[mislis787]

My camera takes crummy pics, just to warn you.
Another warning, these pictures will cute the pants off you =)
If these don't work, I'll do them again on photobucket. I have faith in this computer, though.

Shweet, they worked. Nevermind the photobucket thing =)
All babies will have homes, I would never send them to a place where I would worry about their safety. They are all numbered for now until they develop further, this makes it easier for me to keep track of them and watch their development. After their eyes open I might name them, but names are liable to change so Imight just keep them numbered. Seems kinda sad to think of them as a number, but if I name them I'll want to keep them all <3

<----Boy 1 looks like his momma, he's got her gray markings behind his ears, but he also has a little spot in his nose.

<----Boy 2 has no visible markings! Checking him very thoroughly, we found a very very very light shadow of a spot behind his left shoulder, but that's it. My roommate and I are keeping this one.

<----Boy 3 has a spot above his left ear and one over his right eye. I'm keeping this one as well.

<----Boy 4 looks the mist like Lola, with spots behind his ears like her and white throughout.

<----Boy 5 *might* be reserved, if 2manyrats decides she would like him. She was looking for markings similar to this one, so I might have to hold him for her. =) As you can see, he's our most interesting boy, with that nifty white face marking. He's got random little white spots on his back and two little stripes on his tail.

<----Boy 6 looks like Lola too, just those spots on his earsies.

<----Boy 7 has spots on his ears, and one on his left eye.

Now for the girls!

<----Girl 1 has a gray spot on the left side of her nose and covering both ears.

<----Girl 2 looks to be black all over with a white belly with a cutelittle head blob.

<----Girl 3 has earspots like momma, and also one under her right eye. Kinda hard to see her spots (again, my camera sucks with close-up pictures)

<----Girl 4 is black all over with stripes on her tail and that cute little upside-down "v" on her forehead. She's mine.

My roommate is viewing the babies and deciding which one(s) she would like to keep, and I've already marked mine. As the list of available babies dwindles, I'll be removing pictures and editing and such. I'll be taking reservations, but I ask that you visit my girls' myspace page (link in my signature) and fill out the application on one of the blogs. Babies risk of megacolon is now VERY slim (details available on request), so babies might be able to go home at the planned 5 weeks, which would be early July. If you do not have a myspace you can PM the application here, I would appreciate it.
I hope to find homes for all these precious babies. Let me know if you're interested!!



*Edited to add captions to the pics, I wanted to post it first to see if the pictures came up.

 

[Strike2]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Nice.

 

[Night]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Oh my goodness, they're getting so big! I'm still very interested in adopting

We need new pictures!

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

New pics coming soon, I promise.
Had a little trouble with gas (m*%&#% f*&^ing prices!!! $3.70 a gallon where I live!!!) so I wasn't able to go online since, like, sunday. Problem remedied, though, and I'll be taking new pictures either Friday or Saturday. They're so fuzzy!!!

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

I HAVE PICS!
Just give me until about 3:30/4am to sort them out, load them, ect. I have to do so on my "lunch" break. My coworker helped me take the pics..I love it that the people I work with are so laid back....=)

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

These pics are even cuter than the last, but again, my camera sucks so you don't get the full-blown unbearable cuteness effect. That's probably a good thing, because I'm sure your computer would not appreciate being hugged to death =)

I'm trying to make them not so incredibly huge but nothing is working yet....bear with me please.

I sorted through the pics and the matching babies and tried to write down which picture was which rat so I can tell you if such-and-such is a boy or girl....but I can't find the piece of paper I wrote it on, and since you can't see any genitalia in ANY of the pics (we're a family site =D) I'm tryingt o remember what sexes they all are. I'm doing a pretty good job of it too, but it's likely I'll mess up and at least one of these pictures will be labeled incorrectly. Just a warning.

Here's the available babies:

This is a boy, I'm certain.

This one is a boy too

Boy number 3

Chico numero 4

I think this one's a girl....

....and this one is a boy.

As you can see, there's only one available girl left, and I'd like to send her off to a home with another female close to her age, which will be 5, maybe 6 weeks when I start adopting them out. All the rest are boys, as we had an ABUNDANCE of baby boys.

Here's the ones that are accounted for by myself and my roommate:

My little boy Dozer

his brother Romeo

his sister Hedwig

his other sister Ginny

And my roommate is keeping:

Pigwidgeon (we call her Piggy)

And here's more to add to the cuteness.

They've all got their eyes open wide as can be, they're crawling around like crazy and licking themselves silly. I got my first baby wash last night. In fact, every single baby licked my hand spotless last night. Ans I got peed on for the first time by one of the babies. They're all starting to nibble solid food, and one of the girls was just chowing down last night, it was crazy.
Dozer, the little brat, earned his name well: he's a bulldozer. He pushes his nose under everybody to get the best napping spot in the house. He also stole a piece of chicken from momma last night, but she didn't care, she found more. Romeo's a sweetheart, so his name says, and Ginny is the one that licked my fingers the most.

I don't wanna give them up, I wanna keep them all!!!

Okay, everyone form a single file line and tell me who you want!

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Yeah, I messed up and posted two of the same pictures.....

This is Ginny

This is Hedwig

On my last post, I posted the same picture of Hedwig twice. OOPS!

Love the cuteness. You know you do =)

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

BTW, Night.....we have major popcorners.
I woke up this morning and found babies bouncing and running all over the cage and poor Lola's just laying there like "Okay, I'm done."
Speaking of which, I'm worried Lola might get sick with all the freakishly hyper babies around, stressing her out. With her still nursing would it be okay to take her to the vet? Would she be able to take any medications while nursing? Human mothers usually can't, so I figured I'd just ask. She's not sick, that I know of, but just in case. Eleven babies.....that would stress the crap out of ANYONE.

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Change of plans, kinda.
I work at a nursing home, and two of my favorite residents passed away recently. So in honor of their memories, I'm changing Ginny's name to Rosie and Hedwig is now Dea.
Both women loved my rats dearly and every day asked me for updates on how they were doing, asking me to bring them in for a visit, etc. I like to think of it as a way for them to live on =) I'll miss them bunches.
Just thought I'd update y'all on the name change.

 

[Poppyseed]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

I'm sure Lola's fine. Just keep an eye on her to make sure she's not sick. You don't want to medicate her if she isn't cause that may make her more resistant to antibiotics later on. I suppose you COULD call your vet and ask her about useing echinacea in treats as a immune system booster. The rat guide has a page on echinacea, it's herbal and I find it works well. But yeah, I think your not suppose to use it with pregnate or nursing females anyway if I remember correctly. You may want to look it up ^^;;

All your rattys are ADORABLE! I LOVE that pic of the boy sitting and his LOOONG front legs in front ot him soo cute!

 

[Night]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

So only one girl's available?

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Indeed. Rosie, Dea and Piggie are being kept. If Ic na't find a home for the remaining girl I'm gonna keep her too.....you interested, Night?

 

[Kimmiekins]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

They are SO cute. I use baskets for babies, too. There's just something right about it.

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Bad news: our babies risk of megacolon is still there, aparently.
Some of you may remember, on a previous post about the babies the issue of megacolon was raised, and a certain mentor of the breeder I got the girls from insisted that the breeder's rats were all variegated, not bicolor, and therefore had no risk of megacolon. So the babies were nto at risk. I've had people telling me that megacolon can strike any rat, and can even show up later in life, but then I've got this breeder and her mentor to boot telling me that genetics are in the babies favor because they are NOT bicolor, yada yada yada.

Well....to get at what I'm trying to say....see for yourself:

Tell me the baby on the left doesn't look a little....odd. He (it is a boy) has shown a remarkable resistance to growing healthy like the rest of the babies. He's demonstrating megacolon's "failure to thrive" symptom perfectly: he's smaller than the other babies, his hair is much thinner and shorter and you can actually see his skin underneath, hold him in the right light and on his belly you can still see the milk stripe, he doesn't have the extra skin under the arms and around the neck and shoulders like his brothers and sisters do....he's also got the hard, bloated tummy and when I touched his stomach, it felt like there was something inside, like undigested food or some such. My roommate (who knows even less than I do about rat breeding and babies) suggested that maybe he's just smaller, maybe he's a runt and he's just developing more slowly, but I don't think that happens with rats....
A sister of his is showing similar signs, but not as severe. He is on the left, she is on the right in the picture below:

Something just occured to me: I really hope those pictures show up. If not, and you really want to see them, right click on the box with the red arrow where the picture should be, go to properties (at the bottom of the list) copy the URL site and paste it in your address bar and go to it. You'll be able to see the pics then.

Anyway......I'm only about 90% certain, and that other 10% of me still isn't sure. Call me unethical, but I don't really want to take them in just to have a vet tell me something I already know and then not be able to do anything about it. I'd rather be certain of what it is and have the poor baby euthanized. I mean, if it is megacolon, which I think so, there's nothing a vet can do but charge me an arm and a leg to do what the Humane Society can do for $5. (my roommate had a rat euthanized there) I may sound horribly mean and cheap by saying that, but that's what I think. With gas prices the way they are.....
I'm going to wait a little while and see if I can recognize any more signs. It could be a blockage, my roommate could be right and he might just be developing slowly, or I could be right, in which case I would be keeping him until the time comes, as I will his sister if she has it too. I just feel so bad, like maybe there was something I could have done, either for them or for Lola, to prevent this....I'd hate to see the little babies sick and in pain.
Feel free to flame me for my views, it won't be the first time.

On a slightly happier note: I've prevented any more baby escapes. It seems the cage I bought for Lola and her babies has a large gap where the door is, and that's how Piggie (and Rosie last night) got out and about. I've very lucky and very happy I found them before anything else did (i.e., the cats) and said that first thing this morning I was going to fix things.
SO I did this: I morphed that lousy old cage with a Marchioro cage of the same base measurements and combined the two, with the ferret cage on top and the Marchioro guinea pig cage on bottom. Since the babies could obviously fit through the bars on the bottom portion of the cage, I decided to put my boys in there. I then emptied the boys old cage and have Ashe, Lola and Cleo and kids in there. It's a little crowded, but I had no other option since the babies could get out of the other cages because the spacing in between the bars was too big. So until I can separate them, this will have to do. Ashe and Cleo are taking to the babies wonderfully, I've caught both of them sleeping with 5 or 6 babies on top of them.
Here's the boys cage:

BWT: this is the best picture my camera has ever taken!
And here's what I've got the girls and kids in for the time being:

And please don't judge the picture, it IS much bigger than it looks.
All of the other babies are fine, they've got their full coats in (and the rexes should be molting eventually) and they all look great, with the exception of those two I mentioned earlier. If megacolon is the case, then there will sadly only be 4 boys available for adoption, as the only remaining girl is under suspicion as well. =/ I'll keep you updated on the situation as it progresses.

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Crap-on-a-stick....nevermind the pictures. Evidently you have to log on to yahoo to view the stupid things. I'll find a way to fix it, I promise. Just give me a while.

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Okay, I got those pictures. This WILL work.

The baby in question is the little tiny one on the right hand side in this picture.
The difference in this picture is startlingly evident. Again, tell me there's not something wrong with the baby on the left...

This is the boy against his sister (the girl is on the right) who I think has it too. They're both smaller than the rest of the litter, though the girl is slightly larger than him.

Call me paranoid or whatever you want.

On a happier note:
Girls cage: (remember, it's bigger than it looks)


Boys cage:


And I saw something funny this morning:
Lola finally figured out how to feed the babies comfortably. =) She usually sits on top of them and holds herself up, which doesn't look all that comfy, but not today! It looks like they just swarmed her =D


Alright, those pics better have worked.


********POST EDITED TO DELETE THE UNECESSARILY LARGE PICTURES; SEE POST BELOW***********

 

[mislis787]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

ACH NO! They're too big to see!!!!
I just can't do this right....here we go:

The boy on the right is the one in question, and that's the girl on the left that I think has it too. She's not as small as he is, but they both look underdeveloped compared to the other babies.

The boy on the left this time, and the girl on the right.

Two boys, the one on the right is the same size as the other babies, whereas you can easily see there is something not right with the baby on the left.

*sigh* Boys cage:

Girls cage:

Lola feeding the babies:

Her head is in the corner, and her body is covered with babies.

OKAY! Let's try it again!

 

[Night]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Well, even though it was earlier debunked, maybe there's a possibility for megacolon after all?

Megacolon effects a rat's growth, because their body doesn't digest their food properly and doesn't remove the essential nutrients/vitamins before excreting it. Most MC babies look like runts, and have bad coats. They often develop the tell-tale "bloated" look, though it doesn't seem like it from pictures that any of the babies have that.

The little boy and girl may just be runts after all. Let's hope that's the case. As long as they're nursing well and starting to nibble on hard foods like the other fuzzlets, I think they'll be just fine.

 

[Forensic]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Hopefully they're just runts.

Though I don't think it's possible to 'breed out' MC... If you have High-Whites, you'll have a chance for MC....

 

[deercreekrattery]

Re: Developing pics of the babies!

Those are definitely not MC babies. MC babies look way worse than that, very thin hind legs, walk on their tip toes alot, are much more bloated, scrawny looking in general etc. You'll also be able to see black in their bellies where the poop is building up. That line is NOT prone to MC, like previously mentioned on the other thread since they are variegated based and NOT bi-color. The term 'high-white' is misleading as it's commonly used to describe bi-colors yet some people use it to describe variegated based dalmatians also.