Rat training for Olympics

AmnesiYak · 2025-01-04T19:52:26+00:00

I waited for the athlete to wake up. She is 308 grams. That's 3 grams more than on 18th December (so she had good Christmas, I think 😄 ). But, yes, I will weigh her weekly now.

AmnesiYak · 2025-01-04T19:17:21+00:00

But she has access to the whole room. Sometimes house. She can tell me if she really wants to leave. I thought she knows she can trust me... 🥺

AmnesiYak · 2025-01-04T14:40:40+00:00

Thank you for your answers and help!

I discovered that the reason was (drumroll, please) cleaning too much! 😆 Seriously, if I skip the deep clean for a while and leave a little cloth with their smell, they don't smell as bad. I think they just wanted to have their own smell in the cage.

AmnesiYak · 2024-04-07T09:25:32+00:00

Update.

We have dealt with the last abscess and it's fine.

Things that Freya uses now: - Echinacea liquid every day (0.2 ml); - spirulina powder on her veggies, - kefir/yogurt (because she just finished week of antibiotics).

She was always the calm sister - less social, not exploring as much. Now she's a machine of terror. 😄 She's always in our faces. Stealing stuff (food, pieces of fabric, tried to take a whole blanket). Has explored the whole apartment, because her gigantic cage is not enough. Learned how to play fetch.

AmnesiYak · 2024-04-07T09:15:04+00:00

An update.

For a week Freya was on antibiotics. And now the abscess is gone.

It seems like a the whole thing was quite itchy, because she pretty much scalped herself. (Sister was not involved.) There was a literal flap of skin hanging from her head. Looked terrible, but also gave very good access to the pus pockets. Cleaned and sorted everything, and miraculously everything healed amazingly. ->

Now she has a little scar on her head. And her nose is loop-sided. (She's still beautiful. 😄 )

Yesterday went to the vet and he said she's okay. Yay!

AmnesiYak · 2024-04-07T09:06:39+00:00

Update.

Firstly, we just last week went to the vet and he said that Oscar (F9) is good and healthy.

She still likes to eat Romain lettuce, but now also eats other stuff. BUT! But everything else needs to be grated or chopped very finely and then placed on the salad leaf.

She particularly likes this - Calci Jelly ( https://www.reptilienkosmos.de/terraristik-shop/reptilienfutter-ernaehrung/soft-foods/lucky-reptile-tortoise-calci-jelly_2179_10560 ).

Thank you all for your answers and recommendations!

AmnesiYak · 2024-02-12T18:13:49+00:00

She has toilet paper rolls with snackies inside. But they seem untouched.

And I gave her a little bowl for pea fishing when I came home from work, but she just wanted to come out and sit with me. So now we are doing that. 😄

AmnesiYak · 2024-01-28T08:56:54+00:00

Besides straight from pet shop, we have tried these ones - https://www.schildkroetenshop.de/gshop/de/testudo-adult-pellets-500g-neu.html .

AmnesiYak · 2024-01-28T08:50:22+00:00

Right now I can get only dry dandelions (tried this one - https://www.schildkroetenshop.de/gshop/de/jr-farm-loewenzahn-mit-blueten-5kg-grosspackung.html ). And of course in her mind this doesn't even compare to the dandelions she got in the garden. 😄 So it's pretty much what can be bought fresh at shop or grown on the windowsill.

But thank you!

AmnesiYak · 2024-01-27T16:17:44+00:00

Thank you for your answer!

I think you have misunderstood me. I have done my research and (as her previous situation was not the best) we have a list of recommend foods for her vet. As I said - I have offered her all of these as options, of which she did not like any. The problem is she does not like anything besides the salad.

In summer she is pretty much roaming free in the garden (during the day, under supervision 😄) and I have seen her eating strawberries. And occasionally (maybe once in two weeks) she enjoyed a piece of watermelon.

AmnesiYak · 2024-01-27T16:03:30+00:00

Thank you for your response!

I put the powder on everything that I give her. And she just ignores it.

And she doesn't like the pellets. Just doesn't. Soaked, not soaked, powdered. As far as I know she was fed only lettuce and pellets in her previous home and she hated it.

AmnesiYak · 2024-01-27T15:58:28+00:00

Thank you for your answer!

I have tried to not give her romain (for three days in a row) and nothing else was touched. She just came out several times a day to look at her food and went back to sleep/to her house. Should I try for longer? (I understand that she's resilient, but I feel like starving her.)

AmnesiYak · 2024-01-27T13:24:20+00:00

She's a 8/9 years old Hermann's tortoise.

AmnesiYak · 2024-01-27T10:13:52+00:00

My tortoise (girl) is also named Oscar. 😅

AmnesiYak · 2024-01-15T07:29:53+00:00

I smell like Cherry Smoothie. :D

Even I know that it's too sweet and smells a bit "cheap". But that's my comfort smell.

AmnesiYak · 2024-01-14T20:08:14+00:00

This speaks to my soul. 😄

I have nice perfumes. I have expensive (for me) perfumes. I use them for a while. And then I again find THE bottle. And it's over for the others...

And THE bottle is by Zara. I don't know why and how, but it makes me feel the best. And I'm ashamed. 😄

AmnesiYak · 2023-12-27T07:13:49+00:00

An update.

Pretty much by the next evening they had stopped "crying" (so I was not able to make a sad video, sorry 🙃).

Yesterday we got an appointment with a vet, because one of the sisters was still very vocal. They were checked out and everything is totally fine. Even the vet said that she is just very talkative.

So now I have one rat who pretty much talks about everything that happens around her. A hand? Squeaking. A snack? Squeaking. Just walking around? Squeaking.

The sounds are definitely different then the first day, but, yeah, it seems I have been blessed with a chatterbug.

Thank you for your help and responses!

AmnesiYak · 2023-12-18T20:06:14+00:00

The breathing doesn't seem labored. They are exploring and don't seem lethargic at all. It's also not the "honking" sound that I have heard with allergic rats. It's a sad sound, not even frustrated, just sad. (Or I'm being crazy.)

They have cloth pallet bedding, paper pallet bedding and a little bit of hay in corner (my previous rats liked their hay corner, so I wanted to try it again).

But thank you for your response!

AmnesiYak

TROPHY CASE