We Got Baby Rats! | Loepsie’s Life

Well, it’s here again. Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year. I have to say, as I look out the window, the weather is absolutely perfect for the occasion. Dark, rainy, dreary… Luckily, I have no reason to feel down at all. As I’m sitting here, typing this blog post, I have two adorable little baby ratties tucked away in my scarf. Late last week I got the message that the babies had grown big enough to come home with me, so I made an appointment and we brought them home on Friday. The new additions to our little family were definitely the biggest event this week, but let’s take a look at everything else I was up to as well :)

So far I’ve been sticking to my new year’s resolutions very well. Behold my healthy lunch bowl! Preparing these takes more time than putting peanut butter on a sandwich, but with a bit of prepping it’s definitely manageable. And eating a bowl of wonderful, colourful deliciousness is so much more enjoyable than having a sandwich!

Cage cleaning time! I feel like at least with the rats, I finally have a good routine down that everybody’s happy with. I’ve switched to using fleece for bedding on all platforms, which needs more maintenance but is much more comfortable for the rats.

I have a large pile of cut-to-size fleece so I can change out the bedding every 2 or 3 days, and only have to do a load of rat laundry about every week and a half. Once I get around to making new hammocks I’ll be able to postpone the washing even longer, yay!

I have to be super strict about cage hygiene because this little guy has bumblefoot, and we need the cage to be super clean and soft at all times to prevent infection and make sure the foot doesn’t get worse.

Of course it’s not all rat care over here, even though it feels like it at the moment, haha :) I filmed a tour of my makeup and beauty storage this week.

Our Dungeons & Dragons group is back together! We took a break starting in November, as one of the members went on a long trip abroad, but now we’ve started again and I’m really happy about it. I’m also really happy we finally have a house big enough to host friends like normal people do, haha!

My grandmother gave me these amazing flower pot shaped muffin cups for Christmas, which I used for a batch of chocolate muffins. I wanted to make it look like flowers were growing out of the dirt but it seems I still have a long way to go when it comes to decorating skills.

On Wednesday morning I finally tackled the long overdue task of sorting through my recipe binder. I have been collecting magazine clippings of recipes in a binder for years, but as my diet has changed quite a lot through the years there was a lot in there I no longer eat (lots of fish, cheese and egg dishes). I ended up taking almost everything out, so there’s loads of free space to fill up with new recipes again :)

When our friend came over for D&D, she brought this vase as a housewarming gift. The flowers came out really quickly and they’re so gorgeous! I wish you could smell them, guys…

When I don’t feel like making a buddha bowl for lunch, I just heat up some store bought soup. I also had a vegan grilled cheese sandwich today.

Typing up blog posts! It feels so good to be writing again. I struggled with making time for my blog over the move and the holidays, but now I have every intention of posting regularly again and it feels great :)

I’ve been trying to sync Robbert’s and my sleep schedules, and that includes getting him to wake up a bit earlier, haha! I’ve been trying to bribe him with having a nice breakfast together :)

Good morning, Llewelyn! Poor guy has no idea what’s about to go down today…

We picked up the little boys! I went to a new rattery this time as the one I used to go to sadly went out of business. I was rather nervous about it but the lady was really nice, she’s been running the rattery for a really long time so it was all good. I did the introduction between the old and new rats right away, and it went so well. There was no fighting whatsoever, they all just sniffed each other and then they were ok.

The little ones are housed in the baby cage at the moment, as they currently fit through the bars on the big cage. I also always like to make sure the old rats are 100% ok with the babies before I house them together. They are, but I have the cage just in case :)

Penpingion doesn’t really care about the babies that much, but Llewelyn is all over them. He’s such a happy little grandpa now! During playtime he chases after the little ones, he washes them and gently joins in their play fighting. He absolutely loves them and it’s so endearing. Llewelyn has always been the more affectionate rat while Penpingion enjoys exploring on his own, so I’m glad Llewelyn has some new friends to play and cuddle with now.

I’ve been doing some bonding with the little ones myself, too. They get to play and chill in my hoodie when I’m behind my computer :)

Soup and grilled “cheese” for lunch on Saturday as well!

There was a big “start of the new year” celebration at scouting that afternoon/evening, and the volunteers were gifted these mugs as a thank you. I love this! It’s says “scout since 2001” (that is a long time, my gosh). This is going to be perfect to take camping.

In the evening, the boys went exploring the big cage. They loved it, but it was a bit nerve wrecking as we knew they could decide to just walk out any moment, haha! And it really confused the old rats, even though they didn’t seem to mind :)

Another thing I’ve figured out about my schedule: I’d like to make Sunday the official cleaning day. I cleaned pretty much the entire house, with extra focus on the bathroom which I completely scrubbed down with this cleaner that smells like my orthodontist’s office used to. Still trying to get used to the scent ;)

I borrowed this book from a friend last week and I’ve been reading it a lot. I’m probably the last person in the Netherlands to read this, but hey. It’s a book written by the sister of one of Holland’s most notorious criminals, telling what life with him has been like and exposing some things she thought needed exposing. There was a lot of noise surrounding the launch of this book as she had to go into hiding when it published, so as not to be murdered for writing it. It’s a horrible, horrible story but really fascinating as well. A lot of it is set in and around my hometown, which is really strange and rather unsettling to read. There’s still quite a big chunk of the book left, and there’s also a second part which relates what happened to the sister after she published this book, and how she’s been treated by witness protection. I think I might read that as well.

My lilly finally opened her flowers! It’s so gorgeous! Sadly they only last a few days, but I’m enjoying them greatly while they’re out.

So that was the bulk of my week! At the moment I feel like my life is all about rats, as I get to know the little ones and find out what their specific needs are, while also making sure I don’t neglect the old ones. I’m sure that’ll change soon though, and I have to be honest, I don’t even mind that much, haha :)