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I know I am an oddball but I love rats, I used to keep domestic fancy rats as pets and they are just so cute. I need to be careful about how I feed my garden birds, I have geese and chickens. A few yeats ago, we had rats invade and had to have them taken care of. I hate to kill any animal and I was really upset, so now am extremely vigilant about how my ladies are fed and never leave any leftover food out at night. I am also feeding every wild bird in the district, from Robins to enormous wood pigeons who thrive very well on pellets and mixed corn! Love the garden birds, always a song in the air and we have a mistle thrush who sits on the doorstep waiting for her breakfast.

You’re no an oddball at all. I’ve had ten fancy rats over the years, not all at the same time though. I’ve also had gerbils. I was told that the pair that I bought were females, but after they had five litters of babies I guess they were wrong. 🙄 I’ve had cats, rabbits, mice, stick insects, tropical fish, a koi carp, a house guinea pig and, of course, my infamous iguana. I do prefer rats and mice to be pets though and not invaders from outside.

I also love birds but can’t feed them in my garden because of all the neighbouring cats that think that my garden is theirs. 😳 I would hate any birds to become a cat’s plaything, or worse.
 
I think the problem I have with mice and rats is their bald tails. I can handle hamsters and guinea pigs and think squirrels are lovely but they either have no tails or fluffy tails. It's the same with those dogs that have no hair or fur.
 
Lovely to know I am not the only rodent fan! Love rats and have had many of those over the years, golden hamsters, never had Russians but they are adorable and I like that you can keep pairs. My friend had mice and they were cute. Always fancied a chinchilla ut not had one - so far. I would love a cockatiel or a parrot but am worried that the bird would outlive us and fret about who would really want and love my pet in the future. I have a marginated tortoise called Sheldon who is 21 (daughter has bagged him when I am gone) and, although I do not have any, I love cats. We used to have 2 rescue moggies and my heart broke when they passed away. I love dogs and especially adore my daughters' German Spitz called Freya. I think I am just a crazy animal woman :)

I have just 2 chooks left but Paul adores them and wants to get more. I won't get any new ones until Marte and Gretel have gone. Chickens are ferrocious about pecking order and I won't have my 2 old girls bullied by spring chickens. I made that mistake about 10 years ago. I got a light sussex that my neighbour had bought. They only bought 1 chook which is odd but they just didn't want to be bothered, or invest in coopery. So, I took her, named her Trude as she was not named but it was a disaster. My 6 girls knew the pecking order and got along famously but when you introduce a new bird, the whole damn government goes up for re-election and it was brutal. Trude was wragged, pecked, jumped on, after 2 days I had to stop it. I brought Trude inside to eat and sleep. I got a dog bed, lined it and put straw in it and she slept there. The next evening, when the girls all naturally head back to their shed, she came to the door. I let her in and she hopped straight into her bed and so it was for 7 years! Harmony had resumed with the others within hours and the geese took an interest in Trude and she mostly foraged about with them and they chased the other chickens off if they came too close to Trude. They sort of considered her an honourary goose and groomed her, it was lovely! I am down to 3 geese as well now from 6 and Nina is 18 years old, so I am dreading the inevitable. She is so sweet, I cuddle them all but if I say "kissy kissy" to Nina, she gives me kisses on my cheek, like little gentle nibbles! When we retire, we want a bit more land so we can expand into duck keeping as well. I am sure my neighbours will have a party when we leave, they are brilliant though and have never complained about the honking at 8:30am. It happens when you let the geese out, they run around, fly up and down and honk for about 30 seconds, then settle down, just happy to be out and about. Also they are fantastic guards and have us and at least 2 neighbours that we know of from being burgled. Nothing gets past them and they know all of our neighbours, so strangers stand out. An old neighbour, now sadly passed away was in Burma during WW2 and he said that the locals kept them as guards for that very reason. My Polish neighbour loves them, he feeds them treats and chats to them as they remind him of his village where he says everybody has them as the norm.

Well, if you got to the end of this essay, well done! You will be happy to know that I will be working from tonight until new yeat's eve, so will be too knackered for loing posts. Have a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas. Please do stay safe and let us hope we will have a much better 2022.

Hugs to you all xxx
 
Sorry but I don't do rats, snakes or wasps. Death to them unfortunately but they could avoid it by not coming near me/in my garden. The rats were in our kitchen at night, had to be killed, they love it in rat heaven though :devilish:

Sorry all creature lovers but there's some things I just can't do.

CC
 
Sorry but I don't do rats, snakes or wasps. Death to them unfortunately but they could avoid it by not coming near me/in my garden. The rats were in our kitchen at night, had to be killed, they love it in rat heaven though :devilish:

Sorry all creature lovers but there's some things I just can't do.

CC
Hey, we all have our limits and I am sure I am completely doolally! I am right with you on snakes (love lizards though) and wasps. I also am averted to spiders, just can't bear them and akin to wasps, I exterminate hornets. xx
 
You have more patience than me
I honestly don’t know what else to do … if I let rip I’m going to swear rant .. and I mean really badly … i felt sick I really did … I think even a small child would have been upset at seeing two dead chicks … I’ve been told I’ve got patience before .. ( when my mother in law had a rant at me in playground standing with my boys … she walked away .. I was gobsmacked and a friend said to me “ god you’ve got some patience “) quite often it’s shock with me and I have to process things. I did the neighbour that we buy a big bag of seed and feed the ducks and put some on the bird table ….. I try find ways to get back in subtle ways. I’ll have my day …👍
 
Lovely to know I am not the only rodent fan! Love rats and have had many of those over the years, golden hamsters, never had Russians but they are adorable and I like that you can keep pairs. My friend had mice and they were cute. Always fancied a chinchilla ut not had one - so far. I would love a cockatiel or a parrot but am worried that the bird would outlive us and fret about who would really want and love my pet in the future. I have a marginated tortoise called Sheldon who is 21 (daughter has bagged him when I am gone) and, although I do not have any, I love cats. We used to have 2 rescue moggies and my heart broke when they passed away. I love dogs and especially adore my daughters' German Spitz called Freya. I think I am just a crazy animal woman :)

I have just 2 chooks left but Paul adores them and wants to get more. I won't get any new ones until Marte and Gretel have gone. Chickens are ferrocious about pecking order and I won't have my 2 old girls bullied by spring chickens. I made that mistake about 10 years ago. I got a light sussex that my neighbour had bought. They only bought 1 chook which is odd but they just didn't want to be bothered, or invest in coopery. So, I took her, named her Trude as she was not named but it was a disaster. My 6 girls knew the pecking order and got along famously but when you introduce a new bird, the whole damn government goes up for re-election and it was brutal. Trude was wragged, pecked, jumped on, after 2 days I had to stop it. I brought Trude inside to eat and sleep. I got a dog bed, lined it and put straw in it and she slept there. The next evening, when the girls all naturally head back to their shed, she came to the door. I let her in and she hopped straight into her bed and so it was for 7 years! Harmony had resumed with the others within hours and the geese took an interest in Trude and she mostly foraged about with them and they chased the other chickens off if they came too close to Trude. They sort of considered her an honourary goose and groomed her, it was lovely! I am down to 3 geese as well now from 6 and Nina is 18 years old, so I am dreading the inevitable. She is so sweet, I cuddle them all but if I say "kissy kissy" to Nina, she gives me kisses on my cheek, like little gentle nibbles! When we retire, we want a bit more land so we can expand into duck keeping as well. I am sure my neighbours will have a party when we leave, they are brilliant though and have never complained about the honking at 8:30am. It happens when you let the geese out, they run around, fly up and down and honk for about 30 seconds, then settle down, just happy to be out and about. Also they are fantastic guards and have us and at least 2 neighbours that we know of from being burgled. Nothing gets past them and they know all of our neighbours, so strangers stand out. An old neighbour, now sadly passed away was in Burma during WW2 and he said that the locals kept them as guards for that very reason. My Polish neighbour loves them, he feeds them treats and chats to them as they remind him of his village where he says everybody has them as the norm.

Well, if you got to the end of this essay, well done! You will be happy to know that I will be working from tonight until new yeat's eve, so will be too knackered for loing posts. Have a happy, healthy and peaceful Christmas. Please do stay safe and let us hope we will have a much better 2022.

Hugs to you all xxx
Beautiful post … I adore animals 😍😍🐾🐾👍
 
Reading about rats has brought back lots of memories for me of an old boyfriend!

He asked me out at my brother’s wedding after I jokingly told my bro to say the chief bridesmaid was single!! 😂 (which he did!)

He was a lovely Geordie chap who had a black lab police dog called Jess whom
I adored...

But the first time I went back to his place, there was this huge cage full of rats! 😳

His ex girlfriend left them there when she left!

Now I am a huge animal lover, but I am so scared of rats and mice (with a severe phobia of snakes!)
I don’t know why but sure it’s linked to their tails...

Sadly the relationship didn’t last tho I don’t blame the rats!! And I get brave enough to hold one briefly!

Funny thing is I loved and we bred guinea pigs (which are also rodents!) plus had lots of Russian hamsters....

And I’m fine with spiders and wasps!

It’s all irrational really isn’t it!
 

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