Little Kiki next to her larger sister, Maple

Kiki is adorable in every way, she’s fun and bouncy, has a beautiful affectionate temperament, and is very healthy – she just forgot to grow!

When we got Maple and Kiki, they were both super cute little babies and exactly the same size.  Maple had her breathing problems when we first got her, but after a week of Baytril she was fine, and despite her poorliness grew as normal, Kiki on the other hand did not.

I know it didn’t, but it all seemed to happen overnight.  Maple and Kiki moved in with the Twiglets and the next thing I knew Maple was this stocky healthy rat and the biggest out of the five girls and Kiki hadn’t changed.  Obviously she lost that baby rat shape and now looks like a proper rat, but compared to the other girls she is tiny.  Not that we mind what size she is, as long as all the girls are all happy, healthy and bouncy we’re not worried, but it is funny to see her next to Maple.  It’s hard to believe they were ever the same size!

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Our handsome boy, Polar

I am very, very sad to say that our silly boy Polar has passed away yesterday.  After Tiny’s death and Panda being so upset, we had been spoiling the boys with a lot of extra treats, nothing naughty mind; bran flakes, a bit of our dinner and some fresh bread.  They had been loving it, but about a week ago I noticed Polar’s eating was slowing down.  His appetite was still the same, but he was taking longer to get through his food, and his fur was starting to look a little scruffy, in every other way he was fine. The boys are getting on a bit, and they were never big fans of running around at the best of times so his activity level didn’t noticably change.  Even so, we knew our little guy wasn’t okay.

All we could do was keep on spoiling them and keep an eye out for any problems.  Then yesterday at tea time I was in the kitchen, Derek and I had just given the boys some bread, which they had both taken happily, I heard a slight rustle of paper.  I went in to check on the boys, and Polar had passed away.  Although we weren’t with Polar, we can take comfort in the fact that we had just been with him, and that he’d been enjoying one of his favourite treats, yummy freshly baked bread.

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I’m sure anyone who has rats knows what a Sputnik is.  They are fantastic plastic beds, by Savic, and have been hugely popular with many of my rats.  I got my first one when I bought a Savic ‘Freddy’ cage, it came with the cage, and I recently bought a second one when I got the Furet XL.  These simple little beds have proved so popular with my girls I’ve had to confiscate them – twice.

When I first got the agouti girls – now lovingly known as the Twiglets – they had a sputnik and they never left it.  They were quite a shy bunch anyway, and combined with a bed they wouldn’t leave I wasn’t getting to see much of them.  The bed was also getting very smelly, with shed fur, food crumbs and goodness knows what else not making for a healthy sleeping environment.  Seeing as they had lots of other beds and tunnells to sleep in I took the Sputnik away from them.  This had a positive effect on the girls, I got to see more of them and they made better use of their other beds, which was more hygienic for them.

While in their quarantine cage, Maple and Kiki also had a Sputnik. Though they weren’t permanently stuck in theirs, they liked to sleep in other beds and readily came out to play.  When Maple and Kiki decided to move in with the Twiglets, I let them take their Sputnik with them, so they would have something familiar.

'You don't all fit in there!' Rattie heads and feet hanging out of the 'Sputnik'

BIG MISTAKE!

The instant result was all five rats piling in that little plastic bed.  I don’t know how they managed to breath squished in like that.  The Sputnik soon got stinky and messy leaving me with no choice but to take it off them, again.  I did replace it with an extra bed – not that they need anymore – which was simply an old jeans leg.

No one really seems to miss the Sputnik and all the girls tend to sleep a bit more split up, which is no bad thing.  Sometimes I still find them all piled into one bed together, but mostly they are in two groups in different beds.  It’s nice to see them making better use of their home, and I’m sure it will be healthier for them in the long term.

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My five new girls are all happily living in their princess palace together.  As soon as we felt Maple was well enough we moved her and Kiki in with Dora, Tangy and Mitzi and once all the intial excitement was over watched them all settle down happily together.

It was a nice and simple introduction.  We were cleaning the big cage out, and Maple and Kiki really wanted to come out and play, so we let them.  Of course once out they made a bee line for the big cage which was down on the floor!  They played happily in the wire top while I changed the hammocks, and tried to wipe the shelves, with them trying to help and pinch the cloth all the time.  By the time the cage was clean and put back together, all the girls were pooped and we just left them all together to sleep.

Derek and I kept a close eye on the girls just incase they woke up and realised what had happened, but I’m pleased to say there was no trouble at all.  The girls have been sharing the cage for a few days now and they all look very happy and content.

The girls asleep in their hammock

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I’m sorry to say that Maple’s sneezing had started to cause us concern, so we put her straight on a course of Baytril.  She was a very good girl and happily scoffed all her medicine, which we mixed in with baby food to make it more palatable for her.  As she is so tiny, Maple was only on a small dose of Baytril once-a-day, so to make sure she was eating properly we made sure to give her several extra helpings of baby food throughout the day, some of which Kiki also enjoyed.  Even when rats are fully grown they can lose weight and condition so easily, and we didn’t want anything to happen to Maple, or Kiki for that matter, so spoiling them seemed the best thing to do.

After a week, Maple’s condition had improved, and she was a lot brighter in herself.  Both she and Kiki are mischievous little critters, and they love running around and seeing what kind of trouble they can get into.  I am looking forward to putting them in with Dora, Tangy and Mitzi, not just because I’m sure they will love the big cage, but also the older girls are very quiet, and I hope that Maple and Kiki will help make them more adventurous.

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Maple

As is the way, I wasn’t planning to add anymore rats to our family, but after several trips to the pet shop… Well I’m sure you know how it goes :-)

We had honestly only popped in for supplies as I needed to get some bits and pieces for the girls new cage.  While on my hunt for what I needed I passed by where they keep their baby rats and saw some beautiful big husky rats.  I love husky rats, almost as much as I love agouti rats!  So I had a little peek in the tank at them, but I had promised Derek I wouldn’t get any more rats, so we left without them.

I did try to keep my promise about not getting anymore rats, but those husky rats were cute, and what better addition to my lovely agouti girls?  There was only one snag, Derek was convinced they were male rats, and I had to agree.  Though the tank they were in wasn’t labelled, they were rather large, and they had big wide heads – female rats tend to have narrower foreheads, not that you should sex a rat solely on it’s forehead.  Even though I would have loved some big, cuddly male rats, I didn’t want to add another cage to our household, so I decided to forget about them – except I couldn’t.

Kiki

After much deliberation, Derek agreed I could have some more female rats to live with the girls in their big, new cage.  As the husky rats I had seen were obviously male, and that pet shop was on the other side of town from us, we decided to pop into a more local store – only to find they didn’t have any rats at all!!  Again I tried to be strong, and put the thought of more rats our of my mind.  I love my trio of agouti girls and was enjoying getting to know them, but that cage was so BIG, it cried out for some more rats.

So, yesterday on my 40th birthday, I could bear it no more.  I got one of my rattie carriers ready and we headed off across town in the hope that we would find some female rats in the tank next to the gorgeous husky boys.  I’m pleased to say we were in luck.

Maple and Kiki out and about

Fortunately Derek and I could see the rats were probably female straight off, as the assistant who came to help us was convinced they were boys.  Once she had opened the tank, Derek reached in a picked them up to check, but we were right and the two little ratties were female and so, on my 40th birthday they joined our family.  How special is that?

As soon as we were out of the pet store, and safely in our car, I got the rats out of their cardboard pet boxes and put them straight in a pet carrier, with a nice soft towel to hide in.  I don’t always do this, but we had quite a thirty minute journey home, and it would have been too much for the girls, plus they had been put in separate boxes, which would have made their journey doubly stressful.

Following on from my trio of girls, I also picked names from the video game Animal Crossing, so our new arrivals are called Maple and Kiki.  The girls are in a separate cage at the moment, as this is always a sensible precaution, and I am a bit worried about Maple who is a bit sneezy.  Hopefully she will settle down once she has got over the stress of all the moving, but until then we will keep a close eye on her.

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Panda with his brother 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.

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 decrease 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 relived to have our cuddly boy Panda back to his old self again.

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A new palace for my princesses

Like many rat lovers, I’ve always loved the Ferplast range of ferret cages.  I bought a Furet Plus several years ago for my little girl, Petal, it has housed many rats since and I’m pleased to say that it is still going strong today.  I really wanted to treat my new trio of girls to a nice new shiny home, and what better cage for three gorgeous little girls, who I intend to spoil rotten than a Furet XL.

Derek wasn’t sure at first, mainly because we have two cats, and it’s important that we can keep our cages up off the floor, away from their reach.  Fortunately I tracked down a table that wasn’t too expensive, well not when you compared it to the price of the cage.  So once we’d got the table, I ordered the cage from Zooplus, who dispatched it really quickly and we took delivery of a huge box a few days later.

Putting the cage together, as it comes flat pack, was really simple, but goodness me, filling it with all the hammocks and toys I’d got for the girls was hard work.  We were quite tired by the end, but the girls were bouncing with energy and ready to check out their new home.  Although they’d only been with us a week, the girls took really well to the move and seem to be enjoying all the extra space.

I’m delighted with the cage, though I’m not so sure about all the work at cleaning out time, I can only hope it will get easier with more practice.  Seeing the girls climbing and playing about in the cage makes all the effort worth while.  It’s the biggest cage I’ve ever had, and I’m really looking forward to watching the girls grow up in it.

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Tiny helping clean his cage out

I am very sad to say that our sweet, shy boy Tiny has passed away.  We first noticed something was wrong about a week ago.  Derek and I had sat down to eat tea with the boys, Derek sits in an armchair, which the boys can easily climb onto if they want so see him, and I sit on the floor with them and feed them bits of bread. Panda and Polar came charging out as usual, but Tiny was a little reluctant.  He was always a bit of timid rat, but this was different.

After a bit of coaxing he did come to where his brothers were being fed, but instead of having some bread he lay flat out on the floor.  It was difficult to see him like that, but there was nothing we could do, and fortunately he didn’t appear to be in any distress, so we waited.  Eventually he got up, as if nothing had happened, and started scoffing bread just like his brothers.  We told ourselves it was just one of those things, but sadly the next morning it became apparent Tiny wasn’t well.

Tiny cuddled up with his two brothers

As he had no real symptoms, other than not being quite himself, we decided not to take him to the vets.  Tiny was well over two years old, and we felt the stress of taking Tiny to the vet would be detrimental to him.  So, we kept a very close eye on our sweet guy, and gradually over the week his energy levels and appetite decreased.  We started feeding Tiny baby food, but as the week progressed he got to the point where he would only lick baby food from our finger tips.  On his final day it became obvious he was slipping away.  He had been fine with his brothers in their cage, but he had become very still on that last day and his two brothers weren’t being very careful around him.  Rather than leave Tiny to get a bit trampled and shoved around by Polar and Panda, they didn’t understand that Tiny didn’t want to play or cuddle up to sleep, I kept him with me.  I wrapped him in a nice soft towel and he seemed very peaceful and I knew he was safe. It was mid-afternoon when he gently passed away.

While it is never easy to say goodbye to any little critter, Derek and I took comfort in knowing he slipped away peacefully, and we were able to be there and care for him right up until the end.

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Our little girls exploring their new home

My very first rat, Crunchie, was an Agouti rat – a natural brown rattie – and a little while ago I made a joke to Derek how I was going to have three agouti boys and call them Crunchie, Crunchie and Crunchie!  Well you know they say, be careful what you wish for…

I was wandering around the Internet one day – when I was supposed to be working – and happened upon a local breeders website that had some Agouti babies for sale.  Unable to resist I got in touch and found she was just down the road from me, and had exactly three little Agouti babies left – it was meant to be!

Our new arrivals are super cute little girls, not boys, and they are absolutely beautiful.  Obviously I have not named them all Crunchie either.  These little girls have been named after characters from one of my favourite Nintendo games, Animal Crossing.  In the game Dora is a cute little mouse and Tangy and Mitzi are funny cats and seeing as they have been some of my favourite villagers over the years I thought I would name my rats after them.

Time for a wash

The little ones are being a bit shy at the moment, so Derek and I are winning them over with some yummy treats.  We have some exciting things in store for our new little rats, including a fancy new cage.  They are in a Savic Freddy at the moment, and while it is a great cage, my girls deserve better and bigger!  More about that when they move into their new home.

For now we are letting the girls take their time and settle in, though I can’t wait to play with them and let them run riot in our home office.

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