Rattitude - Where Rats Rule! » questions

Pet Heaven

Mr.Rattitude — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 17:05:02 +0000

The front page of one of today’s newspapers managed to grab my attention. Generally I read most of my “news” online, but from time to time I will wander over to a co-workers area and glance through their paper.

Today’s splashy front page shows a woman, a dog and the over-sized type, “DIE AT HOME”. Here is a link to the article, which really should be read through entirely before giving further thought to the sensationalistic headlines pointing to further into the newspaper.

The article describes to some extent the actions of The College of Veterinarians of Ontario to stop this couple from providing services they believe are a benefit to the pet keeping communities.

These services, offered by Pet Heaven, are essentially in-home services being rendered via referral by qualified veterinarians. The controversy seems centered around the euthanizing of pets at home by these referred mobile veterinarians; and, possibly more so, in my opinion, the additional services of Pet Heaven removing and/or transporting the deceased pet afterwards.

I believe Pet Heaven’s offering of this type of referral service is a grand gesture and I am most interested in the outcome of this trial.

How do you feel about mobile vets; and, this type of referral?

Rat Years in Human Years

Mr.Rattitude — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:35:16 +0000

I often wonder what a rats age would be in human terms.

This is by no means a scientifically derived formula, it’s just some easy numbers based on a few simple correlations. So I picked some easy benchmarks to start with:

Average human lifespan: 80 years or 960 months
Average rat lifespan: 30 months
Human years to rat years ratio would be 32:1.

These numbers in themselves could be argued up or down, but that is the whole idea of discussion topics like this one. Of course these numbers are not truly directly related to our lives. These numbers would indicate that two hours to a rat would be the same as almost three days to a human. Have you played with your pet rats for two hours or more at a time? How do you think you would feel after constant attention for almost three days?!

This is by no means a reason not to interact with your pets, actually the reverse. Its more a reminder that the the time differences are immense in comparative terms, and if the time is directly proportional as the above ratio suggests then the time we spend apart from our little ones is also immense. Think of it as visiting your best friends once a month for a couple of days, then waiting another month to do it again.

There are many ways to calculate rat years in human years, what numbers do you use?

Open Questions to Harlan-Teklad

Mr.Rattitude — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:25:00 +0000

Harlan-Teklad arguably manufactures one of the best, if not the best, rodent diets available. I use the word available very loosely here as it is not sold, to the best of my knowledge, in a retail environment approved by Harlan-Teklad.

The big-box pet stores do not sell it; feed stores do not sell it; small independent pet shops do not sell it; and, yet it still makes it way into the homes and mouths of pet rats throughout North America.

There are great organizations that have managed to create a service to their “customers” so they are able to provide this best in market food. There are great individuals that go out of their way to help others acquire this manna for their “babies”.

I find it truly amazing that there is a major distribution center for Harlan-Teklad diets (and other products?) less than 10 minutes drive from where I live, yet I cannot find anywhere that sells it. Granted this diet was designed for laboratory rats, but it is the best food I can feed to my rats, IMHO. I see no reason why I should want anything less than the best.

So, I ask these questions:

Why is it, with a market that is readily available, a manufacturer would create a selling practice to practically exclude sales from a specific sector? This sector shows one of the fastest growing spending metrics in current retail trends. (*Hint: Pet related purchases, especially premium items.)

Why, after many years, would a manufacturer decide that a product made on a regular production schedule would require it’s minimum purchase to be increased 10 times?

These questions are only two that I am asking, but throughout the Internet on various forums and other postings similar questions are being posed. Rat keepers and other rodent aficionados are trying to develop plans of action to meet these extreme measures the manufacturer apparently is applying to a great product.

Again, I ask: Why?

Eyes Wide Open