The Rat Fan Club

“The Rat Lady’s” Rats

The number of rats I have tends to change from month to month! As of December 2007 I have 17. Most of the rats I have right now are rescues. That means I took them in when no one else wanted them, or adopted them from the humane society.

On April 18, 2004 I adopted an adorable baby hairless guinea pig! He is almost all black and looks like a black rhino so I named him Rhino. He is very loving and playful, and also poses incredibly well for photos.

In May 2005 I got a call from a local business because they had seen a black rat living in the bushes outside their office building. I saw she was a Dumbo, but she wouldn’t come out of the bush. I set a live trap which soon caught her and I named her Dixie. Then they started seeing more rats. We discovered they must have come from the house behind the office building as we saw a stack of empty rat cages in their back yard. (I was told the residents of this house weren’t nice so I didn’t try to contact them.) We eventually live-trapped 10 females: Dixie (black Berkshire Dumbo), Fern (agouti), Betsy (agouti hooded), Rita (black Berkshire), Marli (agouti), Evelyn (black hooded), Annie (albino), and the last 3, Mombo (black Berkshire), Sally (albino) and Wanda (black hooded Dumbo). Fern had 12 babies on June 5, Rita had 8 babies on June 9, and Mombo had 10 babies on June 19. I kept one boy from each of the first 2 litters, Ivan, a beige hooded, and Beans, an agouti, and we found homes for the rest of the babies. Since then all of the girls have died.

Here is a picture of Beans and Ivan as babies.

On October 8, 2005 I got a visit from my friend Marg the Squirrel Lady, and Lori, a friend of hers who lives east of Sacramento and who also rehabs wild animals. Lori works in a Ben Franklin store and several weeks earlier she had found a baby black hooded rat in the store. The other employees wanted to “kill the rat” but Lori took her home. She quickly gave birth to a litter, surprise, surprise. Lori found a local pet shop that promised to sell all the babies for pets, but kept the mother, whom she named Stardust. However, when Lori’s daughter came home from college they discovered she was severely allergic to rats. So Marg had asked me if I would take Stardust, and I said I would. Although her official name was Stardust, Lori had been calling her Sweetie, so that’s the name she responded to. However, I quickly realized that she wasn’t really a sweet girl. In fact, she was one of the most macho little girls I have had the opportunity to know! When she was out on the couch, she would run around and vigorously rub her hands and sides on me and the couch to mark her territory. She was too busy to want to be petted. When I tried to introduce her to some of my other rats, she was very aggressive toward them! I didn’t feel comfortable calling her Sweetie anymore (I use that as a generic endearment for a lot of my rats anyway), and Stardust just didn’t roll off my tongue, so I decided to call her Stella, which means star-shaped.

I ended up having to have Stella spayed before I could introduce her to any of my other rats. Just a few days after she was spayed, she accepted Beans and Ivan, who were neutered.

On June 27, 2006 I got an email from a woman in Magalia (a town north of us) that said, “About 6 months ago we adopted two male rats from a coworker’s sister. She has small children and the rats started becoming aggressive with them. I assumed they were just protecting themselves from the children who may have been too rough with them. They have become aggressive to our rabbits twice. It seems the female rabbits going into heat made the rats crazy (even to the point of escaping from their cage to get to the rabbits). They don’t like to be handled, but the times that I have, they have not bitten me. I think they have potential to be good pets, but I cannot keep them anymore. I care about what happens to them. Can you take them?” I said I would take them, and asked when they wanted to bring them to me. She emailed back, “They are hiding from me right now. We have a set-up in our basement that they can run around in. I’m pretty sure they are in their favorite box (which is hard for me to get to). They come out for treats so I expect to see them tonight or tomorrow as they’ve been sleeping for a couple of days. They are used to having freedom (in a room) and also being caged.”

The two boys finally arrived on July 1. One was a gentle agouti hooded supposed to be about 2 years old, who didn’t have a name. I named him Scotty. He died April 7, 2007 from respiratory disease. The other was a black Berkshire who was younger, maybe 1 ½, and they called him Nicky. He was definitely very aggressive and needed to be neutered. When I tried to pet him he puffed up his fur, and he had been beating up on his roommate. I neutered him and he gradually lost his aggressiveness. When Scotty died, I introduced Nicky to Stella’s group.

From left to right here are Nicky, Beans Stella and Ivan.

On October 30 I rescued 9 boys, 7 hairless, from the animals shelter in Yuba City, CA. RFC member Robbie Stack adopted the 2 hairy boys and 2 of the hairless boys, and I kept 5 of the hairless boys. They were probably about 4-5 months old. From left to right they are Joseph, Zeke, Groucho, Chico, and in the background, Tyrone. (They each picked their own names through an animal communicator.) Zeke has red eyes and the rest have ruby eyes. Groucho died March 2, 2007 of respiratory disease, and Joseph died August 6, 2007, apparently of bladder stones. I am successfully treating Zeke, Chico and Tyrone for congestive heart failure.

On November 11, 2006 I took in a black Berkshire boy from RFC member Dianne Fitzegerald of Carmichael, CA. She had rescued him from being snake food at a pet shop. But as he got older, he became very aggressive, so I adopted him and neutered him. Dianne had named him Al, but he didn’t seem like an Al to me. I named him Roscoe. Roscoe is still so aggressive with other rats that he lives alone. He enjoys playing with me, but still sometimes plays too rough.

On January 23, 2007 I adopted a black hooded boy from our local humane society and named him Timothy. Timothy was aggressive and needed to be neutered, which I did. I then adopted 2 girls from Rattie Ratz Rescue Rattery, Bell, an albino Dumbo, and her daughter, Claire, a silver fawn capped girl. None of these rats have been well socialized, but they are happy living together.

On March 26, 2007, I adopted 3 Siamese boys from a local woman who had accidently let 3 of her girls get pregnant. One had smooth fur, whom I named Spitfire, one had fluffy rex fur, whom I named Chai, and the third looked like he was going to be semi-hairless, but he has grown in short wiry rex fur, and I named him Algernon. They were not well socialized to start with, and I had to neuter Skittles and Algernon because of nipping, but they are getting more trusting and will now relax and let me pet them, as long as they are inside a box or ball. Here is Chai as a baby (left), and on the bench, Spitfire on the left, and Algernon on the right.

On March 26, 2007 I adopted another rat from Dianne. This time it was a Dumbo hairless she had bought from Petsmart. Once again, as he got older he became aggressive so I neutered him. I named him Rascal, and he is now a very playful boy.

On May 24, 2007 I rescued an agouti hooded boy from our local humane society. He had been found in someone’s backyard. He was also aggressive and needed to be neutered. Through my friend Marg, who is an animal communicated, he told me he wanted to be named General Grant. Once his aggression diminished I introduced him to Rascal. Grant is now also a very playful boy.

On November 8, 2007 I adopted 2 boys from the local humane society. Someone had found them in a field. They each weigh about 1 ½ lb and are the biggest rats I’ve ever had! The black hooded picked the name Porthos and the albino picked Aramis (from the 3 Musketeers.) They are probably about a year old and are too busy exploring and playing to be petted much.

Memorials

Click here to see pictures of some of my rats who have passed on.

Rat Fan Club
857 Lindo Lane
Chico, CA 95973
(530) 899-0605 ratlady@ratfanclub.org