I often see in pet groups people asking about service animals, therapy animals and emotional support animals (ESA). Sadly there is alot of misinformation and ignorance on this subject. I'd like to share some knowledge. This is US based info. Different countries have different laws. I suggest when searching for info find actual government run sites as alot of personal sites (no matter how professional they look) can say whatever they want and it not be true. First terminology. Each of these terms is sometimes wrongly used interchangeably but they each have a different meaning, different laws, and different uses. Service Animals: Service animals are either dogs or miniature horses, except

This was first posted on my old blog on November 10, 2015 I would say by far most pet rat owners do not use a proper quarantine when introducing new rats. I'd even say most do not even attempt to do a quarantine at all. I get it, when I was new to rats I admit i did not either. We tend to get this feeling that anything bad can't or won't happen to us. We shrug it off as some tiny minuscule possibility to worry about. But the truth is that by not doing a proper quarantine every time you are putting your rats health and lives at risk. Are not our babies important enough to put some effort into keeping them safe? I honestly can not imagine the guilt I would feel if my very risky stupid ch

This was first posted on my old blog on March 13 2016 So I very recently decided to switch all of my rats over to aspen bedding and I wanted to just take a moment to share why. Part of the reason I decided to do the switch was just with talking with other breeders. I am in some amazing breeder groups where I can pick the brains of some very experienced & knowledgeable breeders, A lot of very good points were brought up in the group recently on bedding choices. Wood bedding is very absorbent, it keeps the smell down alot and that is really helpful to keeping rats healthy. As you know rats have very sensitive lungs and very strong pee lol! Ammonia buildup can cause health issues very easil

I have seen the topic brought up countless times on if breeders should use the term adoption or not. Should adoption only refer to pets coming from rescues/shelters or can it be used in any situation? If you look around my site you can see that I do use the term adoption. It is not to try and hide the fact that I am a breeder or make it seem like idk a nicer heartwarming thing.... I am a breeder, you are buying the rats. I am proud to be a breeder and bring beautiful, healthy, sweet rats into this world. I think that would only be an excuse if someone were trying to hide the fact that they breed or felt guilty about it. I've written posts and in my policies/ethics page I go into detail o

I am excited to have moved to our brand new website! I will slowly be copying/updating some older blog posts from the old site over to this one. You can still read my old blog here: www. onceuponamischief.blogspot.com I would LOVE feedback and advice on the look/usability of the new site. Let me know what you think!

I wanted to let everyone know our plans for the litters we have planned for the rest of this year. These are my current plans for future litters. Please note that pairings may change. Dates are not finalized until very soon before they are paired. I wait until females are around 5-6 months and close to 300g. These dates are when I will pair the does & bucks, not when the babies will be born or available. When will babies be expected after a pairing? The doe & buck are paired together around 10 days. Mating has to happen when the female is in heat and may take multiple attempts. The pregnancy lasts around 21-23 days usually. Babies are available to go to their new homes after they

Introducing Litter BLUE16CMB84 to the world! Our doe Charlie gave birth to 4 lovely babies on May 20th 2016. Mom & babies are doing very well! All of the babies are spoken for. Check out their photo album on facebook! We had 1 male: Russian Blue Variegated, looks just like his daddy! 3 females: Russian Blue Capped Platinum Variegated Platinum Capped All Standard ear, coats, size. My next litter info... Expected Litters: The next litters will be Black/Silvermane & Black Berkshire/Blaze all dumbos. See more future litters here: Upcoming Litters Check out the nursery for more info.