Willy's Home Page

Hi! My name is Willy. I am a one and a half year old albino rat. At only six weeks old, I was rescued by my "family" from the jaws of death...well, okay...from being snake food! I am very thankful to them! When I came to my new home, I was very sick but my new Mom nursed me back to health. I am now one very fat and sassy rat!

I love to eat! Actually, it's my favorite hobby! I will eat almost anything but my favorite foods are apples, bananas, cheese, pasta, cornbread and rice. I love to run around loose in the house and eat all the "munchins and crunchins" that fall from the table! I am very intelligent and will come when my family calls my name! I love to be cuddled and kissed and will tolerate being bathed (though it is not the highlight of my life!). I am very fashion conscious as you can see from the photo above...I enjoy wearing hats coordinated with the seasons. The above picture is me in my St. Patrick's day hat! Last June, my family bought me a new cage mate. Wow, what a shock after living the single life! Anyway, Zorro (who is a black hooded rattie) is now my best buddy. We cuddle together in our basket or our hammock ( my people take cutoff jean leg bottoms and tie them up in our wire cage with panty hose to form a hammock...we LOVE it!). Zorro and I like to play wrestle and though he now is as big as me...I always win!

The Masked Zorro

Hi, I'm Zorro. I thought I'd tell you a little about myself. I was a lonely baby rattie at a pet store when my new "mommy" fell in love with me and took me home. I'm very playful and love nothing better than zinging around the house. I'm a lot softer than Willy but I'm not overly fond of cuddling. I have a habit of chewing phone cords so am only allowed to roam freely when my people can keep a close eye on me. I also LOVE to eat! I enjoy popcorn and yogurt as my favorites. I wore a hat once to a Christmas party but it was far too traumatic for me, so Willy remains the fashionable one!

Santa Rattie Willy

On January 8th of this new year, yet another new addition joined our home. This one does not share a cage with Zorro and I, but has his own pad! His name is Stuart (yes, as in Stuart Little) and he's just a wee baby rattie. He's probably about 8 weeks old now and is an albino like me. My people have let us "meet" officially but Stuart has to get bigger before we can really play with him. Here is a picture of him...isn't he cute?

Stuart Little

Once again, we have welcomed a new rattie into our home! As Stuart Little has grown into Stuart "Big", it seemed he needed a buddy and so he now shares his "home" with Maxwell. Maxwell is a handsome beige and cream colored rattie (he looks rather like coffee and milk..hence "Maxwell" as in House, LOL!). Stuart and Maxwell are getting along wonderfully and are now "cuddle buddies"! A picture of Maxwell will be coming soon!
Well, here it is (drumroll please)...a picture of Maxwell!

Favorite Homemade Toys for Ratties

I thought I'd share some favorite things my "people" have given us for toys that are lots of fun (and cheap too!). The before mentioned jean leg hammocks are great! Also, we really love playing in tunnels and as most of you know, we ratties get a bit too big for those little hamster tunnels and ferret tunnels cost lots of money...so our people buy us big PVC pipes at Home Depot. They are really BIG and cheap too...and lotsa fun!
For "beds", our people buy us those little plastic baskets that they sell with the rubbermaid organizers and office supplies and they wire them to our cage. They're cheap and we like climbing in them! Old sheets ripped up make great bedding for our baskets too and they can be washed and used over and over! We get so excited when we get clean "covers"!
And of course, cardboard boxes of any kind mean hours of fun for us... Kleenex boxes are our favorites! You should see how two of us fat rats can squeeze into one box together!


A recent picture of Zorro engaged in his favorite activity...EATING, LOL!

Basic Rat Care

While many of our links below will give you in depth information on rat care and health, we thought we'd give you a rat's view on our care.
BEDDING-All those different beddings for hamsters make us sneezy and itchy..yuck! We like aspen bedding the best but we also have a wire top on our cage with two stories in it, so we spend little time in our tank below. Cedar bedding is the worst!!! Eeeewwww! Our people scoop our poop twice a week and change our bedding totally once a week and that keeps us nice and clean!
WATER-We get real thirsty and like nice fresh water everyday and we really appreciate our water bottle being cleaned once a week!
FOOD-This is our favorite subject! We love to eat...but our people say we get real fat if we eat the wrong stuff. We eat rat blocks everyday to keep our teeth from getting to long and for treats we get fresh vegies and fruit everyday... apples, bananas, carrots, broccoli, yogurt, popcorn, whole corn are some of our favorites. We LOVE cheese but we only get a teeny bit once in a while (aren't people MEAN sometimes?!). Green leaf vegies make us go poop too much, eeewww!
BATHS-About once a month, we get a bath. NOT the highlight of our month!!! But our people snuggle and kiss us more when we've had one and THAT we love! They put us in the bathtub with some nice lukewarm water and wash us with gentle puppy shampoo that makes us smell really sweet! They dry us real good with a towel and they don't give us baths if it's cold!


Here is another picture of Stu taken on 5/1/00...boy has he grown! And the handsome face in the pic with him is Joshua (:




Click here for Page 2 with updated Photos!

Favorite Links

American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association

PetRats



Rat World