Show tomorrow. New rats. Drunk now. Yay!
We lost Louis last night. I wasn't expecting him to go next - if anything he seemed the most healthy in that group despite being 29 months old. When I went to take them out for playtime he was laid on his side in the bottom of the cage. I picked him out and he was limp. After about 45 minutes of cuddling and gentle stroking he had what looked like a heart attack, kicked his back legs four or five times, then his eyes glazed over.
Goodbye sweet Louis.
Py has never given any sign of wanting to interact with me before, but I had him in the pouch last night and he seemed to be enjoying the scritching. Then he climbed out for a potter round and came back for another go in the pouch! He likes me!
Megan and Rosie were out to play last night, although I didn't try any intros as I was still upset from losing Louis. Meg was very in season - I think I may have another Tizzy on my hands. They were both absolutely manic and very squeaky. Little sweeties.
So busy I hardly know what day it is. I'm doing cage swaps with the girls in the hope they'll all end up smelling like they belong. Pyramus and Sophie don't like the new girls at all right now. The little ones are a bit nervous in the big cage - stressy whuffling from Rosie. Py and Sophie are all fluffed up in the little cage. Tiz seems fine with the babies though. I want to get another Cleide or Siria cage so they're both similar cages, then the swap won't be as disorienting for them.
Six groups of rats take up a lot of my evening. Got work too. I'm losing the house. There are four of us messing it up and one of us trying to tidy, wash, do dishes, cook meals, give enough time to rats. Aaargh!
I love my family.
Really, I do.
Cage swaps seem to be going OK. Sophie and Py still puff up when they go into a baby flavoured cage, but it's early days yet. I am going to get these two groups together.
I let Chester and Pickle play in the playpen this evening, then left them there because I didn't dare pick them up, they were so hormonal and scent marky. After half an hour they'd calmed down enough to pick up. Hmmm.
After three cage swaps I let the two sets of girls (and Py) meet up again this evening. It was helped by the fact that Sophie and Tiz were both in season. Sophie is usually a day behind Tiz so I don't know how that happened. I gave them a big plate of soft food to keep them occupied and force them to stay together. It wasn't too bad for a while, but then Py and Rosie had a disagreement in the middle of the food plate. Yuck. We now have baby food all up the side of the playpen. It looks like someone's been sick in there.
I've swapped the cages over again tonight, and we'll keep them meeting up each evening now. They're still getting separate playtimes, just having a ten minute changeover in the middle. I'm determined to merge these two groups.
One of my groups of lads has ejected its former alpha. Oliver was the oldest boy in the group. I had Darwin neutered last March because he'd been challenging for alpha for several months and the fighting didn't stop. If I had the same situation again I think I'd split the group, because it didn't cure the problem, it just postponed it until Oliver was starting to feel his age. They had an almighty bust up, Oliver shot out of the cage when I opened the door this morning and refused to be put back in again.
Sooo, I've spent my pre-work hour cleaning out a cage this morning in the hope that Olly can go in with group 1. Oliver knows the boys in group 1 - my old and poorly boys, and seems to be re-integrating with them fairly smoothly. Fingers crossed.
Right. Where are we? I haven't got the new girls in with the older ones. Rosie was getting stressy warble sounds so I've given them a break from intros. Py really doesn't want them around. The two girls would accept them I think.
Oliver is still in with the old boys. They're not exactly friends, but not fighting. He's basically being ignored.
Pickle and Chester are still hormonal, but no worse than some of my other rats.
Toby is losing mobility fast. William is not so bad. They're on newspaper so they don't build up a bow wave of litter when they move around. OK but needs changing daily. I'm giving them both a bath every evening to stop them getting crusty. Soft food is all very well but makes them messy.
Morse is taking over in the older living room cage. No big fights, so it might work out.
Hum, Babbage, Brunel and Otis are still fine. Lots of chasing and scraps at playtime, but no injuries and they're not fighting while they're home in the cage.
That's about it. I'm not getting much time what with working and six cages to exercise every evening.
William left us on Saturday. His abdomen was swollen and tight so I took him up to the vet. It seems he had multiple tumours and cysts in his internal organs. I had him put to sleep, as I was worried that it would become painful over the holidays. I wonder if it would have been better to let Toby go at the same time, as he is really struggling at the moment. I'm using towels to line the cage as it seems to keep him fairly dry and is easy to pull himself around on, and I'm bathing his bum every evening so he doesn't get sore, but he's getting to the stage where he needs holding up to eat.
Saturday afternoon was spent on a sun lounger at my parents' house, watching the clouds disperse and fade into nothing, watching the thistledown float past, watching planes heading in and out of Coventry, watching the seagulls winging home from the rubbish tip to the quarry where they live.
Sunday I spent cleaning out six rat cages, then going to a birthday bash. I'll start trying to get the girls together again soon.
Monday I picked up four bales of litter for the ratties. I still haven't worked out where to store it all though.
My first breeding bucks may have been born. I've been promised a pair of cinnamon bucks descended from a Finnish imported line.
Atlas has finally left us at the grand old age of two years and six months, the last of our fifteen dwarf hamsters. We had two litters due to a pet shop mis-sexing, but as the father died shortly after the second litter was born we didn't feel that we could rehome them to other pet owners. This was the correct decision, as many of them died young due to diabetes, but Atlas just kept going and going, despite being blind, probably deaf and unable to walk in a straight line.
About six pm. I thought I was doing OK, but got a bit weepy this evening.
Oliver has finally been accepted into his new group. He's cuddled up with Archie right now. Maybe losing the two older boys has unsettled them enough to stop them screeching at each other.
We had a really good intro session with Py and all four girls this evening. I'm feeling far more sanguine about the prospect of getting them all together into one cage at some time in the near future. Maybe I can get back down to five cages before my first breeding boys arrive in October.
I never thought I'd be happy to have five groups of rats to exercise each day, but it's such an improvement on six. Py and the four girls are all getting on well(ish) now at play time. I think I'll give them another week before I try to put them all in the same cage.
Last modified: Saturday, 10-Nov-2007 23:09:33 GMT
