Day one of intros was on my bed, a neutral area, big enough for the rats to wander around but not so big that they wouldn’t run into each other. Day one went very well. Ferd had some issues but still not enough to stop anything. They are living beside each other so they can continue to smell each other all the time. The intros are lasting one hour daily. It was a good first day.
Day two was much of the same but better interactions between the group. Ferd really took to Pony and Chief, probably because they are weaker than he is.
Day three was on neutral ground still and it went great. In fact, I figured that it might even be time to move things along. I don’t usually like skipping ahead but I can tell when everyone is ready for the next step which is familiar ground.
On June 12th, 2 very good friends of mine, people I met on the Rat Shack forum took a drive north to visit me and my rats. At the same time, Shelagh was bringing me three new boys. These boys are older, one lives alone and the other two are together. Adorable solid boys, I immediately fell in love with them. I have decided to intro the three to my current colony. This one will be different for me because all three boys are intact and I want to attempt intros without neuters. When the rats are older, I like to avoid surgery so I’m giving them a go, giving it a good try before having to resort to surgery. I should add that my vet is most excellent and I know that she could successfully get them in and out and back to happy boys in a day or two. But still… operation intact will be my project. I have decided to record most of it on video and make it available to the public. Intros are scary enough and every bit of guidance is always welcome. So hopefully this works out as I hope it does.
For now… I introduce my new sweeties.
Teddy, an agouti hooded, he’s over 2 years old and lives with his brother George. Teddy is definitely an alpha kind of rat.
In the pic, he’s taking a nap during neutral ground intros.
George, just like his brother Teddy, loves to lick and kiss you. He’s absolutely gorgeous, a black hooded.
Ferdinand, is a huge rat, but not fat, a solid boy. He lived most of his life in a 10 gallon tank with two females. A sad life until Shelagh took him into her rescue. This boy is a sweetheart. He’s scared of bullies but loves to bully the weaker boys. In bullying them, he shows his love for them. I can’t wait for him to be in a colony and learn life as a group.
The beauty of being part of a rat forum, you get all kinds of good ideas on how to entertain your rats. As you know, these little guys are so smart, we need to be imaginative and inventive in keeping their little minds and bodies busy. Interacting with your rats can add months to their life.
So when I saw a couple of the members of The Rat Shack used bubbles to play with their rats, I couldn’t resist and do the same with mine. Their rats were very curious and interested in these soapy floating wonders. Mine were the same way. They tried to grasp and clasp onto the clear balls but only to have them disappear right before their eyes. It was fun while it lasted. They didn’t seem to tire of it either. But I had to stop the game as everything was getting far to wet and slippery. I had a good chuckle at poor Meeko’s expense. The little naked guy was having a heck of a time walking on the slick floor, running was even worse, his legs would slip out of underneath him. *giggle* When choosing your prop(s) make sure you use only items that are also safe for children. It’s also very important to clean up after the fact. I had to make sure I emptied and washed their water dish. I didn’t want them drinking detergent. yuck. I also removed all the fleece and other toys that ended up holding the bubbles, hole or popped.
My sister and I certainly enjoyed the “magical” event as much as the rats.
Rats are resilient. They are strong and adapt to almost any situation. Little Ryder was rescued along with his litter mates by Bird and Small Animal Rescue in Lethbridge, NL, Canada. These rats made it to foster homes and forever homes. Ryder was the lucky guy who was sent along with his brother Badger to Renée Thompson also known as Ratty Momma on The Rat Shack. Ryder was unique… he carried around with him a 300 gram tumour on his neck. His chances were slim, first we didn’t know if surgery was even an option and second, funds had to be raised to get him to a vet. The members on the Rat Shack as well as Facebook pooled together and helped raise enough to cover surgery and after care for Ryder. The vet at Sunrise Animal Hospital in NL, agreed to give it a try. The tumour was removed on April 14th. The surgery was invasive, the tumour was attached from the neck to the chest. It seem to have a starting point at the salivary glands. Ryder pulled through like a champ. He had a lot of loose skin and some mild swelling but he was on the road to recovery. On April 20th, he had his stitches removed and given a clean bill of health. Ryder continues to heal, and he’s looking like a real rat for once in his young life. Ryder is aprox. 10 months old.
The best part of his story, he and his brother were adopted by his foster mom Renée.
Tumours are not a death sentence. With a good vet they can be removed. Surgery is a risk but it’s minimal in this day and age with all the new technology and know how. Ryder would have been put to sleep had it not been for Renée, she gave Ryder a fighting chance.
Ryder with his tumour:
Ryder after surgery:
Ryder healing and looking better.
Ryder after his last vet re-check and enjoying his Easter.
There always has to be an alpha, someone to lead and tell the others what to do in order to maintain stability.
I’ve noticed that Chief didn’t really step up to the plate during intros, not when Max was around. Max didn’t do much either because at the time he wasn’t feeling very well, in fact he was dying from intestinal tumours. So little Meeko took the reigns and didn’t do a good job. He was jumpy and flighty but tried very hard to control Pony. But Pony didn’t need any controlling. He was being respectful and stable. But still without a clear alpha, Meeko was lost. After Max left, Chief took on the role. Although he was always alpha in his colony, he didn’t overstep for Max’s sake during the intros. Now that Max had left Chief in charge of it all, Chief puffed up and sidled Pony. Pony puffed up and sidled back, then both boys relaxed and stayed next to each other… I believe each having a mutual respect of each others place in the pack. When Meeko tried to rule Pony, he did so miserably, Pony ended up in a rat ball fight with Meeko, cutting him up pretty badly. Poor Meeko looked like he had gone to war and lost. The wounds were all superficial but it looked awful on the nakie. Since Chief took over, Meeko immediately calmed down and went back to the happy bouncy baby boy. The intros are going so well, I’m actually amazed at it all. I’m still keeping it familiar ground with toys for another week… then it will be the big cage scrub down… Move in date: Good Friday… let it be good indeed.
I lost two precious boys recently and I feel the emptiness greatly.
Rory passed away early Saturday morning on April 9th at 12:45 am. He was showing behavioural changes a while back but I never picked up on it. Also, his loss of hind end mobility was a symptom of something worse to come. On Thursday, I could no longer ignore the obvious, Rory was dying from a pituitary tumour. I rushed him in to my vet, got him on dexamethasone and bromocriptine. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch it on time and Rory passed away… no longer able to hang on. He was 30 months old.
Tuesday rolls around and I find Max lethargic and his eyes had porphyrin. Thinking back, Max had been slowing down and spending most of his time in the litter pan as well as having gone through a behavioural change. (no longer the bully) Max was also knuckling but very little. I immediately went into panic mode, scared to death that perhaps I had a contagion on my hands… this would have put the rest of my colony at risk. Max died a couple of hours after I found him. He was roughly 25 months old. I rushed him in to my vet so that she could do a postmortem on both my boys.
The results were a relief in that I knew the rest of my crew was safe. So it was simply a cruel coincidence. Rory did in fact have a massive pituitary tumour. As for Max, his pituitary gland was fine, but his intestines were filled with tiny little tumours. One of the tumours had eroded through the intestinal wall which is what ultimately took his life. My poor boy must have suffered…
It’s somewhat a comfort to me that they leave to start their new journey together. These two had become strongly bonded, they loved being together, flipping, grooming and sharing their secrets.
They will be missed.
Max and Rory during intros, at the very beginning of a wonderful friendship.
Yes, you read that right. I’m doing another intro. By now, I’m pretty much a pro. lol
I first started the intro in a corral, keeping the rats far away from toys, hiding places and cages, never have cages during intros unless you want aggressive attacks.
The rats to watch due to past behaviours, Max, Chief, Molly and of course Pony. Why Molly? Because she has a tendency to place herself in the line of fire. She takes the attacks if one should happen. She always tries to soften the blows, she’s such a sweet maternal girl… a mother forever.
Amazingly, Max was a doll. He remained calm and stable. In fact, he was the one the others moved too for stability.
After about 20 minutes of absolutely no reactions in the corral, I decided to move it to familiar ground. I have 3 rats with a respiratory infection so I have to be careful not to stress them out too much. Familiar ground would make the intro easier on the sick rats. I don’t recommend moving ahead in intros, I did it because I can read body language and feel their energies. Things were going way too awesome. During familiar ground, still no cage… things were going pretty good, dull actually, until little Meeko started to play. He decided he wold playfully flip Pony. WRONG! Pony wasn’t game. So this forced out my puffy guys, the ones to watch: Pony and Chief. Chief came to Meeko’s defence and basically told Pony not to go there but Pony was feeling ambushed. I dominated Pony, gently pushing his head towards the floor, all the while putting my calm energy over him. This helped tremendously. Pony hid under the cage, with Chief nearby and Max in the middle. Pony wanted to be near Max, he was trying to bond with his calm energy. Max would go to Pony, then to Chief, calming both rats. I knew this was still going well because Gera was going around popcorning and having a blast. Meeko is still scared and hiding but that’s typical of Meeko, his feelings were hurt when Pony took offence to the play.
We are an hour into the intro, I look over and I see Pony enjoying himself climbing his toys, finding yummy stashed blocks. A few rats are eating the baby cereal mush I made for them for the intro. Chief is still on his throne but he is alpha so that’s fine.
Nobody is puffy… and that’s a beautiful thing.
I think I’ll be doing another intro tonight. The more they meet, the faster we get to the move in date.
Thank you Rory… I know it’s all you.
As a rat ages, the kidneys become damaged by too much protein. Kidneys are quite important in the living being’s body. It’s important to feed a low protein diet to keep those kidneys happy and functional. But meds can also affect kidneys, so far though, we have not seen any ill effects from long term Baytril nor Zithromax, a small blessing for sure.
My mom adopted a sweet little pew a while back from a rescue. She’s 19 months old and at the right age for things to go wrong. Usually this is the age we watch for strokes, tumours, respiratory illnesses, heart issues… but with Luna, she developed a largish tumour on her left kidney. Her first symptom was splayed walking. My mom figured she must have a bladder infection, or worse yet a uterine tumour. She also had a change in behaviour, she became more clingy. So it was off to the vet with Luna. She was palpated and our vet felt an enlarged kidney with nodules. An altrasound was made and it showed a tumour. At this point we still didn’t know if it was affecting both kidneys, if it was free standing or attached to anything. We weighed the pros and cons and my mom decided to give surgery a try. The vet was in and out in short time. She removed the left kidney and it’s appendage. Luna is recovering very slowly from surgery. She’s in a lot of pain but being managed with metacam. It’s also important to keep her well fed and hydrated so Luna is currently enjoying baby cereal and Ensure.
We are not sure how well a rat will do with only one kidney… but we are hoping she was given a few more months. 19 months is simply too young to say goodbye.
Rory arrived in rescue in April of 2009, his previous owner couldn’t deal with his behaviour, offering to pay someone to come and get him. He was nicknamed Jekyll and Hyde because his personality shifted all the time. He didn’t like other rats and wasn’t sure about the humans either. He was neutered soon after arrival hoping to curb all that hormonal and territorial behaviour but even then, it seemed to not be working out so much for this boy. Rory lived alone and that’s how he wanted it. He also needed his out time, and lots of it or he would set about at beating up his cage. Then a year later, I adopted him. I brought him home along with other rats from the same rescue and set about at hooking him up with a buddy and I wasn’t taking no for an answer. A 5 hour drive and a new home usually help change a rat’s behaviour and in this case, it was the right opportunity to start intros with the group I brought home. He was introed to Max, another lone rat and four wonderful females. These females have the best personalities and I knew they would be the ones to make Max and Rory into colony rats. Sure enough, the crew came together beautifully. I was even able to add 4 more males to the group.
Rory fell deeply in love with rats. He is never without a buddy. He’s mostly attached to Big Max but anyone will do. He’s often seen cuddling with Molly but more often with naked little Meeko.
At that time, Rory still wasn’t really into humans. He didn’t like to be petted too much, and don’t you dare try to pick him up. But I was happy simply watching him cuddle his buds and playfully flip the big guy. I knew he had a good life. A few weeks ago, Rory started a mild respiratory infection. He’s getting his daily Baytril but with that, he’s lost some rear end mobility and some weight. As rats age, it’s not uncommon for them to also lose back end muscle mass. Rory has become old. He’s about 29 months now, slow on his feet, a skinny boy… who recently has decided that human cuddles are the best. A change in behaviour is also common in aging rats… but it’s a sign of things to come, this is when you know that you better get all those cuddles now. During out time, I will sit down with the rats, Rory will waddle his way to me and put his paws on my legs asking for a lift. I pick him up and put him in the crook of my arm and we begin our cuddle fest. He looks at me with those huge expressive eyes and I whisper how much I love him. We stay like that for almost an hour. He is still quite fit and bright eyed and I know that I will have many more cuddling session with him.
Rory is the perfect example of why nobody should ever give up on their rat.
Not only is this statement a key component in real estate, it is also important when choosing the right spot for your rat cage.
Rats shouldn’t be tucked away in a dark corner somewhere… they need to be the centre of the room, in the living space, where there will be traffic and noise. Rats will be more social and happy if they are in constant human company. Keeping them in your room is fine so long as you spend an enormous amount of time in your room or have many family members visit the rats and cage during the day. Rats need human interactions, they don’t need your constant devoted attention but they do need to see you, hear you and even smell you. I remember my sister telling me about her brother in law. He kept two sweet albino females in his work shed because his wife didn’t like the rats. Those girls were never really social and lacked proper care, didn’t really live beyond a year and a half.
If you are going to add rats to your household be sure to make them a part of your family. Don’t isolate them, show them off and you’ll have happy social rats.
