Trouble with Panda

Panda and Tiny

Rats are very sensitive creatures and they share very strong bonds with their cage mates, as well as us humans. Only a few days after Tiny’s death we realised Panda was struggling. Rather like Tiny, Panda’s energy levels and appetite started to drop off, however Panda had more of a sadness about him, rather than the tiredness we felt from Tiny. The main difference we saw between Tiny’s illness and Panda’s behaviour is that Panda wanted to be alone. If his brother, Polar, tried to cuddle up to him, Panda would immediately get up and shuffle off. He was also behaving funny with us, rejecting our attention and being very grumpy.

Happy Panda with his brother, Polar

It became obvious very quickly that he wasn’t eating, mainly as he wouldn’t take any treats from us, so we got him straight on some baby food. Unlike Tiny, whose appetite decreased over time, Polar was just not interested, he would turn away no matter what we offered him. Having just said goodbye to our sweet guy Tiny, we were not going to loose Panda. After a lot of persuading and offering him baby food on our finger tips, Panda slowly started to eat. Once we had got a bit of food into him, his appetite soon returned. After a few days of baby food, Panda started taking other treats, and then began helping himself to rat food. His mood also began to lift and he wanted to come out and play and be with his brother Polar again.

We are so relieved to have our cuddly boy Panda back to his old self again.