It’s so good to see the ratties all getting on well, and using the toys we’ve given them. Pirate has become a wheel user, so Pogo doesn’t have the wheel all to himself now. I’ve also added a paddling pool to help them to keep cool. Until now it’s been used as a drinking and face washing facility, with the odd spot of pea fishing. Today, Fox and Jasper were both in there walking up and down. If this continues I may never have to bathe a rat again!
We’re trying the boys with just a couple of corner pan litter trays instead of filling the base of the cage. I’m hoping that it will make it easier to spot clean them each day.
Three days later, and they’ve got the hang of it. I need to clean the trays twice a day, though. One of the trays got too soggy overnight, so they cleaned it for themselves by posting the soggy bits out through the bars!
I can see now why some people compare ratties to puppies. Kim came home from a school trip to Wales, and was given a rapturous welcome when she returned home. At one stage, all eight ratties were trying to sit on her shoulders.
Zorro has been causing some friction lately with his habit of mounting his cagemates. It’s just an excess of boyish hormones, but I’ve been getting very worried that our alpha rat, Quicksilver, would injure him. Quicksilver was fluffing up into a total bogbrush, pushing Zorro sideways and lifting his back leg ready to kick. Unfortunately Zorro was oblivious to the threat, trying to get around Quicksilver to have another go!
Having asked for advice on a ratty mailing list, we’re trying him out with Tardak, a method of chemical castration usually used on cats and dogs. So far it’s made him less frenetic about his activities, but not stopped him completely. The main positive step is that he is now taking the warnings from Quicksilver, and doesn’t seem quite as likely to get hurt.
My foremost wish is that he will be able to come off the Tardak as he gets older, and that it will have broken his little habit. The drug isn’t suitable for long-term use, so if we can’t wean him off it successfully then I’m afraid he may have to lose his ratty manhood.
If you want to learn more about Tardak for ratties, check out the Alpha Centauri Rat health care and information pages and scroll down the navigation panel to ’Tardak’.
Zorro has condemned himself to decushioning. He had an almighty scrap with Quicksilver yesterday, in which Quicksilver was very badly bitten. Zorro is now confined in a separate part of the cage awaiting the knife on Monday. Either the Tardak injection was wearing off, or he just needed a higher dose, but I’m not going to risk letting him back into the cage with Quicksilver until he’s been fixed. Then we’ll see if he can be reintegrated, or whether he will need to live with his brother in another cage.
Here’s the story:
My younger daughter was the only person in the front room, and heard a commotion in the ferret boat inside the cage. There had been several rats sleeping in there, but they shot out of the holes leaving just Quicksilver and Zorro inside, fighting.
The girls came to tell me, my eldest daughter carrying Zorro, who seemed as bright as ever. But then they noticed that Quicksilver was bleeding. I tried to wash off the blood to see how big the wound was, but it was bleeding faster than I could wash it. After phoning the vets, I set off with my eldest daughter.
The vets are about 15 minutes walk away, but I think we made it in 10. They decided to anaesthetise him to wash out the wound and stitch it if necessary.
When we returned home, we found that my younger daughter had shut Zorro out of the cage because he was attacking Pogo, and that he had also bitten her. We didn’t believe that he would bite, so we all ended up being bitten as he proved that he would. We managed to get him into the travelling cage, where he sat hissing at us all.
During this I was online trying to get some advice from rat mailing lists and forums. The consensus was that his biting and hissing was due to his being stirred up after the fight, but that it was best not to let him back into the main cage. I still can’t think why I left him in there after we found Quicksilver’s bites, but thankfully my daughter handled it well.
I had just about concluded that it was time to have him castrated, and most of the people I talked to agreed, so I made the appointment when we picked up Quicksilver.
Zorro goes in for his op tomorrow. I’m feeling really sorry for the little chap, but I can’t see any other way. I daren’t let him into the main cage, he’ll get lonely on his own, and we’re off on holiday in a couple of weeks, so I need to get everything sorted out before we leave them with my sister in law.
Zorro had his op yesterday. I spent the whole day worrying about him, but he seems fine now. He’s living in the bottom of the big cage, separated by a wall of cage bars taken from an old hamster playpen. He’s very lively, eating and drinking well, and has met his cagemates while out to play. He was mistakenly put back in the big cage for a few minutes this morning, but Quicksilver did the sideways shuffle and pushed him off a shelf. I’m not convinced that he’ll ever be able to rejoin the big cage.
Annette
Last modified: Friday, 04-Mar-2005 23:56:41 GMT
