Whats new in August

We welcome back a former resident, Captain Morgan. Sadly, he did not florish in his new home as we had hoped. Instead, he made it quite obvious that he wanted to come back. He returns to us minus his man-bits, and will obviously be resuming his pet-only status at the rattery. We missed his one eyed boggling self.

I am reconsidering my litter plans a little. I am going to be very selective about my next several keepers. We want to thoroughly evaluate all of our breeding rats to be sure the rattery is going the proper direction.

The one litter we may cancel is JM Nimue x RDPY Kerrigan, unless we get a decent waiting list between now and then. We are thinking we'll move back RRR Stardust's pairing with RDPY Kerrigan until we breed her sister, RRR Venice, as well. That way, I can pick the best of the two litters at the same approximate time.

Our RRR Astrid x RDPY Vale pairing will probably be moved to early-mid October. In light that it took her aunt some time to concieve, we don't want to wait too late. She'll have from October to January to concieve and we run less risk of her becoming too old. We are hoping to see some blazing with this pairing.

We are waiting to breed Heath and G until they are a year or older so that we can monitor the line more closely. Their sister Astrid will be 9mo old when we pair her to RDPY Vale. The three siblings come from RRR's original breeding pairs.

We are proud to say that we still have two of our three keepers from our first two litters. RRR Dobbie Junior (32mo old!) And RRR Leander (31mo old). We lost RRR Madmartigan (born March 2008 w/Dobbie Junior) the winter of 2009 to unknown causes. This longevity is what we hope to encourage in our lines. We look forward to enjoying DJ's and Leander's company for many more months to come! DJ is still spry enough to run on their wheel. :)

Breeding Plans

I am currently considering my future breeding plans. Through much planning and consideration, we are likely to not have another litter until this fall. September or October.

The specific litter announcements are not ready at this time. We're still pondering those! We would consider one more litter this summer if we have a rash of reservations in the next month or so.

I believe our last pair of girls will be reserved in the next few days. We are currently discussing their adoption with a recent applicant.

Minor Update

Evie hasn't lost the pudge and seems to be plumper. We aren't sure if she's pregnant or not et, but we shall see :)

Isabeau has a little pot belly. We intend to put her back in with the girls and see if she continues to gain weight.

We talked to our mentor about breeding plans and have decided to take Pip out of retirement. Breeding a downunder to a hooded helps encourage the markings and will improve them as well. Pip is our only hooded (other than Navarre). He has good ears and he is very healthy. We intend to try him with Isabeau if she's not pregnant.

RRR Isabeau x RRR Pip Squeak
Russian Silver Berkshire DU Smoothcoat x American Blue Broken Hooded Teddy Rex

Expecting 100% dumbo, rex and smoothcoat. Expecting american blue, russian silver, russian blue, and a chance of RED. Could see agouti variations as well. Hopefully will contribute better size and improve the ears to the downunder line.