u/MissValentiina

THE hottest accessory of the season!

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Wtf

I got my first 6 girls in October last year and it took me until literally 2 weeks ago to finally build a completely escape proof enclosure for them.

I enjoyed the peace for 4 whole days and then got 2 babys just to start this whole thing again for several weeks until i can move them to the other girls.

I must hate myself lol

Mochi had her tumor-removal on Wednesday and is doing great! The Vet found a second, very tiny tumor which she removed too. She also called on Friday to ask about Mochi which was so nice and caring of her, i didn’t expect that at all!

I work in the event industry and yesterday there was a fancy steak on the menu. One of the chefs cooked a piece without seasonings especially for Mochi to help her recover fast. How sweet is that? 🥺

Also Mochis sisters clearly know that something is up bc they don’t try to steal her snacks since the surgery and just let her eat and cuddle a lot.

I separated the top part of the cage for her and swapped out her companion buddy daily. Today i will put all 6 back together. I also made the play/roam area smaller and more secure and let her out for the first time this evening, i think she really wants to run around more freely for a bit!

Also: she is taking her medicine everyday like a champ and keeps her little dress on. 🥰

My rat Mochi is about to go into surgery and I’m so nervous.
That said, I genuinely have a really good feeling about this vet. Of course there’s always a risk with anesthesia, but they told me Mochi is in perfect health otherwise and has the best possible chances.
Her sister Angel got to stay with her too, because they said it’s much less stressful if there’s a familiar companion there when she wakes up. I honestly thought that was the sweetest thing. 🥺
I also packed some watermelon because they absolutely love it, and I figured it would help keep her hydrated after surgery. I thought they might think I was being weird, but they actually loved the idea and immediately put it in the fridge for later.
At first I was worried because this clinic seemed more expensive than others. I’d seen people mention paying around €150–200 for this kind of surgery, while I’m paying €300.
But thinking about it now, their consultation was actually €15 cheaper than the first vet I went to, and it was so much more thorough. The first vet barely wanted to touch Mochi, just quickly felt the lump, and the whole appointment lasted less than 10 minutes.
This vet and her assistant even cuddled with her, listened to her heart and lungs, weighed her, did a full examination, and we were there for at least half an hour.
On top of that, they’re keeping both girls until around 5–6 p.m. so Mochi can be closely monitored after surgery. The other vet would have sent her home after only about two hours. When I think about the 9–10 hours of post-op monitoring and care, it’s actually not more expensive at all.

Please keep your fingers crossed for my little Mochi. 🥺

Rat tax: Mochi enjoying a bratwurst like the true German she is

Seit 4 Jahren mache ich über ein paar Monate Sport, dann wieder ewig nicht und dann doch wieder. Natürlich immer mit dem vorhaben dieses Mal WIRKLICH durchzuziehen.

Jedenfalls habe ich wie im Titel bereits erwähnt beidseitig Kniearthrose die durch den Sport jedesmal deutlich besser wird. Ich hatte ganz früher mal Orthesen die ich auch beim Sport trug bin dann auf 7,99€ Bandagen von Amazon umgestiegen.

Allerdings sind diese billig Bandagen nach 2-3 Monaten ausgeleiert, fusselig und auch sonst muss ich nach jedem Satz alles nochmal richten.

Ich würde jetzt gerne mal in ein hochwertigeres Paar investieren aber möchte auch keine 100€ ausgeben.

Könnt ihr mir etwas empfehlen? So ein Modell mit den Klettbändern kaufe ich immer und funktioniert für mich auch am besten.

On Sunday i noticed a little lump on Mochis belly.

Today the vet said it’s a mammary tumor and believes it’s benign. He recommended waiting for a week and, if it doesn’t grow or cause her any discomfort, not operating unless I specifically want it removed. The tumor is as big as a chickpea right now.

We have a follow-up appointment scheduled for next week.

However, the rescue/foster I adopted her from told me that not removing it is nonsense and that it should be taken out as soon as possible.

Now I’m feeling really unsure. 😞 Should I get a second opinion, or should I just tell my vet that I want to go ahead with the surgery right away?

We live on the 4th floor under the roof where it can get upto 40 degrees Celsius and we only had an old, portable, AC Unit. I was PARANOID about them getting too hot while we‘re at work.

First, i set the AC to turn on in the afternoon for an hour and had a constant livestream from an old iPhone with the Cage in the back and a Thermometer. But sometimes it still got a bit too warm and i felt helpless bc i couldn’t do anything about it.

So i bought a Hub which makes me able to control the AC via App when i‘m at work and is connected to an Echo Dot that notifies me when the temperature gets too hot and also turns the AC on automatically.

Yesterday my boyfriend surprised me with a Petcam so now my setup is complete.

I am sure you guys will understand me bc everyone around me thinks i‘m crazy lol even my bf but he atleast supports me still

For about two weeks I was so happy because we hadn’t had a single rat escape. At the same time, I kept wondering where one of my girls, Sneaky, was managing to hide so well every evening.
Well… yesterday while cleaning, I found pieces of wall in the dustpan.

Apparently the girls had been chewing through the wall. Behind it are the heating pipes and there’s some insulation foam and some plastic material that they had clearly been chewing on (which I’m sure isn’t exactly healthy for them either).

I’ve now covered the opening with metal mesh and I don’t think they damaged anything important. The hole also looked like someone had cut into that section years ago and only patched it up with plaster afterward, so they probably found a weak spot and decided it was their next renovation project.

At this point I’m mostly hoping they didn’t chew anything related to the heating system. I’ll wait until autumn when the heating is running regularly again. If everything works normally and nothing starts leaking, I’ll probably just repair the hole and move on with my life.

Imagine if I hadn’t noticed and one day they‘d got into the neighbors apartments lol

On the other hand, I’m a bit proud. They apparently had access to a whole secret rat kingdom inside the walls, yet every evening they still came back to me and into their cage 🥺🫶🏽🐀

THEY STILL NEED TO BE SHAMED!!!!!

As I mentioned in my previous post i spent the afternoon with building steps for the girls to reach the top of the cage more safely and filling in the wall some more

I‘m obsessed with watching them explore new stuff i add they seem so busy

Thanks to everyone for all the positivity on my previous post. I appreciate this community so much!!

I am from Germany where people tend to be a bit fanatical over appropriate animal care but i still try to follow the guidelines. I built this playpen, or better said still building it with my own hands and put so much effort into it. I was very proud of it so i wanted to show.

I got a ton of hate for it being too small for my 6 rats :-(

Only the Floorspace is almost 5qm. The Left side underneath the sloping ceiling is 220x60cm where they can run and there is a long shelf so it’s on 2 stories. Than there’s the top of the cage with the wall playground and i‘m about to add more climbing stuff on that empty wall space. I‘m continually upgrading everything.

They are outside for 4-8 hours each day and on weekends when we are at home up to 12-14 hours. As soon as one of us gets home or up in the morning we open the cage and close it before we go to bed.

Most play areas i see are way smaller than mine.

We also got the biggest cage available here.

What do you think? I wanted to adopt 2 more in the future but now i‘m very unsure about that.

I can’t possibly give them more room 🙁