The Rat Room

Back in early May, I adopted a group of rats from a friend/rescue in Toronto. I had help for the rat transport and was met halfway by another friend. This one little girl, named Smooch had chewed her way out of her carrier and was running around loose in Vanessa’s car. Naturally, I changed her name from Smooch to Chu. I then find out that Chu is also the very same rat who had escaped when a very small baby, chewing her way through a couch and living there for a whole day. From then one Chu was a doer.
When she came to me, I quickly realized that all my rat proofing was not remotely good enough. Chu was a jumper, and climber, a trapeze artist and a houdini all wrapped into a small furry black and white fluff of love. I adored Chu. I never had a rat as brave and strong as this little girl. She kept me entertained for hours. Everyday I couldn’t wait to take my rats out, waiting to see what else Chu would do that day. She always found a new route to get out of her enclosure, I’d often find her on the other side, running after a cat or marking up the rest of the home. She was bossy and sweet all the same. Chu also helped me with intros. She kept the boys in line yet not ever taking sides. She loved the newbies as much as her close buddies. When a crabby Pony found himself alone, having lost all his cage mates, it was Chu who quickly took to him and kept him company along with Bianca. It was this union that mellowed Pony out to the point where he became fast friends with the rest of the colony.
Chu was an amazing rat, she kept me on my toes, she kept me thinking and problem solving…but best of all, she kept me. I will miss your soft kisses, your cuddles and having you as my shadow. Love you baby girl.

Little baby Smooch (Chu in the making)

Chu escaping using the cat tree.

Chu terrorize one of the cats. Poor Toby.

Who me? This is how I’ll always remember her.

In her last weeks… I’m pretty sure Chu had a pt and that’s what took her from me. She was also fighting a URI on and off but lately had been doing much better, no matter what, she was still out on out time exploring and going where ever she could.

I was reminded of this video of Chu, a favourite among her fans.
Chu vs Cat

I seem to always be talking about things that are a great concern in the pet rat a warning of sorts so it’s time I add something that is not a great concern. Some rats get these harmless smallish hard lumps on their skin. It doesn’t feel attached to anything and doesn’t bother the rat in any way. Pony has such a lump. I’ve noticed it a long time ago when he was much younger. He’s now 26 months old and his lump has grown some but not much. I did in the past have a couple more rats with such oddities. It never bothered them, it never harmed them or became malignant or anything. I remember the first time my vet saw one 8 years ago, she was not as rat knowledgable back then as she is now, and she was sure it was cancer. I opted to leave it alone because I knew at the time it wasn’t causing any issues and it never did.
Other skin issues are common like tiny little hard bumps, it’s almost like dried up skin excess, even dried up pus. They are easily squeezed out. The point is… any lumps or bumps should be observed first, if it gets worse or grows fast, that’s when you make your appointment with your vet to discuss your rat’s options.

Pony’s abnormal yet normal bump.

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.

We can all learn from Ryder’s story.

And one for all, or some sort of thing like that. Today is the big move in day. So far, it’s going pretty good. Nobody got hurt yet. lol
I’m keeping a close eye on Pony, he’s got a few rats not entirely enjoying his presence in their domain, namely, Doc. Chief did show a bit of upset but not enough to mean anything. The Doc on the other hand, boy, that kid has grown up. He’s telling Pony that he is not the man of the house and never will be. The young bucks are ruling the roost. But I think Pony is ok with that but he still needs to show those punks, oh was that bucks? that he’s not going to just lay down and roll over. It’s been over 5 hours and still without a scuffle. I’m still debating if I’ll bring up that ramp when it’s bed time for me. I’m a chicken sh… you see. Sometimes it’s best to be safe than sorry… it will all depend what the vibe is at bed time.
But… the reason why I did this, for the girls. The girls are all piled in their tent with a happy Gera. I’ve got me a rat pile again.
9 in a Critter Nation is a good number, I’ve got 4 spayed girls and 5 neutered boys. 6 of those rats are over 24 months old… Molly being 30 months old and like a mother to them all. I noticed that each time there was tension, she’d get up from her comfy spot and head over to the puffy boys. She’d stay close by, until the boys would go their separate ways, she would too.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this is it and all will be well and a happy family for all.

The cage and play area.

Pony, man of the hour.

Rat pile!

All in the cube.

Sweet Molly.

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.

Buddies forever.

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.

In the corral.

Chief, Pony and Molly in the back.

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.

Our sweet Luna

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.

Rory when he arrived here.

Rory most recently in his hammock.

Rory loving his meds.

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.