*GASP* Not Rats!!!

In addition to my darling rat babies, there are several other creatures living at my house. If you were wondering why I like my ratties best, read this:

 Queen Ignatius: Gangrene Iguana

Iggy clearly is not a morning person.

   Queen Ignatius (Iggy or Stumpy for short) belongs to my brother. Why on earth he would want a pet like this totally escapes me. Iggy is definitely not cute, friendly, or appealing in any way, and she resembles a vegetable. She’s a dull shade of green, she’s scaly, and has some frighteningly long toenails. Not to mention the look on her face always says “Bite me.”  Queen Ignatious had recently developed a necrotic tail, hence her nickname “Gangrene Iguana”. Her tail was dry, gray, and essentially dead. Iggy visited the vet, and had her tail amputated. She is now considerably smaller, and fits much better in her cage! While at the vet, Iggy met a male iguana who was VERY interested in her. VERY VERY interested. But Iggy turned him down. Iggy has moved into her new dream mansion... it is easily forty times as big as the cage she was in before and is fully equipped with a litter box, food and water stations, a climbing branch, balcony, heating, a jacuzzi and a bar. Ok, I'm kidding about the jacuzzi and bar. That's a good idea though...

Hammie: The Doofus

"Huh?"

   Hammie is a hamster. Although she has an adorable face, she has approximately the IQ of a brick. When my mom sees Hammie, she says “Oh, it’s my little Hammie! You’re so cute, little Hammie!” My reaction is something like “Did you know you’re talking to an animal that deliberately pees in her food stash?” Another example of Hammie’s boundless stupidity: When placed on a table, this little lint ball will walk directly to the edge and fall off. When placed back on the table, she does it again. This is why we call her The Doofus.

Chiclet: The Bird Who Couldn’t Fly

~~~Picture coming eventually~~~

   Chiclet was a cockatiel (In case you didn’t know, a cockatiel is a small parrot with goofy looking feathers on its head). I adopted him from another family whose kids had lost interest in him after two years. Chiclet had his feathers clipped since he was very young, and as a result had never learned how to fly. Although I had him for over two years, and his feathers had plenty of time to grow back, he never learned to fly. Apparently he didn’t know how. So if he wanted to go into another room, he would jump off the table where his cage was and WALK into the next room. When someone put their hand in front of Chiclet for him to step onto, he would hiss at the hand as if her were a ferocious beast. He then stepped onto the hand. I guess this is where the term “Bird Brain” comes from.  My poor Chickie bird died recently... boo-hoo-hoo...

Buns the Rabbit: Furniture Beware

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it!"

   Buns the Rabbit was found after someone released him into the woods. I know he isn’t a wild rabbit because there are no wild Himalayan rabbits on Long Island. He was sitting under a car and waiting to be fed, and we adopted him. He showed his gratitude by chewing on all of the furniture, carpeting, and electrical wires in the basement. Nothing was spared from the Wrath of Buns. It wasn’t long before Buns moved outside into a chew-proof bunny hutch. If you intend on having any furniture in your house, don’t get a rabbit.

Fish: Ummm....

Fish are fish, what can I say? They swim, they eat, they poop... that's about it.

See? See why I like rats? Call me crazy now will ya!?!?!  :)

Why Rats and Other Pets Don't Mix:

Although there are cases where rats have become good friends with dogs and some birds, I have had no luck introducing my rats to my other pets:

Marigold has tried to eat Chiclet on more than one occasion, until recently she was not successful. Marigold had chicken nuggets once, and apparantly hadn't forgotten how good they tasted! Chickiebird met his demise after an unfortuante meeting with Marigold from which he never recovered. 

When Buns' cage was temporarily placed next to the rats, the rabbit actually SCREAMED in fear of the rats. I didn't even know that rabbits could scream. Well, Buns sure can!

The girl rats and the iguana regularly have staring contests, and when the rats climb up on the iguana table, they make faces at him throught the glass.

I have also noticed that the rats seem to be allergic to the hamsters! They sneeze whenever they go near the hamster cages.

Just because you have other pets doesn't mean you can't have rats, but don't let them interact, you might end up with one less pet than you started with!

The exception is Mousie. Mousie was a mouse, and he was raised by rats. He therefore thought he WAS a rat, and his rat-mommy thought he was a rat. They got along very well. This only worked because the rat-mommy had been tricked into thinking Mousie was her baby.

Fortunately rats get along very well with each other, which gives me a good reason to get MORE!!!

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