We were planning not to add any more rats to our little family, but as usual things didn’t go according to plan. It all started with our sweet guy Pippin, who was struggling on his own after the loss of his brother Pepper. Pippin had gotten very down and wouldn’t eat or drink and his health had deteriorated rapidly. No matter what we did for him, we could not make up for the loss of his brother. It was obvious the only thing left to do was get him a new companion, so we headed to the RSPCA…
Rescue Rats:
The RSPCA called us last week to see if we had room for a female rat that had been brought in who needed an experienced home. She was a little bit nervy, with a tenancy to nip and seeing as we had adopted a problem rat from them before, they thought they’d give us a try.
We thought long and hard about it and decided that because she was alone we could squeeze in another girl and so we went to meet her. She was called Venus and when we saw here we were happily surprised to see she looked very much like our sweet girl Petal. Venus had been brought in by an RSPCA inspector. Her previous owner had been keeping her in a hamster cage and judging by her timid nature she hasn’t been played with very much at all.
Kiwi, Sugar, Pearl & Smudge
We had said we weren’t going to take anymore rats in, and when the RSPCA phoned us about five girls who were looking for a home we initially said no. We stuck to our resolve for a few weeks, but couldn’t stop thinking about the rats. The RSPCA have a hard enough time rehoming rats as it is, never mind five. Then there is the age of the girls. It has been our experience that whatever age the people giving the rats up tell the RSPCA is usually wrong. Sadly this turned out to be the case with these girls. We went along expecting three rats who were one year old and two dumbo rats who were six months. While the dumbos are still young the other three are definitely not the same age. I believe that possibly one of the rats, Pearl is around one, but the other two, Kiwi & Sugar are nearer two years of age, if not over. One thing is for sure they are not young rats.
We knew Twix was going to be a challenge when we took him on, and we are prepared to care for him for as long as he needs no matter what happens. Even so nothing could have prepared us for what a character he is.
Twix obviously had a difficult life before he joined us and, sadly, that shows in the way he acts. The most noticeable thing is his walk he hobbles like a little old rat. His back end appears very stiff when he walks and he can’t run very well. The condition of his fur has improved since we’ve had him, but he struggles to twist round to wash his sides, usually he rolls over when he tries to do this. We are keeping him in a low cage to stop him from trying to climb, when he does climb up the outside of his cage he struggles to get down and usually falls. So we feel a low cage will keep him safe.
The RSPCA called us just over a week ago about a “problem rat” they had who needed an experienced owner – we had to go and meet him. We have adopted rats from them before and they explained they wanted some advice from an experienced rat owner.
Twix had been found abandoned, back in August, in a small hamster cage that hadn’t been cleaned out for a very long time. By the time the RSPCA called us Twix was looking a lot cleaner and happier, but he had bitten one of the RSPCA staff quite badly and they were concerned if he was suitable for rehoming.
Apple, Bramble & Lime
A couple of weeks ago we adopted a young mum rat, Daisy, and her two daughters form the RSPCA. There were also three boy rats waiting to be rehomed, who were from Daisy’s litter. We didn’t really have room for them at the time we adopted the girls, but with our old rat Pickle moving out of his big cage and into what we call his retirement home, we had a spare cage. It had been our hope that someone else would come along and give the boys a new home, but that hadn’t happened and we couldn’t resist.
Some very happy news!
Daisy
We have been on the look out for a friend for Petal since we got her. It didn’t seem right to get some babies from the pet shop. For one Petal’s a little on the older side and might not appreciate some squirmy babies. If they didn’t get on that would be another cage we’d need to buy. So, we called the RSPCA to see if they had any possible friends for Petal and they told us about a young mum and her two babies who had just come in.
On a recent trip to the RSPCA to pick up two very cuddly boys, Pickle and Tomato, we came across another little rattie looking for a home and couldn’t resist. At the time we were told that Rodney was a young male rat, this being the RSPCA we didn’t think twice about what we’d been told. And because we had two young friendly boys at home, we thought the little guy would fit in well. Once we got home, however, we realised that Rodney was in fact a girl and that she probably wasn’t that young. On top of that, we also found she had two lumps. One was under her right arm and the other at the down at the bottom of her tummy.
Toffee, Tomato & Pickle
Our little rattie, Toffee, was horribly lonely after loosing his brother Caramel and recent friend Minty, so when we found out our local RSPCA had two older boys looking for a home we decided to go and meet them.
Fatty and Skinny, as they were originally called, were adorable, friendly guys and it was love at first sight. They were obviously mild mannered, a perfect match for Toffee, and they even looked like him! There was no going back once we’d met the guys, so we came home with two new additions to our family. Well, it was actually three, check out Petal’s page to read her story.
I had been struggling with GMR (get more rats) for a while. While I love Toffee & Caramel dearly, they have grown into big old hermits. They get all the attention they need, but it’s not enough for me and I felt she had plenty of room in my heart for more rats, and I managed to convince Derek it was a good idea.
Rather than go to the pet shop and get some more little babies, that could end up detracting too much time from their other ratties, I thought it would be a good idea to offer a home to some rats from our local RSPCA. The RSPCA web site had details of a boy rat called Roland, who had been brought in as a stray, so Derek phoned up to enquire about him. Roland had already been lucky enough to find a home, but the lady he spoke to was very excited to hear from him, as they had a very difficult time finding homes for rats.