blessed or taumatized ?? you tell me

Well... I had promised my sister that I would post more stuff on "Bean" the iguana.. but my day has been filled with cleaning cages, getting a crash refresher on gerbils and then getting gerbil cages set up.

I did actually have little excitement in my cleaning today.. while I was cleaning rat tanks and doing the swap from one tank to another I happen to see a mouse steal a baby right from under a momma that was giving birth. So I had to stop what I was doing and get a tank ready for new mom (since she was having her babies kidnapped). She had only had 2 babies at that time (we hope that's all) so we set her up and she was still in process of having babies and I actually witnessed a birth of a baby mouse. Now.......I can't decide if I should be blessed or traumatized lol. It was something that I will not forget that's for sure. lol But she is done having babies and she had a total of 7. This is her first litter and its from a baby (now adult) that I have raised so I think I am actually blessed. :)

I have been working on the critter room since about 8:30 ish this morning and we did take a break to eat but other then potty breaks its been a very long day just cleaning. Terry said wow its taken you this long and its going to get worse as all these animals start reproducing and I just smiled and said I can only be so blessed! I enjoy the time I get to spend with them so even though I say its a long busy day it has been fun. I still have Sugar gliders, ferrets, and chinchilla cages to clean out. SOOOOO back to work I go. Janet and Jillian will be here soon so need to get this all finished and ready to go for the new gerbils.
Check back later.... promise iguana pics and information coming soon!

Kim

lots of babies coming soon!

Well...I haven't felt well the last few days so I haven't really posted anything. But then again not much has happend in the fins n friends household. I did have another rat that had babies... well let me change that.. I had another rat that had ONE baby lol.. hey at least shes having them. But during feeding time tonight I did notice I have some very fat little tummies in there. so more babies coming our way. My luck they will all have them at the same time. But lets cross our fingers that they have more then one or two ok! lol

Tonight the boys step mom Janet called and asked me to take the gerbils that they have. She has 2 males/2 females so I soon will have gerbils to add to the list of the critters that are in my animal kingdom! Now I am doing a crash course in gerbil breeding. I had done some research on them before but I need a refresher thats for sure. Soon as I get them I will get their pictures posted to show everyone the new additions.

I had also given the boys little sister 2 Rats for christmas and they have already been blessed to have 8 new babies. Those babies are now big enough its time for them to leave momma so they are going to keep two and then the rest will come here. Lucy is already on her way or soon to be on her way to having more babies for me. Jillian has taken great care of her rats and she takes them out everyday and plays with them. They are spoiled rotten and will miss her lots.

I did do a quick head check the other night of all the animals that I have... so far I have 90 rats/74 mice/3 degu/13 hamsters/8 chinchillas/4 gliders/1 snake/1 iguana/3 dogs/ so we are right at 200!
Yep thats a lot of critters lol ... before I started this adventure I had 2 chinchillas, 2 degu, and the 3 dogs. wow how we have grown!

Give me some feedback.. Let me know which critters you would like to know more about and see more pictures of. Your wish is my command.

Well thats all the news tonight.. Take care and see ya next post!
Kim

BEWARE - MICE / RAT pics lol

This is the 3 stages of Mice........ Pinkies (newborn mice), Fuzzys (just got their fur/hair however ya wanna look at it lol) Then last is the Hoppers....my favorite stage if I had any favorites. Then you go to adults.

I also included pics of the rat babies that are just a few days old. This is a little girl and a little boy. So one of each. Even this small you can already tell whos boys whos girls. In this case we got one of each.

Degu!

When I am telling people about all the animals that I have the first thing that they always ask first is WHAT IS A DEGU???? Well............

Here is just a few pictures of my breeding pair of degu. This is Suzie and Frick. We are hoping she is with baby degu but either way shes a good girl. Degu are related to the Chinchillas and are soo cute to watch with the dust baths. They eat fresh fruits/veggies and also a mix of chinchilla food and guinea pig food. To me personally they look like an over sized gerbil.. but in the face they remind me of a squirrel. They chirp and make noise and yep guess what...they are up all night long so no degu in the bedroom...We learned that quick!!

Progress!

well, as I stated during my last Sugar Glider post I was having issues with Mystic not letting me near her. Well.. PROGRESS! Last night she was a whole new suggie!!! She let me pet her and I got camera happy ....especially when they were even posing for me. I ended up taking 63 pictures of them without even realizing that I had taken that many pictures. Are they not great little creatures?

I think just the stress of being in new home had her a little cranky. I did send a few pictures of her to a breeder that showed her belly because to me it looked like possibly joey in pouch. BUT I also knew that it could just be me and excited and hopeful. Tammy with the group said it looked very possibly that yep shes got herself a joey. I am so excited I can't even put it into words. My first joey(s)! BUT it is to soon to tell so I don't have my heart set on it. I just will keep feeding her good stuff and pray it all works out and she gives me a good little baby or babies. I really was concerned of her not wanting to bond with me but she was great last night and I had a blast with them. I laughed and giggled at them til way after midnight. I got great pictures as you see in above pictures. My favorite is of them kissing and yes it was a sweet moment. It was almost like they wanted me to catch the moment.

How do I tell them apart....?? Jasper has a bald spot on his head and you can see that in the first picture. He is at the top in the very first picture eatting. See the bald spot? Thats my Jasper! Mystic is in the other corner eatting and she has no bald spot. Aren't they just adorable? I can't wait to see what they have in store for me and how they act with me tonight when its play time for them.

Tammy from the Sugar Glider group sent me about 15 emails about gliders and what to expect with Joeys....so today my focus is reading all about them. I was thankful that she took time to send me all the information she had. She sent a lot of information.. some of the information I know some of it I don't. Its always good to re-read it so I can't wait to tear into it. SO... after lunch its me and glider stuff for the next few hrs.

Until next time........... enjoy the pictures!