My Lovely Rats

A little post all about the new boys.

Dublin the Bold

Here’s our lovely big buck Dublin. I think he’s going to be a big rat - but he’s not fully grown so it’s hard to tell. He’s more laid back than his brother Jinx, and more outgoing. After all the traumatizing introductions with the older bucks, he still keeps coming back for more and continues to try and makes friends with them. In contrast to Jinx, who squeaks loudly whenever Stripe or Rocky approach him! He’s people friendly too, and has formed a strong bond with myself especially. His favourite place at free range time is on my shoulders, where he will sit for ages grooming himself, and enjoying his great vantage point! The two rats have also been known to jealously fight for a place there, and I have often had to intervene! I don’t stop their play fights usually, but I intend to keep the back of my neck unscathed and unscratched!

Jittery Jinx

Jinx, or Jinxy as I affectionately call him is a sweet little hyper-active drama queen! He is a bit on the neurotic side and can appear quite nervous at times, but he is human-friendly, and can be easily coerced into an excitable frenzy, by tickling and play-fighting with him. He is sometimes a bit of a tearaway, and in a spritely mood has been seen intentionally irritating his brother or the older bucks, just for the hell of it - then he runs away squealing, feigning complete innocence! He hated being picked up at first - I had to resort to retrieving him from his cage via a bag - but after only a couple of weeks he would stay still in my hands just long enough to be placed on the floor. He just likes to be on the move and has a lot of energy.

Free Range Time

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating couscous

Tags: Behaviour // Add Comment »

It’s Day 27 of the rat introductions and lots of sniffing rat bottoms going on! I’ve been putting the new boys and older rats together every day (the more often you do this the better) on neutral ground (a place neither set of rats normally go). Shy-Shy and Pip have been great big buddies to the baby rats, but Rocky and Stripe have been demonstrating the common signs of aggression: fluffing up their fur, sidling up and kicking with their back feet. I try to separate them before things get out of hand and give them some breathing space away from the newcomers. It is useful to have a plant spray and thick towel to retrieve the aggressive rat, if a fight breaks out, so that you don’t get bitten.

Pip sniffing Dublin

Shy-Shy sniffing Dublin

For information on the stages of ratty introductions I found these sites useful:

http://www.ratz.co.uk/ratintro.html
http://ratguide.com/care/behavior/introducing_rats.php
http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/information/guides.php?subject=introductions

Cuddling up to Shy-Shy for Protection

Stripe sniffing Jinx

Rocky and Jinx

Today my lovely rats are mostly eating salad

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Well, it’s Day 10 of the rat intros. It’s becoming apparent that it’s not going to be as simple as I’d envisaged. Getting two strange rats to get along and play nice is one thing but trying to encourage four big bruiser bucks to be best buddies with two complete strangers is another! I’ve had no problems with Shy-Shy and Pip. Pip is the tolerant kind, he doesn’t like any silliness from the two new boys, and let’s them know by giving them a quick power groom, then it’s all over. Shy-Shy has accepted them as his little brothers (he’s even protective of them). Rocky and Stripe however, are acting slightly freaked out, and continually “fluff up” (their fur stands up on end) until they look like tribbles. They then sidle up to the offending new rat, and kick one of their back legs at him. If I don’t intervene, Rocky begins an all out attack, and looks as if he’s going to take a chunk out of Jinx’s neck. I have had to squirt Rocky with a plant mister, to stop him in his tracks, and scoop him up in a towel. It’s a bit scary! I’ve been putting the aggressive rat into a carrier box for ‘time out’ and then trying again later. Stripe acts in the same way and has had a few time outs too, but he’s seems to just want to create a distance between himself and the new rats. I think Rocky and Stripe are actually more defensive than aggressive. There haven’t been any injuries, and hopefully it will stay that way. I’m going to need an awful lot of patience to succeed in this monumental task!

Shy-Shy nose to nose with Jinx

Rocky checking out ‘the Enemy’ Jinx

Stripe is missing from this collection of photos because he was in the Naughty Box!

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating porridge

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After scouring the internet for gems of wisdom about rat intros and gaining some sound advice from a local rat fancier, I felt it was time to have a rat party for all the boys. In theory, it is possible to introduce any two rats together, but the age and sex of the rats can make a big difference to the proceedings. Two females (does) is supposed to be the easiest combination, especially two youngsters. An older female may attack a baby rat though if it is too young. With males (bucks) the younger they both are the better. According to my research, an adult buck will accept a baby buck (less than 10 weeks) because the baby hasn’t got the buck ‘hormonal’ smell yet. Therefore the most awkward group to put together are adult males. This is only a basic guide though, because anyone who keeps rats will tell you they are as individual as people, and it is going to be down to personalities whether they get on or not. The most important information I gleaned from various sources was that neutral territory was the key to ratty meetings. Neutral as in somewhere where there are no smells of either the old rats or the new ones. In another room, in the bath, on a table. That sort of thing.

Day 1
So, here we go! On the 23rd July I brought the rats into the utility room. It’s a tiny room and the surfaces are all in easy reach so it’s ideal. I let the two new boys have a sniff around first, then unleashed one of the big boys onto the scene! It was Stripe. I thought he’d be the least likely to make a fuss, because he’s so soft and silly. He’s also at the bottom of the pecking order. All he did was sniff Dublin and then hid under a blanket with the two of them. The same happened with Rocky. He didn’t seemed to notice that the new boys were different. I let Shy-Shy have a look next, and bless him, he gave Dublin a gentle reassuring groom! Pip (the head honcho) was happy to snuggle up to the new lads also. It was almost too good to be true. The first intro couldn’t have gone better.

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating mixed cooked beans.

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Here’s a few more pics of the new little boys. Also a big huddle of the older bucks with Hannah.
As you can see the new ones are black hooded dumbo rats. Dublin has a longer “hood” and a stripe widening at the tail, while Jinx is smaller and has black mottling on his back. Jinx has white on his chin, and two strands of white fur on his head, which distinguishes him from his brother.

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating bread in Lactol

Tags: Baby Rats, Gallery // 15 Comments »

Oh yes! We couldn’t resist! These two little 8 week old bucks came home with us on Saturday.

Jinx and Dublin

They were a little freaked out, but very very sweet. I think they’ve been handled, because they were from a local lad (accidental litter) but they’ve had to endure a pet shop environment for a few days, so they are understandably nervous. It’s only been four days, but they are already curious about us and will sniff my hands, and run in and out of my clothes! They didn’t like being handled at first, but today I was very pleased that both of them went slack when I picked them up (a good indication that they trust me). They live in their own cage (a Ferplast Tubeline Mary) for now. Once they are used to me and my daughters I will begin introductions with the big boys. Here they are: Dublin and Jinx.

Jinx

Dublin

Dublin is the biggest of the two, and more friendly so far. He comes straight up to us for a sniff, and he already runs to me for safety if there is a strange noise that spooks him. He even gave me a little lick today, which means he is accepting me (or I taste good!). He’s already posing for the camera!

Jinx is a little smaller and more skittish. He seems to like his food though, and will take treats straight out of my hand which is a good sign. Both of them are adorable as you will see by the photos. The older rats are not at all bothered. They know there are some strangers in the room, but seem curious rather than upset.

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating EMP

Tags: Baby Rats, Handling and Taming // Add Comment »

All the rats seem to have recovered from the sneezing and they have put on weight (again!). I will have to put them on a diet soon. Rocky and Pip let the other two to wait on them, by sitting in the food larder, while Stripe and Shy-Shy frantically store the food! Stripe is very sweet. He’s always sat at the top corner of the cage waiting for me lately. When he knows he’s got my attention he “chitters” excitedly and “bruxes” at me. When a ratty chitters (grinding teeth rapidly to make a ch-ch-ch sound) it can sometimes mean nervousness, but it is usually associated with excitability and/or contentment. During “chittering” often a rat’s eyes will bulge noticeably in and out and this is bruxing. Stripe always bruxes when he sees me getting ready to open the cage and let him out. He knows it’s playtime!

Stripe waiting for cuddles

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating pieces of dried fruit.

Tags: Behaviour // 2 Comments »

The latest events in the Rat House:-

1The boys have had yet another bout of Myco with Shy-Shy suffering the worst. I’ve no idea what set it off this time. Shy was making the dreaded “foofing” noise again and all of the rats were sneezing. All the boys were treated with 0.3ml per day of Baytril and all have responded well to the antibiotic.

2The first day I gave the rats their medicine, I sat down on a chair and gave one rat at a time some yoghurt (with Baytril) on a spoon. The following day they had already learnt the equation: chair=food, and as I finished mixing the first spoonful of medicine and yoghurt, I turned around to see Shy-Shy sat on the chair waiting for his treat! I continued with the next batch, and as soon as it was done I went to sit down, and Pip was sitting there on my chair looking expectantly at me! Then guess what? With the following spoonful Stripe was there by himself on the chair as if to say “It’s my turn!” Rocky is not one to come running (he’s far too laid back), but as I sat down and called him, he sauntered up towards me and flopped onto my knee like a blob of custard, and soon lapped up his yoghurt too. The same sequence of events happened every evening almost without exception, if they weren’t in the chair when I reached for it, they were there the instant I sat down, individually, which was all the more astonishing. Why didn’t they all converge onto the chair at once? The usual behaviour when treats are offered is for all four rats to pile up as near to the food as rattily possible (including standing right up on tippy-paws as far as they can stretch; arm-swatting a brother out of the way; grabbing for it or jumping advantageously onto my hand to get to the treat!

All I can conclude from this is that either:
1/ Rats are very fast learners
2/ Rats are habit-forming animals
3/ Rats are able to change behaviour quickly to suit their changing environment
4/ Rats are ruled by their bellies
or another suspicion: 5/ Rats are tiny people in fur coats!

Rocky and brothers: Part Custard, Part Meringue

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating strawberries from our very own garden!

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With the recent warmer weather, it can get pretty hot in the rats’ shed. I’ve had to make curtains for the windows, so that during sunny days (we get them in the Highlands too, you know!) I can keep the shed shaded, and open the windows a little for air circulation. Rats are fairly susceptible to heat because in the wild they are nocturnal and would probably avoid hot periods of the day and find refuge in their underground burrows. This is where a little rat’s scaly tail can be very useful. His tail is hairless and acts as a heat-loss organ. It comprises only 5% of the rat’s body surface area but can loose about 17% of a rat’s body heat. When the rat is hot, the blood vessels in his tail dilate, letting warm blood through and releasing heat, if the rat gets cool the blood vessels in his tail contract, so that his body heat is contained in his torso and head where it is needed most.
A rat’s tail also helps the animal balance and enables him to climb in the most precarious places! If he is waking a tightrope or similar construction he can use his tail as a kind of rudder to maintain his centre of gravity, and will move or curl his tail according to his needs. The tail has a scaly texture which also has a slight gripping quality. You may notice this if you rub a rat’s tail very gently the wrong way (from tip to trunk) as it feels rough and if you stroke the rat’s tail from the trunk to the tip it feels smooth.

Gallery of Tails

Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating cheese and onion pasty and rocket salad

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Another excuse to add some cute pictures of My Lovely Rats! Here are some I Can Has Cheeseburger inspired photos and here’s more site links: I Can Has Cheeseburger and LolRats

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Today my lovely rats have been mostly eating mashed banana

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