OUR RATS - Females
On this page you'll meet some of our bouncy girls, who all live together.
"Chiaroscuro" - (pic 2.1) [pronounced kee-ah-roz-skoo-ro]
"Kia" for short, is our oldest Lady. She was bought from a Pet Store because of her amazingly soft, dense coat, which thankfully she has kept.
Kia is a very gentle, easy going ratty, that is happy to just sit on your lap. An unusual thing for any ratty of the female persuasion.
She is a mismarked hooded Black.
SHOW HISTORY:
Kia has never been shown.
BREEDING HISTORY:
Kia has had one litter at the start of our DownUnder breeding programme. She was mother to 11 bouncing bundles of fuzz of which 3 were DU'Hooded. One of these, the only female, was sold to fellow breeder of DU's, RatmanDU Rattery.
Kia has been retired now and will not be bred again. Kia has just turned 2 years old.
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"bRatpack Sapphire" - (pic 2.2)
"Saphy" came to us in a round about kind of a way. We adopted her from a close Friend of ours when he went out of the Fancy. She is one of our extra special babies. Saphy's loving, gentle nature is so endearing, she literally showers you with little ratty kisses. Always the first out, she's a real shoulder rattie.
Saphy is a self Mink.
SHOW HISTORY:
Saphy has been shown once in October 2000. She placed 1st in her pigment class(colour), 1st in her breed class, and then went on to win Best
in Show. Because she is registered and all the classes were championship classes, the points gained at this show were enough for her to get Open Female Rat of the Year for 2000.
BREEDING HISTORY:
Saphy has been bred once, she was pregnant when we adopted her. We
also adopted the male "Indigo" that she was pregnant to. He was later re-
homed to his breeder at bRatpack Rattery.
Sapphy was an exceptional mummy to 10 little self minks in April of 2000.
A pair (Carawatha Ducheyne & Carawatha Stormy) were exported to Jenny Thompson & Tania Payne in New Zealand, and a male (Carawatha Nimbus) went to Robyn Arthur here in Brisbane. We kept a pair ourselves, but when we moved overseas, the female (Carawatha Azurae) went to bRatpack Rattery & the male was kept and later adopted out by Harrington's Mousery.
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"Carawatha Ariel" - (pic 2.3)
Ariel is Zephrums' sister. She is a lavender Berkshire. She is one little powerhouse of mischief. Always one of the first to go off exploring.
SHOW HISTORY:
Ariel has not been shown.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She has been mummy to one litter, born August 2000. This was one of the litters at the start of our DownUnder Berkshire breeding programme. Out of 12 pups she had 4 DU's. 1xDUBerkshire. 2xDUIrish and 1xDUHooded.
This DUHooded ("Carawatha Tesaract")went to his new home, with Bill Stone, looking like a silverfawn. However much to the surprise of his new owner, and to myself upon seeing him a month or so later, his eye colour had darkened to ruby. This happened at around 5-6 weeks of age.
This was the second litter where this eye-darkening phenomenon has been observed.
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"Carawatha/bRatpack Tinuviel - (pic 2.4)
Tinuviel is from the second generation in what today is our bareback line. She is a Dove bareback (slightly mismarked with a small spot in the middle of her back)
She is named after one of Tolkiens characters. I usually name all my bareback rats after Characters from Tolkiens books.
Tinuviel and her brother Elrond, came about when we leased their mother "Gwened Wethryn" (Who we later bought) to inbreed to "Pippin Took"(her brother), the Fawn Bareback male we already owned.
SHOW HISTORY:
Tinuviel has not been shown.
BREEDING HISTORY:
Tinuviel has had two litters. Her first litter of 7, to "Elrond" born on Valentine's day 2000 gave us the biggest surprise we've had ever, A Manx, who we kept & named Maverick. He was a very mismarked lavender bareback (looking almost like an over-banded mouse does)with an almost completely coloured rump.
The rest of the litter were 4 mismarked barebacks, 2 Fawn, 1 silverfawn and 1 lavender, and two good barebacks, one Dove (who we kept "Galadhriel") and one silverfawn who went to bRatpack Rattery.
On the 13th Dec 2000 Tinuviel had her second litter to Elrond. This litter had two capped babies(a pair) complete with headspots, both fawn. The others in the litter were undermarked bareback females with capped like head markings, one fawn and one lavender. Alas no more Manx.
We had intended on keeping the fawn capped female, however there was a mix-up when we were overseas and this female ended up going to Black Eve Rattery, who was to take the three litter-mates, and little "Finwe", the lavender baby was kept for us instead.
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"Carawatha Casmira" - (pic 2.5)
"Cassy" is a SilveredBlack female(only slightly mismarked on a few toes) She is a small girl, as is the majority of her line. For this reason she has not been bred with. Due to her age now (14 months) we won't be breeding with her.
A very loving ratty and a real hoarder, she does the "grab & stash" maneuver so well, and with such purpose, she doesn't realise that all the others are depleting her stash from the other side, as quickly as she makes it.
SHOW HISTORY:
Cassy has been to one show in October 2000 and placed 2nd in her breed class.
BREEDING HISTORY:
Cassie has not been bred from.
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"Carawatha Pocahontas" - (pic 2.6)
Pocahontas is a Hooded Fawn lady. She along with her 13 other fawn hooded siblings were the result of a test mating for carried recessives, between a silverfawn(Carawatha Banjo) and a cinnamon(Carawatha Radigande). To which this mating proved what we were looking for. That Banjo didn't carry mink and Radigande didn't carry pink-eye dilution.
One of Pocahontas sisters was exported to Jenny Thompson in New Zealand "Carawatha Cupcake" and one of her brothers was exported to Pauline van berkel of Horlepiep rattery in Amsterdam "Carawatha Bendigo".
SHOW HISTORY:
Pocahontas has been shown once in October 2000, where she got 1st in her breed class then went on to get Reserve Marked rat of Show.
BREEDING HISTORY:
Pocahontas is the proud mummy of two of our youngest rattiegirls "Carawatha Gnala" (Hooded Silverfawn) & "Carawatha Genie in a bottle"(Hooded Fawn).
Both these girls are two of the most exceptionally marked hooded rats we've ever bred. Their litter of 8, born in November 2000 was fathered by Zephrum.
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"Carawatha Polyhymnia" - (pic 2.7)
"Poly" is an Agouti, in the perfect image of her beautiful mother "RatlyManor Isis". I'm a real sucker for an agouti, a thing some people find hard to understand. I don't really know why I like them so much, they just appeal to me.
Her Mother Isis was re-homed back to her breeder, Andrea March of RatlyManor, just before we went overseas.
Poly is a playful rattie both with us, and with her rattiefolk friends. She's never seemed to grow up. Maybe we should have called her Peta Pan.
SHOW HISTORY:
Poly has been to one show in October 2000, where she placed 2nd in her breed class.
BREEDING HISTORY:
Poly has not been bred from.
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"Efymeasha" - (pic 2.8)
"Efy" is a SilveredBlack Cardigan rattie we got from Boondall Pet Hypermarket. She's a super friendly, easy-going, nothing bothers me- kind of ratty. We initially got her because of her variegation in her cardigan, which we are hoping will benefit our breeding programme for DUCardigans.
SHOW HISTORY:
Efy has been to one show, in October 2000 and placed 1st in her breed class (However there was only one other in it - as cardigan is one of the less common markings here)
BREEDING HISTORY:
We would like to breed Efy with one of our DownUnder boys soon, to further the DUCardigan breeding programme.
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"Carawatha B'elanna" - (pic 2.9)
After the star-trek character of the same name, but spelt differently, she is Zephrum's daughter from his first litter. "Bel" is a very placid girl, usually the one who ends up last everywhere, and almost always the one to get lost when they're out playing.
Bel is a Fawn Berkshire. (A little undermarked)
SHOW HISTORY:
Bel has not been shown.
BREEDING HISTORY:
Bel has not been bred from. She is a pet, we don't plan to breed from her.
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"Carawatha Ayeasha" - (pic 2.10)
Ayeasha is one of Banjo's babies from his 3rd litter. She is a silverfawn Hooded. Her markings are good and she was kept for both breeding & showing purposes, however due to some recently found problems in her line, we will not be breeding from her.
[Her mother was "Anuk", a rattie we adopted from the same friend we got "Sapphire" from. Anuk, while a friendly enough ratty when we got her, quickly became nippy when she fell pregnant. We didn't worry about this at first, as females often do get a bit feisty when they're breeding. However the problem got progressively worse both towards humans and fellow rats, until she had to be euthanized 4 months after having the litter.
Within the following 6 months we were to learn that 2 males from her litter, with different owners were also put down for aggression. We are keeping tabs on two other males from this litter. While one of these has started to have some problems, the other one is doing well with no probs at all.] We have since spoken to her breeder, who informed us that Anuk's mother "bRatpack Chandon" developed the same behavior
For these reasons we will not be breeding from Ayeasha.
She is okay to handle at present, she does startle easily and would rather not be touched. She is not prone to nipping so far, but does fight with the other girls from time to time. She is one of the dominant females in the group. We will be keeping close tabs on her.
SHOW HISTORY:
Ayeasha was shown in October 2000, as a baby. She got 1st in her breed class and then went on to get Best Baby rat of Show.
BREEDING HISTORY:
Ayeasha has not been bred, and we will not be breeding from her.
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"Carawatha Galadhriel" - (pic 2.11)
Galadhriel is Mavericks' (our Manx boy) sister. She is a Dove Bareback. She, like all the ratties from this line, both male & female, is long & slim, and not particularly big. She's very friendly and is a particularly busy rattie. She's always on the go, and really seems to hang around her family (Tinuviel, Besos & Finwe) a lot. The only ratty we have that appears to do this.
Her bareback markings are bordering on perfect, and so long as she ends up big enough physically, we plan to breed from her.
SHOW HISTORY:
Galadhriel has not been shown.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She has not been bred from.
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"Carawatha Neferatiti" - (pic 2.12)
"Neff" is a descendant of our original line, and is almost a reincarnation of "Coco", our original mummy rat. She shows all the characteristics of this line both in temperament and in Type. She is a solidly built female. If she follows the norm of this line, then she will be an excellent mother.
Neff is rather a sly character, if she can get away with something she will. If you catch the tail-end of a bit of pizza disappearing round the back of the sofa, you can almost bet that Neff will be attached to the other end of it. However she's also very good at being sorry(well at least at looking sorry) so is forgiven for things almost as soon as she's caught doing them.
She's a real pack rat, however once she's gathered all the little bits and pieces she can find and put them in a neat pile, she quickly gets bored and leaves you with the mess to clean up.
SHOW HISTORY:
Neff has been to one show in October 2000 as a baby, but she didn't place.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She has not been bred from as yet.
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"Carawatha Honamera" - (pic 2.13)
Honamera is one of our DownUnder Berkshires. She's agouti, with fairly good dappled markings. She's just a "one of the gang" type ratty, happy to go along with whoever and whatever's happening at that time. Still very playful with the other younger rattiegirls. She is an important link in our DUBerk breeding programme, carrying red-eye dilution (rr) she is steeped to be the future mummy of cinnamon DU's of her kind.
SHOW HISTORY:
Honamera has not been shown, as the DU Berk was not standardised when the opportunity arose to show her.
BREEDING HISTORY:
Honamera has just given birth to her first litter of 9 wriggling little cuties. We have already decided to keep one of the males from this litter. A little Black DU Spotted complete with headspot, we've called him "Carawatha Crying Freeman".
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"Carawatha Joya de la Noche" - (pic 2.14)
Her name means "Jewel of the night" in Spanish, we nickname her jewel. She is a third generation DownUnder, she's a Spotted Black. She shows almost the best diversity in spots we've bred so far. Jewel is eternally on heat it would seem, doing the "ear-wiggle'n'bop thang" almost every time you go near her.
She's a rather hyperactive ratty, but we're not sure if that's normal for her, or if it's got something to do with her hormonal state most of the time.
Jewel has this adorable look she gets after she's done something she shouldn't have (usually roughing somerattie else up). She looks at you like,
"Why did I do that, can you tell me? What'd I just do?
Cracks me up every time she does it, and makes discipline basically impossible.
SHOW HISTORY:
Jewel has not been shown.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She has not been bred yet, much to her disgust.
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"Carawatha Besos" - (pic 2.15)
Besos is one of our Special babies. She is Mavericks' daughter and like him is a Lavender bareback. Also like him she is very outgoing, like a playful little kitten, not only playing with you, but engaging you to play with her, by leaping on and off your hand, and giving playful little nips. Besos(being the spanish word for kisses) was named such because she constantly give little ratty kisses to anyone and everyone.
Little Besos' story is one of courage. She was one of two runts in her litter of 5. One day we found her gasping for breath, she was less than three weeks old at this stage. We took her inside fearing the worst for her. Because she'd been (and still was) so small at birth, I was wondering if maybe her lungs were not fully formed.
After talking to the vet, we put her on Doxy(Doxycycline antibiotic), and hand-fed her. Because we were told of Doxy's reaction with dairy products, this meant we had to supplement her diet with calcium liquid & soy products, instead of giving her the milk mixture we'd normally have used.
Her appetite was good, and she liked the taste of the doxy water, because it was sweet(having had fructose added to it to hide the bitterness of the doxy)
We had to keep her as quiet as possible, because the more she leapt about and got excited the worse her gasping would get. After nearly two weeks, If she was at rest, then she was not gasping. Her love of playing, even at this young age, wasn't helping matters. As soon as she'd hear us, she'd start bouncing around and climbing the cage to get out. This would start her off gasping again. Towards the end of the third week her gasping had changed to a whistling sound. Over the next 4 weeks it became less and less and finally around mid December she appeared to have no lung noise or congestion at all. She stayed on the medication for a further week to be sure.
Since then she's never looked back. She is truly a little Miracle, Today she is a healthy "very" active rattie, even kissier than ever. She is truly her fathers daughter, as she plays just like him, grabs your hand and pulls you around to play with her.
SHOW HISTORY:
Besos has not been shown as yet.
BREEDING HISTORY:
We are not sure if we will breed from her. While both her personality and type are something we would love to pass on, We're hesitant to put her at risk of any type of relapse in health problems, that may be brought on by the stress of pregnancy.
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"Carawatha Fortune Found" - (pic 2.16)
"Toon" is a DownUnder Spotted Mink. She's Zephrum's daughter. Both she and her sister "Mystery" are still playful little ratlings. Toon is another little adventurer, having made a mentor of Ariel, she's usually hot on her heels, whenever she's off on an adventure.
She was one of 9 pups originally, even though only 3 survived. Her Mother "RatmanDU Melisande" progressively culled the other 6, between 2 & 16 days of age. There were no apparent reasons for this. The pups looked healthy, were normal size, and the mother was in good condition.
Because of this we are in two minds about breeding from Toon, hoping that this trait was not hereditary, and if it was, that it hasn't passed down to her. Many would say to give her the benefit of the doubt, and we may yet do that.
SHOW HISTORY:
Toon has not been shown.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She's not been bred as yet, and there's a possibility she may not be.
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"Carawatha Mystery" - (pic 2.17)
"Myssy" is Toon's sister. She's aptly named, because we are unsure of her markings. While initially she looks like a Cinnamon mismarked DU hooded, the unusually placed marks on her tummy, have all but faded, leaving only one small one. This makes us unsure of whether she is a DU or not. Only breeding her will identify this.
Myssy was not originally on our list for keeps, but somehow she lost half of her tail while we were away overseas, so is now one of the clan. For the same reasons as Toon, above, we may or may not breed from her. If we do decide to breed from her it will be interesting to see if she is indeed a DU.
She's a friendly little ratty, but with a much different personality to her sister. She is more reserved, and appears to "wait in the wings" as it were, for someone else to check if all's ok, before she'll try a new task.
SHOW HISTORY:
Myssy has not been shown and due to her tail injury will not be.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She has just given birth to her first litter. She has 4 very large babies. They are all ruby eyed, and we're looking forward to being able to see their markings, thus telling us if Mystery is a DU or not.
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"Carawatha Gwinavere" - (pic 2.18)
"Gwinny" is a Black hooded from our colour-bred black line. She is sister to "C.Cyprian". We had not initially planned to keep Gwinny, however while we were overseas, we were informed that her mother "C.Hera" who we had planned on bringing over to us, passed away. Gwinny was the single baby left from the litter - a very fortunate thing for us.
A couple of days before I left I had the babies out, little Gwinavere must have climbed into one of the packing boxes I had them on. So that the next day after the babies had all been re-homed, I found her, hence she was put with our girls that were to be minded for us prior to going overseas too.
Gwinny is a shy girl, but very sweet. She's the one who creeps up to sniff your face when you're not looking. She likes to wait till everythings quiet before she ventures forth.
SHOW HISTORY:
Gwinny has not been shown. Her markings are not show quality.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She is still young and not been bred yet.
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"Carawatha Genie in a Bottle" - (pic 2.19)
"Genie" and her sister Gnala are two of the youngest. Genie is Fawn Hooded, with exceptional markings. She is Zephrum and Pocahontas baby. We are still getting to know Genie, she is the less outgoing of the two.
Genie got her name after we temporarily lost her one day at feeding time, while all the babies were having a bit of a run around, only to find her rolling around inside a "Spring Valley 1litre tomato juice bottle".
SHOW HISTORY:
Genie has not been shown. We plan to show her.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She is still a baby and has not been bred. We plan to breed her if we can.
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"Carawatha Gnala" - (pic 2.20) [pronounced nah-la]
Gnala is Genie's silverfawn hooded sister. She also has exceptional markings and is destined for both the show bench and breeding. She is more outgoing than Genie, and is one of the bunch that greet you at the door. Still being so young, we are just getting to know her too. She's very playful, and from watching them all, I'd say that if the other ratties could speak, they'd all say that she is the most annoying of the rattyfolk. She often has her nose in some-rattie-elses ear, or elsewhere that it really isn't wanted. She's a bit of a wally really. In fact the older she gets, the more like her mother in ratinality she gets.
SHOW HISTORY:
Gnala has not been shown yet, but will be in the future.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She is still a baby, we plan to breed from her later.
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"Carawatha Finwe" - (pic 2.21)
"Finn" is the little lavender mismarked bareback/capped girl, accidentally kept for us in place of her fawn capped sister we'd initially planned on keeping. She is from our bareback line and shares the same parentage as C.Maverick & C.Galadhriel.
Finn is a robust little rattie despite her size. She is our youngest rattie all up. From her we will continue our line of capped rats.
She has the same personality that Galadhriel has, to a "T". If they weren't different colours it'd be easy to get them mixed up. We are still getting to know her, though if Galadhriel is anything to go on, then I guess we already do.
SHOW HISTORY:
Finwe has not been shown, and due to being mismarked will not be.
BREEDING HISTORY:
She is still a baby, We hope to breed from her one day.
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Thank-you to Arsen&Nic for this award.
CLICK ON AWARD TO VISIT ARSEN & NICS RATTY HOMEPAGE
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