A Photo Session with Maria...

No babies yet! They will be arriving soon, though... :-)

Maria made an even bigger nest! 

A little snack helped the soon to be mama focus. Lol ;-)

Getting Ready...

Maria built a fairly large nest behind her cave today!

A Photogenic Ratty

The Promised Pictures!

Well, I am able to post pictures now! Thankfully, getting everything back in order took much quicker than I originally thought. ;-)

These pictures of Maria were taken the night before last. I had a very hard time capturing the 'bulge'. She was not in the photo session mood! I will post some more pictures over the next few days. Female ratties really 'pop' during the last week of their pregnancy.

The Soon To Be Mama...

Maria is doing great! She has already been doing some nest building, which is definitely a sign she will be a good mama. I think these babies are getting impatient...

My main reason for writing this post was to share pictures of Maria. Her belly is already getting so big! Unfortunately, my computer is having technical difficulties. I promise I will post pictures as soon as it is fixed, which I hope is very soon. :-)

~Meghan

Another Litter Coming Soon...

Well, it will not be much longer until little Maria has her babies! I am so excited! I know she will be a great mama. :-)
Her due date is May 14th. Of course, she may give birth a couple days before or after that date. Her belly is getting rounder every day! She has definitely been gaining a lot of weight. I will post some pictures soon, maybe even tonight if I have the time!

-Meghan

A Change In Bedding...

The bedding I was using for my ratties in the past was not working well. It would get stinky very fast! So, as usual, I did a little research. Guess what I discovered? You can use cat litter as rat bedding!
At first, I was concerned that it would be too dusty for my ratties. I read this is not a problem, so I decided to give it a try. I am so glad I did; it works great (I use clumping cat litter). It does not bother my ratties and cleaning their cages is much easier now! Also, the smell has gone way down. Rats are naturally clean animals, but when you own so many there is a stinky smell!
If you ever decide to use litter as your rats' main bedding, be sure to have lots of comfortable sleeping areas around the cage. And do not be surprised if you wake up in the morning and find little 'litter mountains' around their cage! They love to play in it. ;-)
As I transitioned over to litter, I also trained my rats to use pans to do their business in. I did not put any sort of bedding/litter in the pans; I simply left them empty. I figured they would get confused if their pans were filled with something similar to the bedding used in their cages. As they learned this new concept, I made sure any droppings found around the cages were put into the pans. It did not take them long to catch on!