The blog post about blob fish!

Hey everyone,
sorry I haven't posted in a while I hope this post makes up for it! 
The blob fish!
Latin name of blob fish: Psychrolutes marcidus. 

Blob fish live in the waters near Australia and Tasmania. They live at depths of 2,000-3,900 feet. This is 80 times denser then the water at sea level. Since they live in water that has a super high density they have gas bladders so that they don't explode. A normal animal or mammal on the other hand would explode. This is why it is so hard to get pictures of them. This is the best picture that I have found so far. 

I wouldn't say that they are very attractive! What do you think? 
It also makes it hard to study them because if you do catch them and bring them to sea level or higher they are most likely going to explode on you! :/(I hope your not eating lunch!) They are going extinct rapidly. This is because fisher men that are catching fish with huge nets are catching them. They proceed to take the fish that they caught out of the water killing the blob fish. Plus if you do catch blob fish with other fish you want to eat, you can eat the blob fish. So there really isn't any reason to catch them since they die right after they get to the sea level and you can't eat them like other fish. Just these two reasons make the blob fish extremely rare. 

Body features
The most distinct feature of the blob fish is the human like face. If you get a straight on picture of a blob fish you will she that they have a nose, mouth with lips, and small eyes. 












Surprisingly the head, what I think looks the heaviest only weighs 1/3 of there body weight! So they small tail that they have weighs much more then it looks like it does. 

Daily life
If you think about it life on earth is much more fun then life in the sea for a blob fish. For most of the blob fishes life they are letting the ocean currents move them in the direction that they wind is going. Even when they eat the lobsters, crabs, mollusks, urchins and other slow moving fish and plants that are loose and are floating in the current all they do is open there mouth. The funny thing is that they don't have any muscles. So how do they move is the question that sprang to mind when I read this. Apparently they are made of a gelatinous mass that has a density that is lighter than water. So they are so light that they can move themselves with having any muscle. When the blob fish are fully grown they reach a length of about a foot. 

Reproduction
The only other thing they do in there life besides eat and move with the current is mate. Females only mate when a male comes into view. But they only really have to mate once because every time a female blob fish mates with a male blob fish she produces 1,000 pink eggs. Yeah, that's a lot of eggs! The male wanders off to find a new mate while the female blob fish hovers over the eggs as if to keep them safe from larger fish that would love some pink little eggs for brunch. 
Here is my drawing of a blob fish:

I hope you liked the post! Leave a comment saying what you think about it! Thanks,
Coco

Saturday: rats and the black death!

Truth be true the rats didn't cause or carry on the black death. Many people believe and talk about how nasty it was of them to kill all of those people. But honestly, no one could have spread it faster than people could. 

Rats weren't always around people the way people were with people. And in two or so years say even ten thousand rats wouldn't be able to kill 200 million people or wipe out 60% of Europe's population. 

But, say one person got it from a rat because they got bitten (this doesn't happen often only if you scare the rat so it would still be your fault) then without knowing it they got very sick. At the same time they continued with their everyday life. This would include seeing many people and talking to many people. Then the next day they have the plague too. They go on with their everyday life talking and touching things that people might eat or even just touch then rub their face. Next thing you know almost everyone has the plague. That story makes a lot more sense then this (which is sort of what people are saying what happened): 

thousands of rats one day went crazy and started bitting people everywhere they went and they all had the plague and that is how they gave the plague to people.That's what caused all of these people to start dying. Those blood sucking nasty animals. But two years later all of a sudden those rats stopped biting people and instead they were just animals that living in trash cans and sewers.. Sorry but no, that's not at all what happened. People are the one who caused the black death to spread so wildly. I'm not saying that the rats or fleas didn't cause the first person or even the first few people to catch the plague, but they certainly did not kill even close to all of those people. 

Thank you very much. Oh and by they way I going to got hold my rat; maybe he has the plague and will start the cycle all over again...:D
Thanks every one,
Coco

Friday: rat diet

The highest priority when keeping a rat is a healthy diet. They rely on you to keep them healthy! Every thing you need to do to be a good rat care taker is in your hands. If you don't take good care of them there is just no reason for you to get them; that is a simple fact that is true no matter what. So, what is considered heathy diet for rats?

A healthy diet includes vegetables, fruit, protein, and a variety of rat blocks or seeds. You can easily give them the protein they need by feeding the a small slice of cooked meat. Remember that protein is the most important piece of the meal for humans, rats, and most other animals too. 

Here is a nice homemade recipe for rats: (Of course you don't have to use this. You can use many other things like Rat blocks, variety food (seeds and such), etc...

Recipe for Molasses Mix:
(This will last two rats about a week depending on size--for more than two rats, you can multiply the recipe) 

*(Not needed) 1500 mg calcium from chewable tablets or *(Not needed) liquid calcium with vitamin D
*(Not needed) 2000 mcg chromium picolinate (yes, 2000 mcg is correct, the dose is based on their metabolism, not their weight)

*(Not needed) 250 mcg vitamin B12
*(Not needed) 40 mg manganese
*3/4 C Total cereal
*1 lb packaged (not bulk) soft tofu
*4 teaspoons shelled raw sunflower seeds
*1 tablespoon flax seeds
*3 tablespoons raw rolled oats
*4 teaspoons pearled barley
*4 teaspoons millet
*3 tablespoons cooked brown rice
*4 tablespoons toasted wheat germ
*2 1/2 tablespoons nutritional yeast flakes (5.6 g)
*2 tablespoons blackstrap (dark or full flavor) molasses

Directions:

(Soak the tablets in a tiny bit of water and when soft, crush.) Coarsely crush the Total in a paper bag or bowl with hands. Mash the tofu in a bowl with a spoon. Add all ingredients together with warm molasses and mix thoroughly. Store covered in the refrigerator or freezer.

Rats like most of the foods that we like. But of course, though we wish, lots of food that we eat isn't good for rats. Some vegetables or fruits they don't like for more than a day and others get them sick if you give them too much of it. There always seems to be an excuse! :D 

Vegetables:
Vegetables are another very important part of their meal. I have been giving my rats vegetables every day for the past month or so. They really don't mind unless you switch from no vegetables all the way to vegetables everyday. I used to give them vegetables every other day but I recently found out that it's better for them to have them everyday. With my rats I have noticed that they seem to like lettuce more than other vegetables. So don't forget to make a slow transition with vegetables. But don't get lazy an not give them any vegetables. 

Fruits:
Fruits are just like vegetables besides on thing, rats seem to like fruits better then vegetables. At lease mine do. They love apples, coconut, grapes, strawberries (not more then two days in a row) they even like oranges! 

Protein:
Protein is just as important as fruits and vegetables are. They keep you bones and body strong and healthy. Rats can usually get all the protein they need with just rat blocks or seeds. But to stay on the safe side you want to give them more. You can give them more protein when you feed them liver and oysters. You can also give them other types of meat or steak. Just make sure that it is always 100% cooked. It can give them heart worm or different diseases by give meat and steak to them raw. Also, don't give them meat with spices on it; rats are very delicate when it comes to tastes and it can cause them to get sick or even just get uncomfortable. 

Here is a suggested menu for fruits, veggies, and other things:
One serving of fruit and vegetables: 1/2 inch cube
One serving of beans: 2 teaspoons 
Canned oysters serving size: 1 oyster
Liver serving size: 1 inch x 3/4 inch x 1/4 inch
Grape/ raisin serving size: Raisin: 3-4 raisins 
Grape: 1 grape

Monday:
*Berries
*Kale
*Sprouts
*Beans (cooked) (can be dried)

Tuesday:
*Banana 
*Broccoli
*Tomato
*Sweet potato 
*Cod liver oil soft gel (if they wont eat it plain cut it in half and pour it over molasses mix)

Wednesday:
*Grape or raisin
*Beans
*Bok choy
*Parsley

Thursday:
*Melon
*Broccoli
*Corn
*Liver or oysters

Friday:
*Apple 
*Kale 
*Squash
*Beans

Saturday:
*Banana
*Broccoli
*Peas
*Sweet potato

Sunday:
*Orange
*Bok choy
*Asparagus (cooked) 
*Liver or oysters
Also here is a more direct guide of how much to give the rats:

Daily:
About 3 T molasses mix (see recipe)
one serving of fruit (see menu)
2-3 servings of vegetables (see menu)

Twice a week:
1 serving cooked beef liver (organic is best) or canned oysters

Serving sizes:

Fruit: about half the size of their head
Veggies, beans, liver, oysters: about the size of their 

head

Of course remember that you don't have to use any of this! I don't usually. I just give them rat blocks, variety food, a yogurt treat (you really can't forget that one! :D) and fruits and vegetables. That's all you need really. Sometimes I use the molasses mix just to give the rats a bigger variety but I usually don't. 

Thanks for reading everyone,

Coco
Here is my drawing of rat food:

Thursday: the aging rat

Unfortunately, rats can't live with us the rest of our lives. They will be gone before you know it. This is why you should give them the best life possible. If you don't clean their cage they will die sooner. If you don't feed them a healthy meal everyday, same thing. 

You know, they only have two or three years to live; female rats have even less time because of how fast they catch diseases and how fast tumors form on them.  truth be true they age very fast they are already mature when they are six weeks old. We are mature when we are 12 or 13 years old. That just shows you how little time you have with your rat. It is very saddening. I and probably you too have made the best of friends with your rat. You would do anything to keep it alive. I can say that easily without stuttering. You have to remember once they are dead you can't hold them and let you sniff your nose and tickle you with their whiskers every time they take their treat from your hand or greet you at the door to their cage. There eyes light up when they see you; the bulge with happiness. And I'm sure just like me this makes you so very happy. Maybe now that you know that you will give more time and attention to them. Imagine living all on your own for your whole life of even just a few years of your life. What would that feel like? It would be depressing. It will make you feel like your not wanted and it makes you feel alone. This is exactly what you would put your rat though if you don't give him the daily attention he needs. 

Think about this. Say you and your rat were born on the same day. When you turn ten you would have lived 3,650 days while your rat has only lived 42 days. Isn't that just sad? 

Okay so when you turn 100 years old you would have lived 36,500 days. While you rat has only lived 6 years or 2,190 days. So, as you can see rats have a very short life compared to use so stop your griping and keep your rat happy an healthy. 
Thanks,
Coco:D

Wednesday: How rats are handled in movies

You know how rats look in most movies? They look like they are filthy and oily and mad. Well they are! But it's not their fault! They clean themselves 95% of the time that they spend not eating. So they didn't used to be filthy. The movie directors put oil on the rat and make rats look more scary like this picture: 

You can see how scared the rat is in this picture. You can also see that it is squinting right? This is because they used a bight light to make him squint because it looks mad that way. Because when rats are happy their eyes are round and the bulge a little. The rats get abused to an extreme level! 

The worst part hasn't even been said yet. To get the rats to move they way they want him to move they flash a really bright light towards the rat and scares them in the opposite direction. That is most likely why the picture of the rat above is squinting they are probably getting flashed with a really bright light that may partly blind them. So they make the rats angry confused mad and all of that stuff just to get the rat to do what they wanted him to do in the movie. That's just awful.

It's sad and cruel. I think they should at lease tell the people who are watching the movie that they did this to the poor rats instead of keeping it a secret. It's just so cruel! 

Anyway, that is what they do to the rats that are in movies. Some don't I have to say but lots and even most do. 
Thanks everyone,
Coco

Tuesday: Rats and other animals

 Rats would like to be friends with most anything... most rats anyhow. Some rats like my mom's can't even hangout with another rat! I'll tell you he is a rough soldier to handle. Even when I give Earl food he cause trouble. I've told him that if he puts his head under the bowl it's going to take longer to get the food. What does he do? He uses all his effort to keep his head under the bowl. That silly little fella. 

Usually rats are very friendly to animals especially their neighbor rats. Have you seen a rat with a dog? Truth is rats are often a dogs best friend:

 

They can learn to love each other. Now, if you have a dog and a rat don't assume that they will love each other because, what will most likely happen is your dog will eat the poor thing. Instead, everyday show them to each other for a few minutes. Let them sniff each other but if you dog starts to lick its lips or snaps at it then pull the rat away to safety and try again later; if the same thing happens then they might not be able to see each other without supervision. This isn't a bad thing. The only thing you'll not get to see is how sweet it is when the snuggle up to each other. 

Monday: How to draw a rat:

Drawing a rat is very simple. This is because if you look at a rat you can see they are basically made out of about nine circles and two triangles. Let me show you the basic shapes in this drawing: 

Make sure you sketch this very lightly with pencil so you can easily draw over it, erase it, and make the shapes look more like a rat.

So, after you've got the basic shapes sketch you can go ahead and start connecting these shapes together. As demonstrated in this drawing:

So we did the sketch and made the basic out line, now what? Now we add the the details that we don't see at the first glance like eyes, tail, feet, color, etc.

After you have that done you drawing is done and it should look something like this: (remember that if you want more of a challenge you can draw harder angles; like a straight on view. Challenge yourself! 

Here is my final drawing:

You can even see the shapes after the drawing is finished!

Rat week!

Hey everyone,
this week I might not be able to post many things because I'm getting set up for rat week! Rat week is going to be a series of five different blog posts about mycoplasmosis, rat diet, how to draw a rat and many other thing too. I hope you come and check the posts out. And most of all, I hope you learn and enjoy them! The first post will be up on Monday.
Thanks everyone,
Coco 

Sunday: Rats and mycoplasmosis

Mycoplasmosis is an infectious disease. Unfortunately, most rats have this disease. If you have say five rats and one get the disease after about a day with the other rats they will have it too. Now, mycoplasmosis isn't the worst disease in the world because it won't kill them... right away. 

If your rat dies of mycoplasmosis then it got to the stage called pneumonia. Pneumonia is a very painful process to the rat that has it. If your rat has pneumonia then for the rats sake you want to put him to sleep. The way you can tell if he has pneumonia is by simply looking at him. If he has rust colored mucus on his eyes and nose, is losing weigh rapidly (running through the cage in order to catch his breath), is gasping with his mouth open quite frequently, isn't eating the food you give them, or they don't ever come out to see you even if you are offering a treat then your rat might have pneumonia. If you rat has one of these symptoms then he most likely doesn't have pneumonia but might; in this case take him to the vet.

Mycoplasmosis can be treated very easily with medicines. Like for my rats we use tetracycline. You can find this in almost every pet store. Once you have it use a spoon to put a small amount into their water. When I first did this I was wondering how much you have to put into the water. Put more until it reaches a light yellow color like this:
It can be darker than this too but don't make it very much lighter. When you put this in their water make sure the bottle isn't in direct light. IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE TO CLEAN OUT THEIR BOTTLE EVERYDAY. Tetracycline only lasts a single day. If you don't clean their bottle out everyday they will get very sick. Even more sick then they were before. Keep using tetracycline for about three of four weeks. To be on the safe side you can use it everyday for the rest of their lives. Remember that more tetracycline is better then none. If their symptoms continue then you will want to take them to their vet right away. They might need stronger medicines.  

Also, another way to keep them safe and healthy is to clean their cage more often. Remember that, and they should be fine; they should live a long healthy life! Think of how important they are to you and you will hopefully take good care of their lungs that get scared every time they cough. Take good care of them!

This week is the theme week of RATS so get ready for this ratty week!:D Here is my first drawing of a rat! 

All I used to make this was marker and pencil on a blank sheet of printing paper.

What do dog barks mean? Are they trying to communicate with us??

This is a question that I have wondered about for a very long time and I just now thought of doing a blog post on it. If your dog, like my dog seems to bark at every noise, even if it is just you tapping your pencil on the desk to focus, let me tell you... you are NOT alone!

Has your dog every tooted and then started barking and looking around for where the noise came from?? Yeah, if you have it is real funny to watch!!:D So, why do they do these crazy things?

If their barking at a sudden noise it is usually a sign that the dog thinks that there is danger coming and it wants you to go and check it out. If you yell at them for doing this it's not ever going to get better. In fact, it will just get worse. Why will it get worse? Because from the dogs point of view you are saying "I don't care just be quiet!". That is probably what you are thinking in your head too; am I right? Do you just want them to be quiet? Instead of telling them to be quiet approach the situation the way a pack leader would; put your hands on you hips look out the window and walk outside. When you come back make sure that you look like you aren't scared. When you walk in go back to what you were doing the second before. Act like nothing happen. This will make your dog think the same thing. It will get them to think that there is nothing to worry about. Don't pet the dog to comfort it. This will tell the dog that they get attention from barking which is SO wrong. 




There are usually about five different things that cause a dog to bark. Being bored, lonely, spoiled, confused, or fearful. For the different meanings there are different pitches. 


Low pitched barks or growls indicates threats and aggression. It's like they are saying "stay away from me or else!".

Why do dogs bark low when they are saying get away? This might be because big and strong things make low sounds. Of course a dog can't change his size by barking lower or higher in pitch. But they can appear larger if they aren't seen right? So, why the barks sound more threatening. Check out these videos and I think you'll get the idea. It is how we personally react to the noises, we can see the dog but our mind creates the size of the dog when we hear them:

High pitch sounds mean the opposite. They are asking for you to come closer and give them attention. Also, they are saying that it is safe to come near them. If you want to make another animal stay away from you, or to stay out of your territory, the dogs use a lower pitch, like a growl, it's like saying that you are larger and more dangerous so stay back. Or you could use a high pitched whimper to suggest that you are small, so they can safely come to you.

They might also be trying to tell you that they are lonely and that they want and need more attention. I've noticed with my dog Marty he whines high pitched and looks up at the ceiling when he needs to go to the bathroom or if he is hungry and really needs something to eat. So yes, they are try to communicate with you. They are trying to tell you the things that they need. 


Try to pay attention to what they do in the house. Or get you neighbor to keep an eye on your dog to see and know their behavior when you are gone. If they bark when ever they see someone and it's a high pitched bark, then they are most likely trying to tell someone that they want and need attention. 


Thanks everyone and good luck. Feel free to ask me questions about your dogs behavior and I will try to help you figure out what they need. 

Coco 

Here is my drawing of a dog: