My Lovely Rats

Shy-Shy was still sneezing last night when he had play-time. I rang the vets’ surgery and the vet has prescribed more Baytril for him alone. One good thing has come out of this - feeding the rats medicine in some food on a spoon has definitely made them tamer. They will seek me out now when they come out of the cage. Shy-Shy and Rocky will eat from the spoon on my hand or lap, and last night Stripe climbed inside my glasses and stood on them! Pip is still a bit reticent though.

Stripe demonstrating that young rats sleep a lot!

Baytril is the most commonly used drug for mycoplasma infections, and I have read that it can be used as a long term treatment with few if any ill-effects. It’s not advisable for pregnant or lactating ratty mums, or young rat kittens.

Today my rats have been mostly eating chopped up sprouts and scrambled egg.

Tags: Baby Rats, Health by admin
No Comments »

My poor boyfriend is definitely allergic to the rats! He’s having horrendous early morning asthma attacks. I’m cleaning the rats’ cage out about every 4 days now, to keep allergen build up to a minimum, and changing their toilet litter every day. Apparently the main cause of allergic reaction to rats is their wee! Proteins from the rats’ wee are released into the air, which can drift all over your home and remain on furnishings for years!. If you clean it up before the (stinky) ammonia smell settles in, then you can minimise the allergen content. We keep the ‘rat-room’ door shut at all times, and luckily it’s got a laminate floor, so I can easily mop up any ratty pee. Even so, it’s impossible to keep all the allergen particles out of the rest of the house, so we have decided to buy a big shed for the rats. They’re turning out to be very expensive pets! Another cause for allergic reaction to small animals is their dander (flakes of skin under the fur), so I’d advise anyone with this type of allergy to get a pet lizard instead!

Today my rats have been mostly eating toasted bagel pieces with butter!

Tags: Rat Allergy by admin
No Comments »

Oh dear! The rats are on a water strike. They haven’t drank any of their water since yesterday morning! They obviously object to the taste of Baytril in their beverage. I have had to call the vet and was advised to give the medicine (a different dose) to Shy-Shy straight into his mouth with a syringe. Easier said than done! In the end I opted for adding his dose to a little soft food. I used yoghurt and the little sweety licked it right off the spoon for me. It was easy and painless.

Shy-Shy eating his egg custard with medicine hidden inside.

Today my rats have been mostly eating yoghurt and banana slices.

Tags: Baby Rats, Health by admin
No Comments »

I was quite surprised at how relaxed my four boys were going to the vets. I carried them in a plastic tank with plenty of bedding to hide in. Most of the time they were clamouring to have a sniff at the inside of the car, the big world outside and even the vet’s waiting room. The vet thought that they were all in very good condition, but due to Shy-Shy’s sneezing she prescribed some Baytril (an antibiotic) as a precautionary measure to mix with their water.

Shy-Shy showing his fine white belly markings

Today my rats have been mostly eating cooked green beans and sunflower seeds.

Tags: Baby Rats, Health by admin
No Comments »

Over the last few days I have noticed Shy-Shy sneezing quite often. This can be an early symptom of Mycoplasma pulmonis infection - a nasty bacterial infection which, in the later stages can cause scarring of the rat’s lungs and chronic breathing difficulties. Nearly all pet rats carry the bacteria, but not all develop symptoms. The condition can be brought on by stress (such as moving to a new home), other infections, low immune system or poor living conditions. Some rats just seem to develop it whatever you do. Just to be on the safe side I made an appointment for all four rats to see the Vet, for a general check up.

Early Symptoms ( of Upper Respiratory Disease)

Sneezing

Snuffling

Porphyrin staining around eyes and nose (rust coloured mucous, looks like blood-staining)

Head tilt (sign of inner ear infection)

Rolling/falling over to the side (inner ear infection)

Later Stages (of Lower Respiratory Disease)

Rattling noisy breathing

Gasping/laboured breathing

Coughing

Chattering

Poor coat condition

Weight loss/loss of appetite

Hunched posture

Tags: Health by admin
1 Comment »

The rats are 8 weeks old today, and this week has turned up a few surprises. The ongoing taming of the rats is going better than I had expected. When I walk into the room Stripe and Rocky eagerly race to the bars of their cage to sniff me out! Shy-Shy follows shortly afterwards and Pip is usually a little reticent, and hangs back until the rest have calmed down. Pip is a lazy sausage though, he likes nothing better than to snooze in his tube.

Pip flat out again!

I am continuing the regular handling regime, only I have cut it down to 15 minutes per rat, and have started to let my daughters hold their individual rats in a “rat slipper” or fleece hat, so the rats have a little security and don’t feel too exposed. This is a brilliant way to handle them, because they don’t tend to struggle away and often become so relaxed that they fall asleep. When I pick any of the boys up now they actually stay still and relax into my hand which I think is a real breakthrough! Rocky and Shy-Shy have discovered there are interesting things outside of their cage, and will run along my arm to get to the exit! Stripe and Pip are still not sure, so another thing which I have started, when it’s fairly quiet and the rats are active, is to lure them out of their cage with food! This is a great technique to use to gain ratties’ trust which many rat-carers recommend. I attached a blanket from the cage door to my lap and gradually coaxed Rocky out onto the blanket with yoghurt on a spoon. I made sure he sniffed my hand first to let him know it was me bringing the goods! Next Shy-Shy had a go, and I had an idea to put my hand palm down just in front of the spoon, so he had to walk onto me to get to the yoghurt. He wasn’t sure at first, but once he had done it, he kept coming back for more! Stripe was holding on to my hand with his little paws to get more comfortable, while he licked all the yoghurt off the spoon! Pip tried a little but I could only coax him to the spoon, not onto my hand. Then quite unexpectedly, Rocky jumped up from the floor onto my lap, and sat there eating the yoghurt, nonchalantly!

I have read that another method to socialise shy rats is to put their cage onto your bed and lie there till they come out and explore you!

Yesterday I tried the boys with freshly cooked sweetcorn while they were in a box on the floor and they were crawling on my hand again to get to the food (all except Pip). After the corn was gone I was a bit nervous that they would try nibbling me, but they just sniffed me and were very relaxed when picked them up for a short while before returning them to their cage.

I have a terrible dilemma! This week we also found out that my partner is allergic to the rats! We obviously don’t want to take the ratties back, so we are looking at other options: Possibly an insulated rat shed, strict cleansing regime and/or an allergy filter system…

Today my rats have been mostly eating fresh carrot and broken up Bonios.

Tags: Baby Rats, Handling and Taming by admin
No Comments »

After four days of intensive “enforced socialisation” handling of my rats (that’s 20 minutes each times four!) they are slowly beginning to trust me and will sit my palm for a few moments and sniff my nose. It’s been difficult finding 80 minutes in the day, since I’m a mum of three girls, and work part-time too! The only buck who seems to be reluctant to accept me is Shy-Shy who insists on finding a corner of my clothes to shoot out of and scarper off onto the floor! For the other three rats it seems to be working, and my daughters get to play gently with them in a big box on the floor, (but they are not supposed to pick them up yet - although my three year old has different ideas!).

Sleepy Pip

It was clean-out day today. Rat’s cages should be cleaned out thoroughly once a week, and new litter/bedding put in. I do a “spot check” every day to remove any of the previous day’s fresh food that might have spoilt (mould is harmful to rats), and a quick swap of very soiled bits of litter with a new portion. When I did the whole cage I put the young ratties in their “travel tank” (a plastic tank with air holes and a lid), they just snoozed away as it was the morning and rats are nocturnal which means they are more lively during the evening and night. It took me a couple of hours to clean out, but my three year old daughter was “helping” so it probably took longer than normal. I have a Furplast Furet Extra Large cage which is really huge and brilliant for lots of rats (it will house up to six bucks comfortably). On the whole it’s a great cage, the rats love the space, but it’s difficult to get to them, so I have to coax them all to the bottom of the cage, and lift the whole top off. This wouldn’t be a problem with tamer rats, as they would probably just come out by themselves. Hopefully ours will be doing that in the next few weeks.

Today my rats have been mostly eating fresh garlic and herb pasta parcels with (cooked) sweetcorn (maize).

Tags: Baby Rats, Handling and Taming by admin
No Comments »