls focusing on the male side that won't be released to the public for quite some time. However I'm hoping that in time I'll be able to properly present that to the world if things go the way I plan! Though I'll be keeping everyone updated on that.

That being said, enjoy some adorable babies to help lighten the rather grim news. Expect another pretty major update soon though about the future of my rattery!

06/18/2023

They arrived last night (6/17/2023) while I was gaming with some friends of mine and now here they are in all their glory! The newest batch of babies from Mink N Mese Rattery has arrived and getting their official announcement!

CLIF Sleepy "Balto" x Song

05/27/2023

Guess what? Today's the start of pairing these two lovelies together!

CLIF Sleepy "Balto" x Song

This will be Balto's first time with a lady and hopefully in a month from now, we'll be seeing some mini hippos.

With both of these two being very easy in hand and quite sound animals, I've got high hopes for the resulting temperaments of the offspring. As it is the offspring out of Song that I've held onto have actually been quite phenomenal anyway.

05/13/2023

Looks like all my remaining babies have gone off to their home! Due to a low number of girls it does mean I'll be holding off on litters for various reasons, mainly being the two girls I do have need their break before they can be bred again. And as for our growing girls, they also will be taking a while. However, I do have big plans in mind!

CLIF Bashful "Togo" and CLIF Sleepy "Balto" are 6 months old and ready to finally try becoming dads. So, chances are I'll be using one of them for breeding to Feather and Song once they are ready for their next litters. Definitely quite excited.

Another big change is that Carlie has decided after all to keep the tabby velveteen girl, so you'll hopefully see her having a litter in a few months from now under Wicked Whiskers Rats if things go well! However this doesn't mean I won't be without tabby, as the little male I held back is looking quite nice and I look forward to pairing him down the line, too. If things go well, I may breed him back to his mother to see what can be produced.