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OUZLES
at The Rat Sanctuary

 

As a salute to our beloved Ouzle, our first Striped Roan, we choose to identify the rats we breed by putting 'Ouzle' in front of their names. 

 

We are a member of the NFRS, and the Rattery name Ouzle's is Registered and on the NFRS Breeder's List.

 

 

 

 

 

DO YOU KNOW
ETHICS IS
A LOVELY PLACE
TO LIVE

Welcome to OUZLES at The Rat Sanctuary!

Rats are misunderstood.

I think they need A NEW NAME.

If people could get past the word 

RAT it would be so much easier.

NEWS AND EVENTS - NET NEWS

News, happenings and various bloggy thoughts will be published here.
Check here often if gossip and updates are what you're looking for.

Nov 2014

Torn between two websites?

The basic framework of the new Ouzles' site has been built and the long, arduous and somewhat tedious task of transitioning between the two sites begins. Expect hiccups!

11 September, 2013

Captain Pugwash 'Murdered'.

On 11 September 2013, our beloved Captain Pugwash underwent a routine castration at CompanionCare Vets (Inside Pets At Home), Huntingdon. He then bled to death slowly in their recovery room whilst they did nothing more constructive than apply pressure to the operative site and give him oxygen -  until he died of blood loss. 

I write this to tell everyone what happened and leave you to form your own opinion of the treatment we both received there. Here is a synopsis of what happened.  

August 2013

Even More Babies!!

Five more litters!

All from The Hoff's  line, 42 babies in total, the standard litter size 10-11 with Nutmeg's litter of 1 - a delightful HUGE and WELL-FED Chocolate Doe who now goes by the name of 'Quarterpounder' seriously skewing the group maths on 'average' litter size.
'Quarterpounder' is staying with us as are many of the does but a few are available for general adoption, as are several of the bucks. 

The Hoff's line is throwing up some wonderful new varieties for us which we intend to develop further. 

These litters include:  Chocolate, Mink, Havana, Silver Fawn, Choc-based Silver Fawn, Agouti, Chocolate Agouti, Russian Blue, and Roan, including Blue Roan. 

July 2013

So Many Babies!

So much lost time to make up for. So many Does who needed mating asap if we were ever to use them... So many babies as a result! Six litters - and more due!

Quite a few of the babies will be made available for general adoption. We expect to have a choice including Siamese, BES, Black Roan, and Russian Blue, in both Bucks and Does. 

Our waiting lists are quite short - due to recent events - but even so, If you would like to reserve a specific colour you will still need to apply quite quickly.  

September 2013

Captain Pugwash's final litters.

God Bless Captain Pugwash. Perhaps even more poignant in the light of his bloody end at the hands of Companion Care Vets, Huntingdon, our beloved boy gave us 3 wonderful last litters - for which we are truly grateful. We have kept a great number of the BES babies he gave us - including all of the BES girls - and his genes will continue to be celebrated here at Ouzles; he lives on through his off-spring. 

Io Ionosphere and Enigma Code, two of his does, have been retired and adopted to a loving forever home where they will be pampered company for a doe who just lost her cagemate.

October 2013

King Constantine's last 3 litters

King Constantine, our famous Russian Blue buck also gave us what will undoubtedly be his final litters as he is now close to 30 months old. KC, we salute you! 

Welcome to the Twilight Zone?

King Constantine & Raspberry Summer Pudding.

On Sun 13 October 2013 Raspberry Summer Pudding was removed from KC's cage and placed in a birthing cage. On Mon 14 Oct at 5am she gave birth to 7 beautiful baby eepers. She remained in that cage with them and never went near another rat, neither male nor female in that time.

About 2 weeks after the birth we noticed she was a bit plump
About 3 weeks after the birth we noticed she was definitely plump. 
About 4 weeks after the birth she was still rather plump. We thought she was a plump Mommy.
About 5 weeks after the birth she was very plump but the babies were doing great. We noticed she was still feeding them - even at 5 weeks!
At 5 and a half weeks she was ridiculously plump and we decided she had to go to see the vet.

Before we could take her there, the next morning, Fri 22 Nov, she was found sitting on a nest of 8 new born babies. She had given birth AGAIN; 61 days after giving birth to litter #1. Whether it's retained sperm or elongated pregnancy - or BOTH - we don't know. But, it is beyond the time frame of what is commonly known for either of those happenings on their own. So, it must be both, together, right? Yet how unlikely is that? Yet, we know for sure that no buck went near her.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone. We've renamed her Raspberry "MIracle" Summer Pudding.

Essex Show

Ouzles Dexter Morgan

We don't go to shows ourselves so it is always nice to hear on the grapevine that one of our ratties has won a prize on the show circuit.

This happened this week when Clare Moore (previously Clare Whitehead) let us know that  Ouzles' Dexter Morgan won 2nd place at the Essex Show this month in the Best Shaded Category.
Dexter is a Burmese and is the son of our legendary Captain Pugwash (BES) and Daphne DuMaurier (Russian Burmese). 

Winter Babies.

Just 4 litters over the winter.

31 Jan 2014: 9 Black and Agouti babies to Squirrel Ho and ChocHoff.
3 Feb 2014: 7 BES & Siamese babies to Claudia Top and The immortal Hole.
8 Feb 2014: 5 babies were born to Midnight and BEBOBHoff. Sadly, 3 were stillborn and only 1 of the 2 born alive was still there 24 hours later. Mother and surviving baby, "Valerie Singleton" are doing wonderfully. 
10 Feb 2014: Just 1 baby was born to Nutmeg and The Immortal Hole. This is Nutmeg's 2nd litter. She gave us a litter of just one baby in her first litter too; a huge baby we called "QuarterPounder". This baby is equally huge and is to now called "Happy Meal". 

5 April, 2014

Ouzle's Golden Illusion ("Cornelius")

We had no idea he was even going to the show let alone being entered for the STUD BUCK CATEGORY by his current owner but on Saturday 5th April, 2014 Cornelius won the 4th best STUD BUCK Rosette at The Midlands Rat Club Show, in Weedon.

We can't help but wonder what would have happened if one of his three better looking, better configured brothers that we've kept for line continuance had gone to the show - instead of one of the ones we let go to somebody else as a pet! lol.

The best of his brothers will be used for Stud for the first time this summer. Expect more Ouzle's Silver Fawn soon.

9 April 2014

Happy Third Birthday!!

On 9 April 2011, 16 babies were born to Yo! Big Mama and Guido The Magnificent. Two of that litter, a dumbo eared Agouti boy and a top-eared Black Berkshire doe, we kept for ourselves. We named themBush Baby and Left Rear Lightening, "Lefty" for short. Three years later, they're still here!

On 9 April 2014, Bush Baby and Lefty celebrated their 3rd Birthday - and are currently Ouzles' oldest residents.
Here are the photos from their Birthday Party. May they have many more parties yet!

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