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Goodness, we have gone and done it again, two little boy ratties to get into all
sorts of trouble while we're not paying attention. Toffee and Caramel came
from our local pet shop. We had been talking about getting some more rats
for a couple of weeks. It had all started when we were in the pet shop
getting some supplies, doesn't it always? Derek had gone off to look at
the baby bunnies, naughty Derek, and while over in the pets section Lindsay
spotted a very handsome little rattie climbing up the side of the cage watching
us. We managed to escape the pet shop without any additions to our family,
but Lindsay couldn't stop thinking about the cute rattie she had seen. The
following Saturday we were back at the pet shop, we're not very organised with
our pet supplies ;-), and Lindsay wanted to see if the rat was still there.
He wasn't, but there were some different rats in his place. As we had gone
to the pet shop on our bicycles there was no way we could take any rats home
with us, so again we left
As soon as Derek got home from work on Thursday night we jumped in our car and headed out. When we got to the pet shop there was a bundle of girl rats asleep in one cage and a bundle of boys asleep in the other. They were all Champaign coloured rats, either Berkshire (all one colour with a white tummy) or hooded. There was one little chap who was up and about, he was the only black hooded rat and for Lindsay it was love at first sight. Derek then chose a Champaign Berkshire rattie and we headed off home with our new family members.
Of course the first night we left the little ratties alone in their new cage to
settle in. The next day we
We hadn't had baby rats since Biscuit, Badger and Willow back in 2002. All our rats since then had come to us fully grown, so we had kind of forgotten what a handful the little things could be. Toffee and Caramel have certainly reminded us. Toffee is a crazy little chap and he has wasted no time in bonding with both of us. Caramel is a little bit more timid than his brother, but Toffee is a force of nature and even a shy rat like Caramel has been swept up in his enthusiasm.
At the moment the baby rats are living in a large hamster cage as they are both small enough to fit through the bars of their giant ratty cage. The little rats don't mind their temporary home, it is plenty high enough for them to practice their climbing and it's full of things to play in and explore. And of course we are spending lots of time with them, getting to know them and letting them explore their new home. One of Toffee and Carmel's favourite things is to play in their giant rattie home, even though they're not big enough to live in it, this doesn't stop them treating it like a giant activity centre. The little chaps also enjoy running around on our computer desks and playing with our computer wires, nothing has fallen victim to tiny rattie teeth yet, but there is plenty of time for chewing things they shouldn't.
There has not been very much to say about Toffee and Caramel over the past year.
They have both
We were very lucky that Toffee and Caramel are both extremely soft and good natured boys. This meant that we didn't have any of the fights that can sometimes happen when you try to introduce fully grown male rats to each other. In fact no real introductions were made we just put the guys on the floor together, then into a freshly cleaned out cage. With the exception of keeping a close eye on them for signs of stress or fighting, we left them to it. While this is definitely not recommended for all rats, we know Toffee and Caramel very well, and Minty was a obviously a very sweet boy. Even so we kept a very close eye on all the boys until we were sure they were going to be all right together.
Twenty four hours later and Caramel was actually sleeping cuddled up to Minty, which for us was a wonderful thing to see after all the sadness that we had gone through with Minty's brother Rummy.
January 2008 we had a very sad start to the year as our beautiful baby Carmel
had to be put to
February 2008 shortly after we said goodbye to Caramel, Minty's condition
started to deteriorate. Because Minty came from a homing centre we were
never sure of his exact age, but we always thought he was a very old chap.
He was also extremely thin when we got him and, not through lack of trying, he
never managed to gain much weight. We started to notice that he was
getting very unsteady on his feet and he seemed to be having difficulty eating
normal rat food. All ratties love baby food and Minty was no exception,
even in his weakened state he enjoyed being hand fed large amounts of baby food.
Unfortunately this was not enough to sustain him, as he had also stopped
drinking. It became obvious to us that Minty was getting very confused and
was not comfortable. So again we made the difficult decision to say
goodbye to one
Toffee has handled the loss of his two brothers very bravely and he is enjoying extra attention, and food, from us. He is such a cuddly little chap and while we know we can never make up for proper rattie companionship, we are certainly doing our best.
After a few months of being on his own, it became obvious Toffee wasn't happy. We found out about a couple of male rats at our local RSPCA and went along to meet them. Visit Toffee, Pickle & Tomato's page to meet them all.
For more information about rat care visit:
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empty handed. Later that afternoon after lots of
talking and convincing from Lindsay, we decided to go back to the pet shop and
get the rats we had seen, so we jumped in our car and popped round. By the
time we got there all the ratties had been sold and we had to leave empty handed
again. We had found out from a member of staff that they were expecting
some baby rats in on Thursday. This time we were not going to miss out!
opened up their cage, still expecting the baby
rats to be a bit shy, but Toffee came spilling out as if he'd known us all
along. Little Caramel took a bit more convincing, but he too spent some
time out of his new home.
grown into rather large happy boys, who like to do nothing!
After we adopted a pair of older ratties from the RSPCA,
sleep. He started out with symptoms that looked like a
respiratory infection and we got him some medicine from the vets. Sadly the
very next day he started bleeding from his nose, which was very distressing for
all of us. We rushed him straight back to the vets. Of course with
little animals there is very little they can do by way of examination, and
though our vet said there were some treatments they could try to help Caramel,
if it was something serious, like a tumour, then he would only deteriorate.
It was a very difficult decision for us, because Caramel was by no means old,
but he was feeling very poorly. We both found it very hard to say goodbye
to him, but in our hearts we knew it was the right thing to do. Caramel
was far too beautiful and precious to us to be made to suffer on the off chance
he might recover. It was a horrible shock to loose him so quickly, but we
will always love him as our big cuddly ginger boy.
of our little rattie friends, and took Minty to the vet to be put
to sleep.