Right Paw Rattery

17/06/2024

My favourite maternity hide has a couple of small holes in the top, which are great for sneaking a phone camera over.
The Puffles are doing so brilliantly, not a single sniffle anywhere and they're all so friendly. We're a bit under 3 weeks old today, and Peeks is already really comfortable with me putting my hand in the nest and playing with the bubs.
Here you can see Yaphit giving me some good washies, and little Uhura coming over to sit on my hand. Peeks was just out of shot, snacking on some peas, corn and kidney beans, and the rest of the bubs were snoozing in the cuddle puddle.
Absolute bliss.

07/06/2024

Off the cuff rat genetics moment

03/06/2024

Meet the Puffles!
RPR Peeks x BB Truffles.
Guess how many boys and girls, I'll pop bean pics in the comments.

7 beans in the litter, it's a small one but Peeks did really well bringing them to term with all the chaos of the move. She's doing fantastically, and the beans are chubby and happy, and starting to show their markings! Like all my litters so far there's one obligatory ruby eyed bub.

Saria's line, my main line so far, which Peeks is from, are all given names of Zelda NPCs, often they get changed when adopted but I can't not name them while they're here, it's too impersonal for me.
Having a consistent naming scheme means that years from now, when I get an update in passing about a rat, I know exactly who they're most closely related to just by the OG name, without having to have my records handy.

This litter is an outcross of the line with BB Truffles, who was actually raised alongside Peeks from 2 weeks old, he'd been offered to me by his breeder, and instead of waiting until he was older, when a heat wave hit her rats quite hard, I took him home at 2 weeks and put him with my litter who were the same age, so he could be safe indoors before the second heat wave hit. He's a darling boy who lives with my mate Aaron, he's just so perfectly Aaron's kind of rat, it was an undeniably good fit.
I'm planning to give this outcrossed line sci-fi related names, it was gonna be desserts but honestly after rescuing thousands and thousands of rats I have heard every dessert name in the book, no offence to the 50% of you who've had a rat named Oreo. 😜
Aaron pointed out that they were born on the anniversary of the death of Jeff Buckley, and while I vetoed the idea of naming them all after him, there are 7 letters in Buckley and I reckon we can spell it out as a bit of an homage.

Check the comments for individual pics, and to guess who's boys and girls!

22/05/2024

Ever cuddled three generations at once? Saria, her son Sprinn (now desexed), and his daughter Rakally enjoying a lil scritch. Rakally is from Peeks' first litter and is a darling little rat who's just like her grandmother.

20/05/2024

A riddle! What's 355g on Saturday, 375g on Monday, is soft, black, gentle and has big ears?

Stumped? It's RPR Peeks with a swelling pregnant belly! My beautiful Peeky-Pop, aka "Fat F***y Peeks" as she's been dubbed by some, had a little planned tryst with BB Truffle before we hit the road for our gap year, and it looks like it's a go for beans.

Big thanks to Aaron Irvine for letting Truffy come have a playdate, I gave him to Aaron because it was a match made in heaven, Truffy is so Aaron's kind of rat (ie, a little tart who makes you feel so loved), and his health and behaviour has been wonderful. I was given Truffles to breed with by Bento Box when he was little, and he was raised alongside Peeks by their mother Saria, see prior posts for more about him!

Peeks was well and truly ready for her second litter, she's got brilliant condition, her fur is so thick and soft you'd think she was one of Creative Critter Co's rats, Amy's bubs always stick out on the bench because they're so dreamily silky and plush. She's just entered her third trimester (ie third week) and started to nest seperately to the colony, so I've popped her into her own space to prepare and get comfy, and like everything with this girl she's taken it totally in stride.

We've relocated to NSW for an uncertain length of time for a bit of a break while the rescue is taking a rest, but we've already arranged to drive up to Brisbane in early December, those who go through the adoption application and get pre-approved will hear all about whoever will be coming up for homing.
I've got plans to chat a bit more about the move and the Rattery, an update on who's here and where here is, but I've just been settling in, just wanted to share the exciting news about Peeks. Fingers crossed!

08/05/2024

Great post about the two common invasive rodent species we also have in Australia! (As well as our 60 off native rodent species.)

Black rats aren't always black like in the photo either, in Aus there are small local populations that look like the dark fellow above, (there's one on the north side of Brisbane!) but most look like the typical agouti (ticked brown) colour you see in the brown rat here.

I've had both and they are both absolutely incredible animals, though hand reared wildies are more like a housemate than a pet, ownership really isn't a part of the dynamic, which is kind of how I like it tbh.

𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝

In Nederland komen twee soorten ratten (Rattus) voor in het wild: de bruine rat (Rattus Norvegicus) en de zwarte rat (Rattus Rattus).

De bruine rat komt verreweg het meest voor en is het meest zichtbaar. Deze rat is ook de voorvader van onze tamme (gedomesticeerde) ratten. De bruine rat is nog meer een cultuurvolger dan de zwarte rat en leeft dicht bij mensen. De bruine rat wordt ook wel 'stadsrat' genoemd om deze reden, maar ze komen letterlijk overal voor. Zwarte ratten zijn wat schuwer. Ze leven weliswaar ook dicht bij mensen, maar laten zich minder snel zien en verblijven vaak op plekken waar wat minder menselijke activiteit is, zoals loodsen en (vee)schuren. In het Engels is hun naam 'roof rat' (dakrat) en dat is een prachtige omschrijving gezien hun voorkeur van leefomgeving. In Nederland komt de zwarte rat voornamelijk onder de rivieren voor.

Kenmerken van de bruine rat (Rattus Norvegicus):

- volwassen gewicht 250-500 (vrouwtjes) -800 gram (mannetjes)
- kleine ronde oren
- de staart is korter dan het lichaam
- stompe, relatief korte snuit
- robuust en stevig gebouwd (volwassen dieren, jonge dieren vaak wat slanker)
- agouti/bruine wildkleur met een lichtgrijze buik
- leven vaak in ondergrondse holen en kunnen goed tegen kou
- leven vaak in de buurt van water, het zijn ook uitstekende zwemmers
- kunnen goed klimmen en springen, maar zijn minder behendig en snel dan zwarte ratten
- schemerdieren; voornamelijk in de vroege ochtend en late avond actief

Kenmerken van de zwarte rat (Rattus Rattus):

- volwassen gewicht 150-250 gram (vrouwtjes) -400 gram (mannetjes)
- grote 'ovalen' oren
- de staart is langer dan het lichaam
- lange, spitse snuit
- slank en atletisch gebouwd
- in Nederland vrijwel altijd zwart van kleur met een zwarte tot grijze buik. Elders ter wereld komen ze ook voor in agouti (wildkleur) en andere bruintinten met lichtgrijze buiken
- leven het liefst hoog en droog, ze verdragen kou minder goed dan bruine ratten
- uitstekende klimmers; muren en gladde constructies zoals buizen zijn geen probleem
- nachtdieren; vooral in de late avond en nacht actief

De benaming van de soorten (zwart en bruin) kan voor wat verwarring zorgen. De kleur is namelijk niet de enige graadmeter voor determinatie. Zwarte ratten komen ook in het bruin voor. Echter is het in het algemeen zo dat een bruine rat (Rattus Norvegicus) overal ter wereld bruin/agouti/wildkleur is. Er zijn mutaties bekend zoals zwart en albino, maar dit zijn uitzonderingen. Als je in Nederland een rat met een bruine kleur ziet is dit naar alle waarschijnlijkheid inderdaad een bruine rat (Rattus Norvegicus) en een rat met een zwarte kleur zal zeer waarschijnlijk inderdaad een zwarte rat (Rattus Rattus) zijn.
(Of een gedumpte tamme bruine rat...)

Beide soorten leven in (familie)groepen en planten zich in principe het hele jaar voort (maar meer in de lente en nazomer). Zwarte ratten krijgen wel wat kleinere nesten dan bruine ratten.
Beide soorten zijn alleseters, maar met een voorkeur voor plantaardig eten zoals granen, zaden, pitten, fruit en groente. Het zijn opportunisten; waar voedsel te vinden is vind je vaak ratten in de buurt (denk aan vogelhuisjes, parken waar eenden gevoerd worden etc.) Eventuele overlast is daardoor ook te beperken door verstandig om te gaan met het voeren van wild en een gestructureerd afvalbeleid. (En wilde ratten accepteren/tolereren en er zelfs van genieten is natuurlijk ook een optie.)

(N.B: bovenstaande informatie is van toepassing op (jong)volwassen, gezonde dieren. Bij jonge en zieke dieren kan determinatie lastiger zijn omdat er andere (tijdelijke) kenmerken zijn)

Vragen? Hulp nodig met determinatie? Laat hier een berichtje achter of mail naar [email protected] 🐀

01/05/2024

Someone pointed out this morning that my boy Tazzie is on the advertising for The Pet Show! I'd spotted it but I think I take for granted sometimes how cool stuff like that is.

01/05/2024

I've got a lot of applications at the moment, and do have a few young rats I'll be homing out before my gap year journey (and I'll be breeding while away and road-tripping up here again in 6 months)!

Many of the applications I'm getting at the moment are showing me that the person isn't ready to get rats yet, or maybe they are, but have said very little and haven't given me enough to go on to be confident. (And there are a couple I flat out haven't had a chance to look at yet!)

I'm slowly working through some back and forth there but unfortunately, especially with the move, I just don't have time at the moment to mentor people through learning the basics of rat care. If you'd like to get pre-approved, whether it's to get rats or just lurk and chat until the time is right, the best thing you can do is to put a bit of time into it, make it an easy 'yes' from me, and if you have any questions just shoot me a message via the page.

It's not a super long application, and people are welcome to shoot through a fresh one if things have changed or if you didn't realise the kind of answers that would be helpful.

For example, there's a question asking how your understanding of rat health is, if you wrote out a bit about what you've learned from research or experience about what to look out for and how to manage it, that gives me an easy sniff test! It's totally reasonable to answer with something like "I know lots about rats" or "I did a cert x in animal care" etc, but it doesn't show me anything, I've met many people who know "lots" of incorrect info, and I've often been the one giving the only talk on small mammal care in a whole TAFE course, often leaving knowing we'd barely covered the basics.

Hopefully in the future I'll be in a position of having more free time to mentor people one on one through the basics, but knowing me I wouldn't count in it, and we'd all get the most bang for our buck if I spent that time creating broader reaching educational content instead. Best to do your research independently and ask me if you have any specific questions after!

Isamu Rats on YouTube is a great source, and I'd recommend any Aussie rat owners get the very reasonably priced physical or digital rat care guidebook from AusRFS. It funds the Vic club who do a lot of great rescue work and have really welfare-first policies for their breeders!

28/04/2024

Big news!
You might have heard that the rescue is taking a gap year - well Chris and I are taking that chance to have a gap year ourselves!
We'll be temporarily moving down to be with family in Narooma, NSW, to live slow and get on top of my health stuff a bit.

I'll still be operating the rattery, we've got a road trip up to Brisbane planned for December and I've got the infrastructure to home up here, so Brisbane is still where I'll be aiming to let rats go to homes, rather than down there where there isn't the support for owners after I return.

On a practical note, I will be moving interstate the weekend after next, so I won't be around physically, but will still be chattering away in the owners group, and having a lot more time to focus on my own ratties and the breeding project in general.

Next weekend the rescue (aka Rachie's Ratirement Home aka the whole bottom floor of my house) is having a working bee to clean the place up after half a decade of being here, they still have a HEAP of rat stuff, and after letting the volunteers and fosters call first dibs, there are actually still a few Ferret Kingdom cages and other good bits and pieces left too, nebulisers, hides, bottles, ledges, all sorts of stuff, and a whole household to downsize.

If you'd like to come by and help out, between 9 and 5 on Saturday, you're more than welcome to, and I'll be home Wednesday and Friday if you want to hit me up to arrange a time to come grab some stuff as well. Address is 16 Tanby Street, Sunnybank Hills, just don't do me dirty by rocking up unannounced, unless it's the working bee day.

Otherwise, I'll be here on FB and might catch you in December!

04/04/2024

Happy International Rat Day to those who celebrate.

I'll be getting in the spirit by taking all my favourite food, hiding it in the toilet, realising I don't want it, I want yours, hiding that in the toilet, taking a big p*e in my nice soft bed and then going to sleep in the toilet.

03/04/2024

The rescue is taking a break! It's not forever, but it's time the people at the heart of it got some rest, so it can come back strong instead of going down though a lack of self care.
If you are looking for rats, cages or gear and can get to the Brisbane south side, PLEASE consider helping RRH get the last of the rats out of the shelter and foster system, they have 38 days to vacate the property since they won't be renewing a lease this year!

To you, our wonderful ,

We have a big announcement: the rescue is taking a break.

It's been an enormous 6+ years, and we've done so many brilliant things, but as we all know the animal rescue world is rife with burnout, and RRH is not immune to that challenge. The only way to manage burnout is to take genuine space away, but for those in positions that look after a large part of the rescue's functioning it's not so easy to set up alternatives while running the show, or to find people to take things on. We've tried many things over the years to make the rescue the best space it can be for everyone involved, and we've come to the realisation that the most responsible thing to do is to take a break, and come back with fresh eyes and fresh brains to build something sustainable and targeted, instead of overextending to try and help so many people in so many ways. In a practical sense, this is all happening quite quickly due to our lease ending on the 13th of May.

The plan is to get all the animals adopted out of the physical site and foster space, and stagger the closure of all of our services over the next month. We'll be spreading out a lot of our items where they can do the most good, including selling or giving them to other local orgs to help them fill the demand while we're away, or to those adopting our remaining residents. We'll leave all the online spaces and infrastructure in place with messaging about being on a break and alternative places to seek help, and the RRH Community Group will be turned into a community-run hub for mutual aid. After a year of rest, we'll have a meeting to discuss what the community needs and what RRH should be, and if we decide to go forward with something, a further year of planning, where we can all set things up exactly how they should be before launch, taking all the lessons of the prior years to make something even better and more sustainable for all.

It is going to be absolute, all hands on deck go-time now that the plans are solid. Moving was always going to be a huge, time sensitive task, but for the rescue to take a break without getting stuck with costs for storage, and especially to get the animals all safe and well supported, there is a fresh sense of urgency. We still also have many animals in care, here and in foster, which still need vet care, and we will have ongoing costs to maintain our data storage and registrations during the break. We are all so heartbroken to have to step back from helping people and rats, but we know it's the healthy and responsible thing to do, and the only way for many of us to be able to help more people in the future.

To help us help ourselves, we will be seeking adopters, selling gear and furniture, raising funds, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning. If anyone has any questions or needs support, please reach out, we'll all be doing our best to support each other through this difficult but ultimately good transition.

On behalf of the Coordinators and Exec (past and present) I want to thank each and every one of you for the love, energy, faith, and trust, you have given the rescue over the years. It has been a wild ride, and the community that has formed around the rescue has been an immense blessing in so many of our lives.

- , RRH President and Founder

23/03/2024

Will I see you tomorrow? The community care fair is on and I could not be more excited. I've been really under the weather lately but I'll be there, helping out with the health checks over the middle of the day, and having a little stall, which I'll be sharing with my friend Teresa's kids, who want to make some rat toys out of mulberry branches!
I'll bring some of my bubs just for a snuggle, and it's a good time to catch me for a chat.
It's going to be a brilliant day, you can get free rat care and advice, a BBQ, there will be supplies for sale, you can win a Double Ferret Kingdom cage, honestly come check it out, it's the first run of what will be a quarterly event for us, and we're hoping that enough people come and use the services we're offering to be able to justify the cost of putting something like this on!
Find all the details at Rachie's Ratirement Home or take a squiz at this cute lil video post Ally made for me.

14/03/2024

Sprellys have all opened their eyes, which means mumma Frelly can't go nap in the orb without her little chaos potatoes joining her for a drink. The Spreeks are all 5 weeks and happily in the main cage now!

12/03/2024

Rattery update March 2024

15/02/2024

Happy 1st Birthday to Leia and Pear's litter! How time flies!
Amy Rawson Sara Kingston Kayla-Grace Passmore Clove Passmore look at these beautiful honeys.

13/02/2024

Peeks was busy feeding when I checked in this morning so I brought her a walnut, mumma deserves brekky in bed on Valentine's Day.
Gotta work out the litter name too! It's RPR Peeks X RPR Sprinn, so what do we reckon, should they be The Prinns or The Spreeks? I'm thinking Spreeks!

13/02/2024

02/02/2024

This is what I like to see in mumma rats.
RPR Peeks' litter (to RPR Sprinn) is one day old, and despite not being a rat that gets a lot of handling, she doesn't feel threatened by my presence in her space. Her ears and whiskers are relaxed and inquisitive, and after a brief inspection she's disinterested in my finger and more focused on trying to sniff out if I have anything to share.

To go on an educational ramble, content warning for rat birth, death and aggression:

There are different degrees of what a mumma rat will accept. If you select to the extreme away from any hormonally mediated response, you can get mummas who lack the instinct to care for their bubs, which is why maternal aggression hasn't just been bred out years ago. It's about finding a balance between safe mums with low stress, and good instincts.

Over years of getting to know rescue rats across the whole spectrum, I've met rats ranging from dangerously aggressive to worryingly unfit to be a mother. The stats trend very strongly towards the aggressive side naturally, which make sense, because hormones are linked to the desire and success of reproduction, so an uncontrolled population naturally selects for higher hormones, to a point.

On the extremely hormonal end, you might see mums who attack through the enclosure at approaching humans. They may attack their own babies out of redirected aggression or for being disturbed or handled (this isn't a common or normal thing for rats, despite pervasive myths about birds etc). These mums may be stressed and anxious in the enclosure, frantic and tense and on high alert. This can be hard to distinguish from stress from other sources in some rescue environments, but when breeding the goal is to keep everything stable. Very rarely I've seen hormonal mother's jump from the enclosure to attack humans, but that was only once, a rescue girl named Sharkie. She missed me thankfully, and her single surviving baby was placed with a surrogate mother for its own safety and because studies show the temperament of a surrogate can influence the offspring.

On the extremely non hormonal side, you may see mothers who seem not to know what to do with the babies. One young rescue girl, Ginger, I always describe being less like a mother and more like a child with a baby doll, inattentive and piecemeal about going through the motions. These mothers may not build a nest or prepare for the birth. They might wander about during the birth and miss key steps, such as cleaning the placenta off the babies, gathering them and feeding them. This is much rarer to see, it's more likely rats so lacking in hormones won't get that far in the first place. I've never attempted to leave babies in this situation of course, so I don't know how lactation is affected, and it's not been something worth researching into. Usually you just see lactation issues in hairless or partially hairless types like patchwork, and that's for different reasons.

As a minimum, I want my girls to be comfortable and at ease birthing in my home, in the lounge where people coexist. They should be safe to poke fingers in, and to handle with consent and communication.
I don't expect my mum's to be comfortable with me shoving my hand in the hide with them or their babies without warning during the first couple of weeks, imo that would just poor form on my part and is a pretty significant challenge to the instincts of any mother. That said, Peeks' mother Saria loved a head scritch while feeding, especially as her babies got older. I'll have to find some videos, they're so magical. As the babies grow up and I've already got a good read on mum, I become less concerned about a built trust in me masking an underlying genetic tendency to distrust, I'll be able to enjoy interacting with her more, if she wants it.

Anyway, there you go!
Breeding is far from the picture perfect, glamorous, fun thing it's sometimes made out to be. It can be sad, stressful and by its very nature requires long hours of research, actively looking for issues, close attention and difficult decisions. It has its moments, but I don't enjoy breeding overall, compared to just having pets and rescuing, but I with the current genetic situation in our area, it's needed!

If you're new to the page, heads up but this level of discussion is pretty standard here, it's not going to be just the pretty bits that make breeding look good, it's going to be candid conversations about all aspects of it, because all breeders face challenges whether they are open about it or not, and imo it's best to be open about it all! Hopefully it leads to less people pairing rats for fun or profit, because boy there's no profit if you're doing it right, and fun can be a real dice roll!

01/02/2024

There has been drama in the rat community today, after a local registered breeder was approached by the club to discuss evidence that they had not met the standards for registration, and voluntarily gave up their status as a registered breeder instead of engaging in discussion.
That breeder took to social media to make some pretty wild unsubstantiated accusations about not only the club, but the person they assumed had sent in a complaint; me.

I was one of them, yes. I strongly believe that no breeder currently has lines that are free of all health and temperament issues, we are all just doing our best. What matters is how we handle it, making sure we tell the truth to people we give our rats to, and if issues do arise, to create a space where people are encouraged to be open about it and seek help, to not blame them or lie to them or make them feel threatened, and to take steps to seek out and select away from issues instead of denying they exist. That is integrity and transparency, two things that registered breeders agree to uphold.

When you see someone doing something wrong repeatedly and lying about it, if you've approached them privately several times to no avail, what do you do? If you are their friend or in a shared club you might be expected to shut your mouth for the sake of keeping the peace. But if being honest about issues is taboo, how is anyone meant to improve? And when people and their rats get hurt or killed repeatedly in preventable situations following incorrect advice, it reaches a point where you begin to feel complicit in keeping a dirty secret. So I did what felt like the reasonable thing to do, I approached the club.

I tried first to set up a mediated meeting to work things out, which the breeder refused. The club asked me to submit a formal complaint so they could address the problem, I sent in evidence from myself including statements and screenshots submitted by two people I knew personally who had agreed to help by sharing their own first-hand experiences. The goal was to convince the breeder that their lines claimed to be "free of all major health issues" did in fact have several, so she could start making some progress on them, and to prevent further endangering people and rats with incorrect advice about what is and isn't dangerous or normal behaviour. During the process of writing my complaint, I also saw two other locals with aggressive rats seeking help in community groups, and was reasonably concerned they may be in the same boat. While offering the requested advice, I asked them where their rats came from, being open about being in the process of attempting to address an issue with a local breeder with aggressive rats at the time, but not naming the breeder. One was having issues with this breeder, the other had rats from the breeder who were lovely, and their problem rats were from elsewhere. Neither of those were included in the letter at all, I would have asked their consent had I wanted to do so.

I was not the only person to send in a complaint, and I have been approached today by others who raised concerns with committee members verbally but didn't do so in writing.

The club received everything, and took action with a slap on the wrist of losing breeder status for a year. The breeder exploded on social media, making all sorts of accusations against everyone involved, with friends jumping to their defence and the public justifiably horrified by what they were being told, embellished and fabricated as some of it was.

So there you have it, that's the drama.
In short: I was at a juncture where I felt like I was complicit in causing harm by not speaking up about a lie, just because the person lying was part of the clique and that's apparently taboo. So I handled it privately, through the channels set up to do so with the club we were in. The club acted, and the breeder and her friends exploded, resulting in hate being posted and shared across rat groups about the club, myself and anything I'm associated with.

Personally I don't think breeders should be above question, and I don't believe it should be taboo to talk about issues that arise. If "registered breeders" don't hold ourselves to a basic standard of integrity, why does that title even exist?
If the breeder consents I'd be more than happy to share my complaint in full, and I hope there is only positive progress in her future.

Please be kind to all parties, don't drag others into it who aren't involved, and if you want to reach for the pitchfork, just make sure you see the receipts first to make sure nobody is just taking advantage of your compassion for their own purposes.