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Post by misskimmers on Dec 6, 2008 13:50:54 GMT 10
Thanks for the welcome guys!
I've just finished my first year of Psychology at USQ (Uni. of Southern Queensland), and I'm hoping to go right through and get into honours and then masters! I plan on working with young people and children at risk of harm, or who've been in harmful situations, as this is definitely an area that doesn't get enough interest or funding.
I'm actually from Toowoomba, but lived in Brisbane for six months at the beginning of this year - but moved back.
For a cage, I used a great big converted bird cage. I've seen some really beautiful one's that people have made though, and I'd love to do that. My ultimate would be to get a huge dollhouse and get it all sealed and waterproofed and gorgeous - there'd be so many little hideyholes!
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ceara
Aussie Rat Owner
Posts: 129
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Post by ceara on Dec 6, 2008 14:00:48 GMT 10
Hopefully you get through things I would definitely recommend taking a break between honours and masters to work and get some case management experience though. I'm planning on doing masters eventually but as I don't have much money behind me and support a partner, it's going to be a few years. Child clinical psychologists are usually in pretty hot demand, especially since medicare funding was introduced for them in 2006. Eventually I'd love to work for the child and adolescent mental health service here in SA, but I'm not sure. I love most areas of psychology though. What I'm doing at the moment in my job as a consultant is a mix of org psych and counselling psych, which is more interesting than I would have thought. A dollhouse cage would look absolutely gorgeous! I think the trick would be making sure that nothing dangerous could be chewed on - paint choices would be tricky!
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Post by chickweed on Dec 8, 2008 12:07:49 GMT 10
Hi, my name is Julie. Im from U.S. and I have two female baby rats. I also have a shih tzu, a 4 month old kitty that I bottle fed from 11 days old, a hamster, two mice, and two human kids. This is Chickweed And this is my un-named dwarf whom I plan on breeding later on. Any suggestions for a name would be appreciated. Here are my dog and kitten
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ceara
Aussie Rat Owner
Posts: 129
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Post by ceara on Dec 8, 2008 21:20:59 GMT 10
Aww, they look lovely, chickweed!
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dizzy
New Member
Posts: 2
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Post by dizzy on Dec 9, 2008 18:26:40 GMT 10
Hi, I'm Terri, I'm 20 and I am an apprentice zookeeper at a small biopark.
My partner, Ben, is 20 and an apprentice Ranger.
I have four rats, two boys and two girls. The girls are the oldest so I'll start with them. Their names are Lucky and Lucy and were born on the 1st and/or 2nd of January this year (2008) so will be turning 1 when the new year comes! Yaaaay! ;D Lucy is short for Lucille and it's a funny story on how I came up with her name. I didn't know what to called a rat so I started off calling her Jellybean. As I was taking her home in the car I started singing a song called "Lucille" by Little Richard and she came right up to my side of the cage and was bobbing her head. I said "Do you want to be called Lucille?" and she kept bobbing her head and looking happy so I named her Lucille, Lucy for sort.^_^ Lucky was named by my partner because it is the year of the rat so that means she is lucky^_^ Btw, they are sisters and Lucy is the dominant one so she beats her sister up a bit. Oh, and they are both blue hoodeds with saddles.
The boys are about 2 months, I'll have to check with the petshop on their exact birth dates so I can celebrate their birthday next year. They are brothers as well. One is called Mister Gray who is a grey Bershire I believe. He's called Mister Gray because 1. he's grey, and 2. there is a character off a movie called dreamcatcher who's name is Mr Grey, he's a bad guy. My partner named him. Our Mister Gray isn't a meanie though, he gets beaten up by his brother. His brother is Spandexter, Dexter for short. I came up with that. Nothing special, just something that came into my head, hehe. Dexter is a black hooded with no saddle but he has two tiny black marks along his back.
Oh, and I don't breed them so they are in seperate cages but I think maybe Dexter mated Lucy through the cage bars so I'm just going to have to wait and see with that.
Anyway, I'll post picks later. Thanks for reading this^_^
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Post by jaimi on Dec 15, 2008 20:05:11 GMT 10
Hi, I'm new and hoping to become an active member here. I'm female, 42 living in Gippsland (Victoria) and originally owned one female rat (Roxy) about 3 years ago, and since her death from old age, we bought a male rat from a pet shop and rescued a female from a snake breeder. She's since had a litter of which we kept one male and one female, separated the 2 sexes within a large cage. My female has just had another litter which are about 10 days old now and just beautiful. I've gone from being very anti rodents to absolutely loving my ratties. I have 3 teenagers and work three jobs too so life is pretty hectic. I'm interested in having some discussions and gaining other members thoughts on breeding issues and pet shops etc, as the local pet store is interested in buying some of my babies off me because they know I handle them heaps and they make great pets.
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Post by samsam on Jan 7, 2009 11:09:48 GMT 10
Hi!
My name is Sam. I found this site whilst searching for more information on fancy strains of rats. I got my first two rats for my 13th Birthday much to my mothers distaste. They were two female black hooded. She let me have one litter and once they were 3 weeks old i was hooked!!
I am now 24, pregnant with my first child and extremely bored on maternity leave!! I have had as many as 20 rats at a time but now have 3 of each sex. My females are Toot a mink berkshire, her daughter Ling Ling a dove self and FiFi a silverfawn hood. My males are Nibbler a cinnamon self, Bigben an agouti hood and Soccertease an albino.
I am now on maternity leave and have had some time searching the net and found some real interesting strains there are over east. I have only ever seen one down under hood here in Perth and bred some russian blues a number of years ago that were highly sort after at the time. I am greatly interested in the rex, capped and blazed rat and desperately want to get some over here in Perth.
Does anyone know of a breeder here in Perth? I have contacted one breeder over east about sending rats over to Perth and am awaiting a reply. We have a joke here in perth that W.A. stands for wait awhile lol!! i would love to hear from someone who may be able to help me in my quest lol
Sam
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Post by Kim on Jan 9, 2009 12:51:48 GMT 10
Shipping costs to Perth can be anything from $100 to $260.
So its probably a good idea to find a couple of other people in Perth who are wanting to get some rats shipped over as well and then split the shipping costs.
I know a number of breeders who have stopped shipping though because of cost, even though the buyer pays the shipping costs, but many people dont live close to the airpots, so travel time and messing around with parking and travel cages and shipping people have put so many breeders off shipping.
Also the actual shipping price can not always be given until the rats are taken, weighed and priced at the shipping place.
So it means that the breeders more often than not has to pay for the shipping themselves and then get the cost from the buy after, not all buyers like the cost and not all buyers end up paying but keep the rats.
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Post by samsam on Jan 12, 2009 11:20:17 GMT 10
Thanks Kim!
I have contacted Brats tails rattery, who i have found to be helpful. I think i may find it hard to find more people who are keen to join me in my quest but i will advertise in the Quokka anyway and see if i get a response.
In the mean time i am keen to talk to more breeders who may be willing to help me. I would like to be a registered breeder over here in Perth so if there are more people here in the future who are in the same boat i may be able to help that would be great. How would i go about this? Obviously people breed everywhere and mostly unnecassarily so i would need tips to make sure i'm not just adding to the influx of babies but promoting responsible rat ownership and hopefully recruiting more rat lovers.
Sam
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Post by littlecritters on Jan 13, 2009 14:40:27 GMT 10
Hi, my name is Simone I recently brought 2 female mice for my son who is 5yrs and my daughter is almost 13yrs. I had mice when I was younger, and my son had been at me for ages asking if he could have one. I brought them from a pet shop, not really knowing that there are proper mice breeders out there. I will definatly keep that in mind does anyone no any mice breeders that they recommend. I also had been looking around the net for a mice forum, not sure if mice owners can go on here sorry if there is a mouse forum. My sons mouse is all white with pink eyes and her name is Cheeky, she is very active she is quite hard to get out of the cage. But once you have her in your hand she's great buzzing around your hand she's a real goer. Loves being out. And my daughters is brown and white with a white spot on her head and her name is spot, she is totally different to Cheeky. Spot is so much quiter and slower moving, she puts her ears back / down ( I thought she maybe sick) when you have her out the ears slowly come up a bit nothing like cheekys, what would cause that? We have had them a week tomorrow, we brought them from Melbourne the first mouse my daughter picked out that only lasted a day and I took it back after it sunk its teeth into my 3 times. Anyway I will try and get a photo of Cheeky and Spot and put on the forum, Im still finding my way around here. Cheers littlecritters
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kyle
Member For Life
Posts: 10
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Post by kyle on Jan 14, 2009 14:52:20 GMT 10
Hiya my name is Kyle, i am 17 I live in a small town Nhulunbuy I do not have a rat but I am hoping to get one or two.
I am still at school this is my last year i am in a middle of a trainingship i should say my hobbie is computers i know alot about them and i love my dogs i like to take them for a run to the beach.
I have two dogs aggi and milli aggi is a pitbull cross stafy and milli is a minicher foxy
ok bye for now
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silver
Aussie Rat Owner
Posts: 11
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Post by silver on Jan 14, 2009 16:17:49 GMT 10
Hi there,
My names Kate, i'm from Brisbane and run Silver Frost Rodents. At the moment I breed shaded and blue mice. I also have 13 beloved pet rats. Who will soon be moving into their beautiful new grotto =) .
I work for a company called Stanhope part time as a personal care assistant- basically my job is to do simple things to help elderly people stay in their homes and not have to go into nursing care. I'm also studying psychology at USQ.
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Post by wulfyskingdom on Jan 14, 2009 19:54:04 GMT 10
Hi Kate! We meet again lol
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Post by Kim on Jan 17, 2009 11:02:27 GMT 10
Hi Kyle, Its great to see you here Please just post anywhere and reply to posts, then before you know it you will have 10 posts and have access to the whole forum. Its a really great place to learn about rats and to ask any questions you have. Remember, no question is too silly to ask, as all questions show you want to learn. If we are still able to make it in June, maybe I'll bring you a couple of rats as a present..
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Post by nattyrat on Jan 18, 2009 14:21:18 GMT 10
Hi everyone! My name is Natalie, Im 29 and have lived in Brisbane for 2 years now. I got my beautiful rats not long after I moved here..I didn't know much about rats but instantly fell in love with them I have little girl (hence the name she is not little!) and Roxy who passed away only yesterday. I really miss my baby but know she is a happy rat in ratty heaven It sounds funny but I think I was destined to have rats in my life..all my life my older brother has called me Nat Rat..lol I am here just to meet many other rat owners/lovers and get to know more about these gorgeous little creatures
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