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We popped to the garden centre to top up on supplies for the other three rats and saw a trio of rats. Lindsay fell in love with Mole, who was lying on his back with his head propped against a wooden log and his bottom pressed against the glass of the cage. Mouse was stretched out over the top of the log and Ferret was hidden away inside. Though Derek wasn't to sure at first he eventually gave in and said Lindsay could get just Mole. Lindsay was planning to follow orders when the assistant at the garden centre offered the two remaining rats for free! Well how could Lindsay refuse? The poor little chaps had been in the pet section for several months and were almost fully grown. Derek wasn't very impressed with the number of new comers but how could he turn them away?
We both agreed no more rats. On the 8th July two weeks after Mole and his
brothers joined our family Lindsay went to the garden centre for some more rat supplies,
the assistant there told her about a little rat who had been returned to the store for
being vicious. The assistant offered the rat to Lindsay for free.
After a quick phone call to Derek we agreed that we would take the little rat
home and see how he got on. We named the new rat Otter and put him in a
cage by himself, Lindsay was a little wary of handling the rat, he had after all
been returned to the pet store for fighting with his brothers and biting people.
The next day Otter still hadn't bitten anyone so Lindsay decided to introduce
him to Mole, Mouse and Ferret. Armed with a pai Otter is a lovely little rat, we don't why his previous family thought he was vicious. There has never been any fighting between the four rats and the only biting is when Mole nips a human hand before checking to see if there is any food in it first! Our four new rats have settled in so well that we treated them to a nice big new cage, they were all a little overwhelmed at first, none of them have had the best start in life. But as their confidence grows they are making use of all the new places to climb and sleep.
With Christmas fast approaching we thought an update on how our three boys are
doing would be fun. It was a shock to
April 2005: We uprooted our little family and moved from Cambridge to Ipswich.
The three boys coped We know that a lot of people choose to have their rats operated on at the first sign of a tumour, but we have given this subject a lot of thought and spoken at length to several vets about it. Having an operation for any little animal is a very traumatic experience and in many cases the tumours will return. Taking into account the age of our boys, we decided that surgery would have been cruel and pointless.
Mole and his brothers were a very special bunch of rats especially because we never planned to get them. With the difficult start in life they all had it took time for us all to get to know each other properly. They were a very big part of our family and like all the ratties that have gone before them will be irreplaceable.
For more information about rat care visit:
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As Mole and his brothers hadn't been handled very much they were very nervous
of us at first and unsure what to do when they were actually out of the cage.
The glass cage in the garden centre had no where for them to climb so they had
spent their days stretched out on the floor. It took them a few days to
master the art of climbing up the back of the sofa, but once up there they
couldn't get down without a little help. It took a lot of patience but
Mole, Mouse and Ferret settled in nicely.
r of gardening gloves (in
case it turned nasty) she put both cages next to each other and took the lids
off. Mole went straight for Otter's food bowl and started eating, typical
Mole. Mouse and Ferret explored Otter's cage and Otter explored Mole, Mouse
and Ferret's cage. Lindsay sat patiently and let them get on with it, but
when Mouse and Ferret started to curl up for a nap in Otter's cage she decided
to intervene. Putting on her gardening gloves she scooped all the ratties
up and put them in one cage together. After a few hours of initial
excitement, nothing major happened just climbing the bars and some bottom sniffing.
All four
rats went to sleep in different parts of the cage.
July 2004:
Shockingly our gentle giant Mouse has passed away. It was a
terrible shock for us, Lindsay came home from work one lunch time and found him
on the floor of the cage. It was a terrible day for our family, we had no
real warnings that anything was wrong. Looking back he had stopped
climbing as much, choosing to sleep on the floor of the cage rather than up in his
hammock. But all the rats had got to that age were they were a little less
active, so Mouse's behaviour did not seem odd. We miss him very much, he
was the most affectionate out of the four boys and 
all of us when Mouse died so
suddenly and his sweet ways are still missed by us all. We are pleased to
say that Mole, Ferret and Otter are all doing really well. Unfortunately a couple of months ago Otter
developed bumblefoot on his right foot. We keep it clean with TCP and have
and emergency supply of Baytril in the cupboard for if it flares up to badly.
So far we have not been able to clear up the infection completely, so at the
moment it it a case of managing the wound. Otter seems to be ok coping
with his foot and does not show any signs of it causing him pain, he still gets
into trouble climbing places he shouldn't be. We have had to stop Otter
running around on the carpet and now he and his brothers play on our bed.
As they are getting quite old now they don't seem to mind the limited
very well with the disruption of the move,
as their
cage is so big they could not travel in it, they had to spend the day in a small
cat carrier. All three boys already had tumours of varying sizes before we moved.
Ferret's was the most advanced and we knew we would soon have to make the
difficult decision to put him to sleep. All that we wanted for him was to
see our new home with his brothers, a bit soppy we know but there you go.
Otter was also having a problem with his tumour, he was scratching at it and
making it sore and bleed. We are very lucky that there is a really good
vet very close to where we have moved, so we booked our sweet little
boys in and had them put to sleep. Initially Mole was lost without his
brothers, but at least he had their company for the trauma of the move. We have
been spoiling the little chap rotten, giving him many bits of human food. He
has never been a big fan of our attention, but he loves our food.
Sadly on 10th August 2005 we made the difficult decision to have our chubby
little Mole put to sleep. Just like his two brothers, Ferret and Otter, he
had a tumour which was getting quite large in size. It was a very
difficult day for us, saying goodbye to him was like saying goodbye to all of
his brothers as well.