|
|
We decided there was room in our home for some more little ratties.
Instead of going down the pet shop we wanted to rehome some rats. Derek
telephoned our local Wood Green Animal Shelter, they had twelve rats looking for
a home, so off we went. Derek was hoping for some
little girls, but Lindsay didn't care. The twelve rats were all in
an enormous cage together, the boys were all neutered so everyone could live happily together.
Before we could choose our rats we had to prove we had a nice big cage for
everyone to live in, as our cage is to big to fit in our car we used the
pictures on this web site to show how much we love and spoil little rats.
After seeing our web page the animal shelter assistant obviously knew we
Naming the rats has been fun, at the homing centre the girls were called Rachel
and Rosie and the boys Carl and Hammer. As each pair of rats looks pretty
much the same we had no idea which was which. So we decided to rename them to make
them part of the family. As Lindsay wanted the boys it was up to her to
name them, so they are now called Cookie
and Bourbon. Derek took a little longer to think of his names, with the
help of Fancy Rats website he came up with Coral and Clover. Unfortunately the new little ratties have found the whole experience very stressful. We are being very gentle with them, not taking them away from their cage and of course giving them yoghurt drops. It must be a shock to have come from the homing centre sharing with twelve rats, but we hope given time they will adapt and enjoy their new home and all the attention we have to offer.
It has been just over two months since we adopted this bunch and they have
settled into our family really well. They took awhile to adjust to their
new surroundings and family and the two girls nipped our fingers a few times.
The
As you can see we now have four photo galleries full of pictures of them out and about in our home. All is not perfect though our new bunch are terrible gnawers and will chomp through anything we put in their home. Lindsay spent a long time making them hammocks and other cosy places to sleep, but this silly little bunch like to lie in them chomping their way through until it collapses, dropping them and whoever is napping in there with them onto the floor, what a silly bunch. Lindsay has made them lots more things to sleep in/chew up out of any old fabric she can find as long as long no one gets hurt we don't mind.
Cookie, Coral & Clover are all doing ok. They love being picked out of their cage and handled, especially if there is a treat in it for them. They are all even getting used to the cats and don't mind when Custard gets too curious and puts his nose up to the cage, I do warn him though one day he will get it bitten. Things won't be the same without Bourbon, he had a very special way of making sure he was everyone's favourite rat.
May 2006, it's been a difficult new year for our little ratties. Firstly we had our
little Clover put to sleep in March, she
August 2006, More sad news for our little family. We had our naughty
little Coral put to sleep in July. We all miss her, but no one more than Cookie. He took the loss of his sister very hard and at first didn't come out of his cage. If anyone tried to pick him up he would wiggle and squeak, he was not a happy boy. Fortunately he has settled down again now, though he still doesn't like being picked out of his cage, we have to wait for him to come out of his own accord. He is still a wobbly old boy, though he doesn't let it stop him getting about, he just takes more time in doing it. We have lowered all his beds and hammocks to make it easier for him to get to them and if he should have a fall, he is near the ground. Apart from being on his own, he seems happy and we are certainly giving him lots of attention and treats.
Bourbon, Cookie, Coral and Clover were our first experience of adopting ratties from a homing centre and while at times they were hard work, we really do miss them very much. For more information about rat care visit:
|
were
push overs and pulled out two large brown boys, who had
been with the shelter for awhile and needed a home. Lindsay took the boys
and fell in love, they were so friendly and gentle. Derek still wanted
some girls and already had his eye on a baby cinnamon hooded rat who had gently
placed his finger in her mouth to see what he tasted like. While the
assistant was looking for her sister the cheeky little rat disappeared up
Derek's sleeve. So that was our four.
biggest change we noticed was in the state of their fur. As the rats
had just been treated for lice their fur was not in the best of conditions when
we collected them.
Bourbon in particular looked the worst out of the bunch, his fur was fairly thin
in places. It only took a few weeks for Bourbon's fur to return to it's
shiny healthy condition and he certainly is a very handsome rat.
30th March 2005, our happy Bourbon died. For almost 2 weeks he had been
having intermittent problems with his breathing. He would get in a
terrible panic and not be able to get his breath, it was very horrible to see
him so upset and distressed. He began to loose some weight and condition
and became very depressed. We took him to our vet who gave him a very
thorough check over. He was not suffering from a respiratory infection,
but she thought it could be a problem similar to asthma. He was given an
injection of steroids. We were warned that it may not help, but if it was going
to Bourbon would be feeling better 24 - 48 hours later. The next morning
we got up hoping for the best and sure enough Bourbon was feeling much better.
After seeing him feeling low, it was nice to see him enjoying himself again
bouncing around and getting into mischief. Our vet advised us to bring
Bourbon back again after four days for some more medicine, a slow release
steroid that would last him four weeks and help him build his strength up.
The first treatment was already showing signs of wearing off, so we took Bourbon
for his treatment on the 26th March. unfortunately his condition continued
to deteriorate and he died peacefully in Lindsay's hands on the Wednesday
morning.
had an inoperable tumour that had begun to
interfere with her quality of life. Coral took the loss of her sister very
hard. Loosing her appetite and being very naughty were just some of the ways she
showed us her unhappiness. Worryingly during this time Coral lost quite a bit of
weight and developed a respiratory infection, while her eating has returned
to normal she is still on a course of baytril and we are hoping that we can get
her back to full health.
Cookie has also been giving us cause for concern, by being a very naughty little
boy. He always had a bad habit of nipping his sisters behind their ears
and since Clover has gone he only has Coral to harass. As a result poor
Coral has ended up with a bald head and she does look a little odd.
There is nothing malicious in the way Cookie is towards his sister, she doesn't
squeak or even try to get away from him. If anything Coral is more than
capable of beating Cookie up, even with her breathing problems. All we
have been able to do is tell Cookie off whenever we catch him nipping his
sister, but of course he never listens to us. He is a wobbly old boy now,
we're not sure exactly how old his is, but given what we 
She had seemed to bounce back from the
loss of her sister Clover, which she had taken quite badly. But she
never managed to put back the weight she had lost. That coupled with her
breathing problems started to get her down, she also had started to form quite a few tumours.
Our vet was concerned that one of these was actually responsible for her
breathing problems.
Sadly
at the end of August 2006 we had to say goodbye to our gentle little Cookie.
He had lost some use of his back feet, although he didn't let it get him down or
stop him getting around his cage. Unfortunately old age caught up with him
and in the space of twenty-four hours his condition deteriorated drastically, he
became very confused and his breathing very laboured. We made the very sad
and difficult decision to take our little Cookie to the vet and have him put to
sleep before he really began to suffer.