Two rescue rats have joined our family

Toffee, Pickle & Tomato

Our little rattie, Toffee, was horribly lonely after loosing his brother Caramel and recent friend Minty, so when we found out our local RSPCA had two older boys looking for a home we decided to go and meet them.

Fatty and Skinny, as they were originally called, were adorable, friendly guys and it was love at first sight. They were obviously mild mannered, a perfect match for Toffee, and they even looked like him! There was no going back once we’d met the guys, so we came home with two new additions to our family. Well, it was actually three, check out Petal’s page to read her story.

Because Toffee has been very lonely and unhappy on his own, to the point where his health was suffering, we decided not to keep the new rats in quarantine and introduced them to Toffee straight away. While this is not something we would normally recommend, we had been very concerned about Toffee. He had stopped washing himself and wasn’t interested in much, other than sleeping and eating, so we felt it was worth the risk of introducing everyone.

Once we had managed to wake Toffee up, we put him together with Pickle and Tomato. At first he was just grumpy at having his sleep interrupted, but once he realised he had two new brothers he got a little over enthusiastic. Poor Pickle and Tomato wanted a few minutes to get their bearings, but Toffee just wanted to groom them. Tomato is extremely overweight and he wasn’t able to escape Toffee’s attentions, so within minutes of being introduced Tomato was being thoroughly groomed by Toffee. It wasn’t too much longer before Toffee got his hands on Pickle too.

Pickle & Toffee

Within the first minutes of introduction it was clear we were going to have no problems with the three boys living together, and within an hour they were all cuddled up fast asleep.

Pickle & Tomato

The three boys get on so well together, and look just like each other, you would never guess they weren’t brothers, though they all have very different personalities. Toffee is our original cuddly boy, is still our number one and his welfare and happiness takes priority over everything, not that we have anything to worry about as he obviously loves his two new brothers to bits. Something’s never change and Toffee still loves his treats, but now he is no longer on his own we are not spoiling him as much. He is also enjoying having two energetic brothers who have really changed Toffee for the better. We have seen a real improvement in the amount of time Toffee likes to spend out of his home, and we have even caught him running around and playing with his brothers.

Pickle is the smallest, in weight, of the three boys and he is full of bounce. Pickle loves nothing more than bouncing around on the floor and being ‘chucked’ around. This involves picking him up, when he runs to us, and pretending we are going to throw him, but really we just pop him on the floor as far away from us as we can reach and then watch him bounce until he comes back and then we do it all over again.

Last, but not least, is our chubby guy Tomato, while he loves to play and bounce like his brother, Pickle, because of his size he gets tired very easily and when he’s tired he turns into a big old cuddly boy. When he has run out of energy he likes to be held and fussed, while Toffee and Pickle burn up their energy. Not that we mind, Tomato is easiest to handle when he is pooped and happy to sit still.

As mentioned before Tomato is extremely overweight, which is something we will have to work very hard on. Luckily Tomato is very friendly and inquisitive, so we are hoping that lots of handling and exercise will help shed some of his excess ounces!