Rat in a Box

I can't believe it's been over a month since I updated...it hardly seems like a few days since I picked up Chet and Marco. On the other hand, all three feet of snow melted, the crocuses came and and faded, and now the daffodils are in bloom, so maybe it has been a long time.

Here's the current rat line-up, just to refresh my own memory!

In the Critter Nation (which I mostly love, by the way, if you are cage shopping), we have the neutered boys: Isaac, Lucky, Dusty, Ned, Remy, Gino, and Fausto. We have plans to move the girls (T.S., Bianca, and Dixie) in with them eventually, but the last month was a bit hectic on the family front, so we held off on the intros because we didn't want any trips to the emergency vet.

In the foster cages, we have just four boys remaining from the babies we got in November, and they sure aren't babies any more. Sam and Ralph have passed through their obnoxious adolescent phase and are becoming squishy sweet boys, while Newkirk is taking over as Mr. Testosterone. Timbit also has his moments of throwing his weight around. To add a little spice to life, it appears that Timbit has allergies (we were seeing his face swell up some nights, at his worst he looked like a boxer dog with a big square muzzle), and the guys are now on a wheat-free diet.

And the new boys, Chet and Marco, are already not so new. They are almost Walter and Jimmy 2.0...goofy, sweet, a bit rambunctious. Poor Chet, though: if he were an NHL player, he'd be listed as day-to-day with an unspecified lower body injury. And in this case, I really don't know what he did, just that he's been favoring his back left leg, and after being worse/better/worse/better, last Friday his foot was red and swollen. Right now he's on Metacam and Baytril (just in case there's a bone infection, which is a scary prospect) and he's by himself in a small cage to keep him from jumping around too much and re-injuring it. But...



I took this with my phone the other night when I got home. I'm pretty sure the vet did not say that climbing on his box was okay, but what can we do?

I meant to log on early in the week to post and update that Walter and Jimmy were adopted. This was a bit of a surprise, since usually adopters are looking for the youngest possible rats to maximize their time together, and Walter & Jimmy were not spring chickens, as they say. The fact that their adopters were particularly drawn to them because of their age was just the first of many good, good signs, and watching them leave wasn't nearly as hard as I expected it be, knowing what a great home they are getting.

Then before I got around to posting that update, Ronnie and LeBeau were adopted as well! Again, not as hard as I expected, because it was just delightful meeting their new owner and hearing how excited she was.

And then...



and



Chet and Marco.

All I know about them is that they came from a local shelter and I picked them up about...oh, eight hours ago. I'd guess from their size (355 g and 405 g) that they're youngish adults, maybe four to six months old. Stay tuned for more as we get to know them!

Last night after cage cleaning I filled two food bowls in the girls' cage, a bit more than two cups of dry food total. This morning, I was surprised to find both bowls completely empty. "Guess we don't need to worry about their appetites," I jokes when I refilled them.

A few minutes ago, taking the rats out for playtime, Victor noticed that both bowls were completely empty again.

I looked at the girls. For three rats to eat over four cups of dry food in less than twenty-four hours, they should look like Templeton after his spree at the fair. So I lifted the igloo:



Apparently T.S. has hoarding issues.

Remember last fall I was asking (begging...pleading) you to vote for Small Angels of Maryland in the Animal Rescue Site’s Shelter+ Challenges with Petfinder.com?

Well...they're doing it again, so I'm doing it again. And please, please, please, if you have a few extra seconds at your computer, can you do it again, too?

Just go to the Animal Rescue Shelter Challenge site and look for Small Angels in MD. Click vote, and enjoy the different animal picture captchas. (When they show the picture of a rat, though, you have to enter "mouse." That drove me nuts last time--it was clearly a rat!)

Voting goes until April 18, so keep clicking! Thank you so much--the fosters and I appreciate it!

Dixie looks so sweet and innocent...

...but she has a temper. And she took issue with Bianca following her around (and I will admit I thought Bianca was a little bossy with T.S., so she probably was with Dixie too) and bit Bianca on the foot.

Things seem to have settled down into a truce at the moment...all three girls are giving each other a wide berth...but it wasn't the cuddly happy family I was hoping to instantly achieve. I do hope it works out okay, because I don't really have room for a fifth cage right now. Hmm, wonder if the lazy neutered boys would be up for a feisty girl?

I have a friend who volunteers at a local animal shelter (you may remember that she hooked us up with the nine brothers about three years ago.) Well, she did it again...a few weeks ago, two of three sisters were adopted, leaving one girl all alone.

We held out for three weeks...even passed the word out to some people who'd contacted the rescue looking for a single girl (unless we have a single rat in the foster program, we adopt the rats out in pairs or larger groups, and at the moment we don't have any singles.) But this week we decided the little girl had been alone long enough, so we adopted her and introduced her to T.S. and Bianca.





Her name is Dixie. She's on the shy side (and probably on the freaked-out-by-this-whirlwind-of-change side)...but then, it's been three weeks and T.S. is just starting to seem relaxed herself, so it does take some time.

I keep buying little notebooks to record rat weights, medications, etc. And then I lose the little notebooks. Tonight, as I was writing down the boys' weights (on the back on the printout of the Mapquest directions to Ellicott City from when we picked up T.S., because I can't find my notebook) I had a thought: why don't I just put the weights in a blog entry? I can't misplace the internet!

Ok, it won't be the most interesting blog entry ever, but you can use it to tease me about how fat these guys are getting. (Keep in mind, they are neutered...that accounts for a few extra grams right there, right?)

Fausto - 635 g
Lucky - 614 g
Gino - 515 g (Gino looks so little compared to the other guys)
Dusty - 652 g
Isaac - 651 g
Remy - 580 g
Ned - 680 g

We gave the boys chicken wings as an extra treat the other night (not just bones, but actual chicken-minus the buffalo hot sauce).



This is Remy with his. Confusing chicken with egg, perhaps?

Or maybe he gets it better than I do, and this is the only way he can stash his for later and keep it safe from the rest of the boys.

It looks like the girls are fine together (although yes, T.S. is glaring at the photographer.)

We just got back from their checkup. The vet confirmed the ear infection and added an otic antibiotic to the mix, but it looks like she's already responding to the Baytril and prednisone we started on Friday. She may never completely lose the head tilt, but since it isn't hampering her, I'm not worried about that.

The vet would like to see her gain some weight. Somehow I doubt that will be a problem in our house.