[Medilia]

I am going away for a week so I am leaving my rats with my parents. I want to make it really easy for them to feed and look after the girls. So I wrote a letter and I just want people's opinions of whether it is clear, simple and easy enough:

HI Steve and Donna

Our names are Nim and Ace!

Since we’re staying with you while mum is away we thought we would write a really simple little letter to help you look after us!
We are really low maintenance!

Basic Cagekeeping:
Since we are confined to our cage there are a few little things that need to be done to keep it hygienic and make sure it does not smell:
1) Our litter box (in the back left corner) needs to be changed every second day
2) When you feed us if you pick up the scraps of food from around the bowl it will prevent it starting to smell.

Feeding time:
Mum has pre-packaged all our meals so you just have to pour them into our bowls! We aren’t cats who have a bowl of their own and we will eat out of either one. Just add some oats to each bowl.

To make it easy mum has put two bowls in the cage, fill these up once a day and we should be fine for 24 hours, but please when you go to work/come home from work check that they are not empty, they may need to be topped up. Feed us at night as we are mostly nocturnal and need our energy. In the morning just top up the bowl with some vegies and oats.

Wormies! These are our favourite treat. If you want to give us one each just say our name as you put it through the bars (We’re still learning to respond to our names and this helps) But mind your fingers as we might get over excited!

A few helpful hints:
- We are curious and adventurous animals, once we are used to you we will come investigate when you are feeding us. We might grab your hand with our paws and pull it towards us, don’t worry, we’re just having a sniff. We don’t bite
-Being curious and adventurous we also will come to the open cage door. Please don’t turn your back when the cage door is open as we will try to go on an adventure and we don’t want to meet this “Diesel” mum told us about.
-We like gentle scratches on our backs=)

Thank you! We look forward to our stay!
Ace & Nim

 

[raindear]

It is adorable. 1 question: Are you sure your parents are willing to handle the worms? I ask because I have a Brazilian Short-Tailed Opossum that I left with my sister to watch while I was out of town. Part of her diet is a canned insectivore diet with visible worms and bug parts in it that I freeze in small containers and put a small container in the fridge every 3 days or so. The two containers I left in the fridge were moldy when I got home because my sister couldn't bear the sight of the insects even to serve them with a spoon. I really hope she gave her the pelleted insectivore diet while I was gone, or she was a vegetarian for two weeks. She lived so I guess it was ok, but it makes me nervous about such things. Also, if you are concerned that the kids might accidentally nip Grandma and Grandpa while giving wormies, perhaps they could put the worm on a spoon before sliding it through the bars?

Other than that concern, the letter is clear and very cute.

 

[Jackie]

I agree. I personally don't touch mealworms. They go on a spoon in my house (only had the canned ones though, dry might not be as gross!).

 

[RedFraggle]

Aww. I take pictures for people too so they can see how much food, and pics of the rats so they know who is who.

 

[Medilia]

There are photos on the letter. I have prepackaged the food so they don't have to worry about portions.

As for the worms my parents said they would give the rats the worms so long as they are dead so I bought a packet of dried meal worms and the rats are okay with this because they are still eagerly grabbing them. I was going to suggest tweezers to my parents lol.

Since they will have them over Easter my mum said she will sprinkle meal worms through the cage for them to dig up and find so they will have fun with that.