Ixus was an albino rat, a Wistar laboratory rat. He was born on the 8th of December 1996, and he was a great pet. I got him as a little baby on the 3rd of January 1997, and I spent lots of time taming him, since the first few weeks I had him he was my only rat. This photo shows him as he looked when he was just a baby. I did get a rattie friend as soon as I could find one, and that was Ippe.
Ixus was my third Wistar male, and my fourth Wistar rat all in all so far. When he grew up he was the king of the rat cage, but he was nice to all the other males. Ixus was a great pet rat, and one of my special favourite rats.
This was when I got the great idea to build an open cage for my male rats, with no cage door in the front. I could just reach in and pet any rat that was out and about. I changed cages but I kept the idea for many years. Ixus and his cage mates lived in a big old plexi glass cage, but I learned that plexi glass get smelly after a while, so later on I took an old closet and rebuilt it into a big rattie cage. My males were never keen on escaping so there was no problems keeping them all in an open cage.
It was when I had him I started to activate my rats, and
here is an old article about how I did that.
Like all my Wistar rats he was a bit dominant and he didn't like it when a strange rat male came into my apartment, but he soon learned to be friends with them, if the new rat was friendly.
Ixus got sick, and stayed sick a while. He died on the 23rd of December 1997, just a year old. he had to be put to sleep because of respiratory problems. He was much loved and still missed.
Copyright Eva Johansson.
Last update: 25th of August 2005.