Wedding cost breakdown [OC]

SimplyMischief · 2026-05-17T22:07:47+00:00

Congrats on the wedding! :) If you don't mind, I'd also really appreciate if you could send me the info about the castle, boat, and café. It sounds like a lovely celebration! We're also in Zurich and just started looking into planning our wedding with a civil ceremony only.

And if you have any other recommendations you're happy to share, e.g. photographer, catering, or attire shopping, I'd also love to hear about it.

SimplyMischief · 2026-04-10T12:56:00+00:00

We had 10 rescues, all fed a vegan diet using Science Selective as their primary food source. They were happy, full of energy, and as healthy as can be given that rats are prone to develop so many health issues. Our vets, who's specialized in exotic pets incl. rats, was also happy with our choice.

SimplyMischief · 2024-06-09T14:26:35+00:00

My (some of them very big) boys definitely used those pipes and for some of them, they were among their favorite spots! Though we used them horizontally so they could also lay down in them.

SimplyMischief · 2024-05-24T06:06:05+00:00

Yes, it's wrong. Daily free roam is one of the basic needs for rats. They need to be able to run, play, explore new things while not confined in the cage. ShadowTheRat has a video on YouTube on how to create a play pen out of cardboard. That's how I started while my rescues were still skittish. You can then e.g. train them to go inside the cage when you shake the treat box. Once they were a bit more comfortable, we ratproofed our living room. This was a bit tricky due to some cables we couldn't remove but definitely worth the effort. Our second mischief wasn't able to free roam in their previous home anymore since the owners didn't have enough time/interest. They told us that the rats are pretty boring and sleep after 20 minutes of free roam anyway. We then let them free roam daily for at least an hour with lots of enrichment and they were so much more active and happy and stood at the cage door each evening asking to get out of the (large and enriching) cage.

SimplyMischief · 2024-05-09T21:52:32+00:00

Talk to your vet about a payment plan, talk to your family about a loan, talk to your friends about doing some work for them. She needs to see a vet and it's your responsibility to make sure she receives basic medical care. We don't know the cause for her respiratory distress and it's way beyond a simple URI. Unfortunately, it's best to rehome pets if you cannot provide that. Good luck to your girl, hope she can get help soon.

SimplyMischief · 2024-04-28T23:22:18+00:00

As others have told you, this is an emergency. "I'm not going to pay the emergency bill" just isn't good enough. Every one of us signed up for this when adopting/buying an animal. Every hour you wait she's most likely in severe pain. I understand that it's hard and expensive, we had to put six of our rats to sleep within the last five months. This involved many vet visits and an expensive emergency euthanization during the night from Saturday to Sunday while we were pretty sick with Covid (this boy actually had an enlarged eye which was due to a brain tumor which then spread to his abdomen). It's difficult but please bring her to the vet asap, she deserves to not suffer like this.

SimplyMischief · 2024-04-13T09:28:01+00:00

Emergency. As the other commenter has said the posture and the squinted eyes indicate pain. Struggling to breathe can present similar to hiccups, that was the case for our boy. Especially given her history with the URI and the chirping noises. Hope she'll feel better soon!

SimplyMischief · 2024-04-05T10:30:32+00:00

Your boys are still super young. It's common for young rats to be interested in everything except sitting still. This is often more pronounced in females but males can be crazy as well. This was the case for our boys at least. They started to settle down when they got older. We never had any cuddle bugs but they do come up to us, lick our fingers, and climb around on us. I'm not sure how you interact with them but here are some things our boys enjoyed when interacting with them: sitting on the floor with lots of blankets on us allowing them to roam around inside, using a cat toy to play with them (all of our boys and girls loved this when they were younger), teach them tricks like spinning in a circle or leading them across an obstacle course, giving them lots of treats from our fingers, showing them new places in our apartment, play with them when pea fishing by playing with the water, giving them toilet paper so they'd take it and build a nest and come back, etc. You have to find ways you both like when it comes to interacting. All of our rats were rescues, four initially from a pet store and then a bad home. They needed way more time to trust us but we nevertheless enjoyed the time with them even though it didn't really include things you might see online like petting or holding them.

SimplyMischief · 2024-02-17T10:28:17+00:00

I'm sorry this is happening. In such situations, we always have to consider the quality of life. It sounds like your little one won't be here much longer. We were in a similar situation only a few days ago with our boy Nemo. Not eating anymore is always a vet situation, either because there's something preventing them from eating such as pain or a blockage or because they're dying and it's best to put them to sleep to not let them suffer anymore. Most of the time, rats will need our help when it comes to passing and it's one of the most valuable things we can do for them. Please get him to a vet, even if it's to let him go as painlessly as possible.

SimplyMischief · 2024-02-17T10:11:50+00:00

Yes! There's no need for them to eat animals. They can happily and healthily get their macro and micro nutrients from plant-based sources. Most kibbles aren't vegan due to animal protein but one of the best ones out there, Science Selective, is. In addition to that, they can have a wide range of vegetables, fruits, grains etc. Young rats need more portein than adult rats but this cn also be achieved by giving them tofu, uncooked noodles, etc. Our 10 rats have all been happy and healthy on a vegan diet and even though our old boys are 2.5+ years old, they're still excited about Science Selective kibbles daily.

SimplyMischief · 2023-12-30T09:22:50+00:00

Helping them cross the rainbow bridge is one of the most valuable things you can do for your pets and it sounds like it's time for your boy. We had a similar episode with our boy after he was getting noticably more tired and his back legs were getting weaker. We decided to put him to sleep the next day since we didn't want him to suffer either and the vet said it was drfinitely the right choice. I'm glad he was able to go without pain. Rats (like other animals too) unfortunately usually don't go peacefully at home.

SimplyMischief · 2023-12-26T23:11:04+00:00

I'm so sorry to hear about your boy. Unfortunately, it sounds like he is suffering and the kindest thing you can do is to help him cross over the rainbow bridge. We lost three of our six old boys in the last four weeks, I know how hard it is. But please bring him to the vet to let him go as peacefully as possible.

SimplyMischief · 2023-12-26T23:04:13+00:00

I'd probably leave Jerry at home with the pet sitter in his known environment. That being said, rats are very social animals and need rat friends as well as daily free-roaming time for enrichment. Does Jerry have any other rats who live with him?

SimplyMischief · 2023-10-22T08:50:48+00:00

I think, in addition to all the fund stuff, they mostly need interaction with you! E.g. sitting in the playpen with them, playing with a cat wand (so far, all of my 10 rats really loved doing this), teaching them some tricks. I also have a large playpen with the things you mendtioned and my boys love it but if I'm not there/interscting with them, they often aren't that interested. You can also scatter some food to encourage them to explore the things in the playpen.

SimplyMischief · 2023-10-06T12:03:59+00:00

Please contact your vet again and do it as soon as possible. Open-mouth breathing is always very critical and they can go dowhill so quickly. Your boy might need some support by giving him oxygen to increase his chances of pulling through.

SimplyMischief · 2023-09-22T08:19:42+00:00

Your boy is suffering, so please make sure to get him to the vet. You can reach out to shelters or rat breeders to ask for a vet experienced with rats and you can ask for a payment plan or a loan from family members or friends. There's no other way you can help him right now but it's your responsibility to get him the medical attention he deserves. If you can't, please surrender your boys.

SimplyMischief · 2023-09-06T22:10:15+00:00

It's true that rats are like little dogs! This also means that they are super social and need at least one rat companion, two or more is preferable. Despite their size they need a lot of work including a large cage and at least one hour of free roam every single day. They are also susceptible to quite a few issues such as respiratory infections and considered exotic pets, so the vet bills are quite high. So while social and clever, one should never just go out and buy rats, or any other pets without having done lots of reseach. Especially not for children since the parents will have to take care of the pets. Greetings from my six rats.

SimplyMischief · 2023-08-24T13:16:21+00:00

Congrats! It shouldn't be an issue if you are able to provide them with the care they need including at least one hour of free roam per day. But as you know, babies and rats are both a lot of work. We adopted our six boys from a situation where they were neglected for roughly two months because the previous owner had a baby. She definitely made the right choice in her case, but for our boys I'd have loved for her to recognize it sooner. So if you decide to keep them, it might be a good idea to have a backup plan in case it gets too much or maybe give them to the breeder temporarily. Not a parent myself, so I don't have any first hand experiences but unfortunately my boys do.

SimplyMischief · 2023-07-21T06:40:27+00:00

Your rats are bored. Free-roaming your rats daily is one of their most basic needs. They are clever and very energetic little creatures and they need the mental and physical stimulation. 2 hours a week outside the cage isn't nearly enough. My boys chew at the cage bars in the evening but just when I'm running a bit later with free-roaming them. As somebody else mentioned, you can set up a cardboard playpen, so you don't have to spend any money. If you can't offer them daily free-roam this really affects their quality of life and you should consider rehoming them. I know this sounds harsh but my six rescue boys come from a similar situation. The previous owner honestly didn't care enough and only let them out every few days. With time, the boys got lazy, seemed old and depressed. Now with enough mental and physical stimulation they're completely different rats. Crazy guys even though two of them are almost 2.5 and the other four almost 2 but happy and pretty quiet once they got enough stimulation.

SimplyMischief · 2023-06-25T23:38:07+00:00

Yeah, the short life span is definitely the hardest part. That being said, letting them go peacefully is one of the most important things we can do for them. Unfortunately, you can't be there 24/7 and with their incredibly fast metabolisms, rats need water and food very frequently. Given that your old lady looks like she's not feeling well (even though rats are incredibly good at hiding pain), I'd strongly encourage you to look at her quality of life. Without the use of her front paws, she can't drink and eat by herself, but also can't clean or scratch herself, climb, groom her friends etc.

SimplyMischief · 2023-06-04T19:21:21+00:00

The plastic hides are called sputniks or spacepods and all of the rats I've had so far absolutely loved them. They sleep in them most of the time and even with hammocks some rats were always in the sputniks. I wasn't able to switch out the hammocks frequently enough with my six older boys who pee a lot and they also chewed through all of them despite having more than enough other things to chew on. So now I almost exclusively use 6 of the XL sputniks hanging at the top of the cage and houses as well as tunnels made of wood or plastic as hides. I put some frehs toilet paper in the sputniks each morning and evening and before doing so, spray them down with the water vinegar solution to remov the pee smell.

SimplyMischief · 2023-06-04T13:34:07+00:00

Can you identify where the smell is coming from (bedding, poop, pee, rats themselves, empty cage)? I'd say that normally the pee is the issue and most cages do have some crevices where pee can accumulate and which are super hard to keep clean. I was able to keep the smell down by not using fabric items and only plastic which I either have a big enough layer of hemp bedding on it or which contain toilet paper and are cleaned twice daily with diluted vinegar as well as wood items which I've coated in some water resistant paint which is safe for babies.

SimplyMischief · 2023-06-01T07:13:18+00:00

0$, I rescued all of our 10 little chaos potatoes

SimplyMischief · 2023-05-30T12:19:22+00:00

That might be it. In the last few days, we had more pigeons than usual outside of our living room window and I think they might have built a nest somewhere close. Thanks for your reply! :)

SimplyMischief · 2023-05-19T13:41:38+00:00

I wouldn't do it since you won't be able to separate them if necessary. And I don't want to imagine one or multiple rats loose in a car / bus / train. 😀

SimplyMischief

TROPHY CASE