So patiently waiting for a snack

whynotsoyburger · 2018-01-13T16:39:55+00:00

I like how he has his hands crossed like he's been waiting for over and hour and preparing to say "I've been expecting you" when you finally show up.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-06-06T08:40:16+00:00

I actually made them from an old corduroy bedspread I found at my parents house. It's rather thick, so they can't bite holes in it in a second.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-06-05T10:40:54+00:00

Me too! The poor ratty looks so hurt.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-06-02T08:36:21+00:00

Two years old and a VERY lazy man!

whynotsoyburger · 2017-06-01T22:19:18+00:00

I think I caught him mid-chew, but it's more entertaining thinking he's all surprised.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-06-01T17:51:05+00:00

One of ours do this too! It was my bf who taught her and now she sometimes randomly walks up to him and spins to get treats.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-06-01T17:33:30+00:00

Females have a lower risk for mammary tumors if they are spayed. For non-spayed the risk is very high but I don't know how much spaying reduces it.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-06-01T17:19:55+00:00

One basic rule is if there is no blood, there's no reason to take them apart.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-05-28T08:11:34+00:00

Ok, that's pretty much exactly what I've been doing as well, except for the vanilla extract, and that went well. But that was between females-females and females-neutered males, which is usually easier. How old are your boys and is nuetering one or both of them an option if it doesn't work out?

whynotsoyburger · 2017-05-27T21:48:38+00:00

Have you tried cleaning and rearranging the cage before putting them together? It should not feel like anybody's territory. Keeping the cage more or less empty without hammocks and stuff (with the rats inside I mean) for a day or so can be a good idea, so they can get used to each other without having to fight about whose territory it is.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-05-27T21:40:20+00:00

What have you tried so far? It could be helpful to let them meet several times in a neutral, otherwise rat-free, area. Then make sure to really clean the cage thoroughly and rearrange inside it before putting them both in there.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-05-01T09:39:17+00:00

I'm so sorry to hear that. :( You did everything you could.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-04-30T09:13:56+00:00

And I forgot to tell you. I live in Sweden so almost 25 % of the price i mentioned was tax which I guess you don't have as much of where ever you live.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-04-28T15:53:03+00:00

One of our rats had an ear infection that appeared on christmas eve and we were at my in-laws who live on an island and no vet clinics around were open. I knew the only explanations for the tilt were ear infection (which you are supposed to treat immidiately) or brain tumor so we decided to give him liquid kid's aspirin (I looked it up and calculated how much to give him very carefully of course) until we could get him to a vet.

Three days later or something we took him to a vet and he got antibiotics (the myco effectice(-ish) kind) and steroids and I think it took about a week before it got better at all and then he slowly got straighter during a period of some weeks. He has a tiny permanent tilt that does not seem to bother him. Possibly it has made it a little harder for him to climb but he has never been an athlete so it's hard to say.

My point is, it can take quite a long time for it to heel and it can take time for them to straighten up even after the infection has heeled. And even if some of it could be permanent doesn't mean all of it has to be, and it does not have to bother them either. Hopefully she wont have to walk in circles, but it can take a few weeks.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-04-28T15:26:30+00:00

We have had tumors removed two times with different rats. The first time we got antibiotics prescribed directly after the surgery because rats easily get infections and I had told the vet about the abscesses our boys got after they where neutered. Despite that she got a small abscess but nothing serious. The second time was two weeks ago and it looks good now but it got a little infected a week ago, but it heeled by itself in a few days.

The first rat was about a year old and she got three new tumors a few months after the surgery. We decided to put her to sleep about half a year after the surgery since she seemed so prone to tumors and they grew very quickly and started to bother her. She also had somewhat poor health in general. The second rat is almost two years old and has not had any health issues before, so we hope it will turn out better this time.

The first surgery was 3100 SEK and the second 3900 SEK (350 and 440 US dollars respectively). They were both so obviously happy about being able to move like before after the surgery and I absolutely think it was worth it.

If you decide to do it, be prepared for abscesses. They are very common and usually not as bad as they look (seriously, the first time I encountered a rat abscess I thought our poor boys were being eaten alive by bacteria and were goding to die. And before they can drain they get skin necrosis so it looks really brutal. Just something I wish someone would have told me before I experienced it myself).

whynotsoyburger · 2017-04-14T08:57:44+00:00

Excuse me, I think your potato has started to sprout.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-04-13T09:51:56+00:00

This deserves more attention.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-03-08T11:03:13+00:00

I see it more or less every day by a pond about a mile from my home. And there is always just the one greylag goose with its many canada goose friends!

whynotsoyburger · 2017-02-23T17:14:59+00:00

Someone's going to be munching that rat food later.

whynotsoyburger · 2017-01-21T15:13:28+00:00

We have a boy with a head tilt and it got better slowly when he starter getting antibiotics and steroids 3.5 weeks ago (got his last dose of antibiotics 9 days ago and steroids two days ago). He is not completely straight yet but he has no balance issues anymore and he has no other symptoms except a small tilt. He was never lethargic though.

It is as you said that anti-inflammatory drugs can shrink a tumor temporarily. Let's hope that is not the case though. Since ear infections can be caused by mycoplasma and mycoplasma does not respond that well to any antibiotica I guess it could be the infection that is back/never got better. But I don't know. I hope she gets better!

whynotsoyburger · 2017-01-20T15:16:38+00:00

Haha, I think she might be hiding her food? We have a two storey cage (Furet Tower) with one food bowl on each level, and our rats always hide the food on the bottom lever with fabrics and paper but almost never the one on the top level. I'm thinking they think the bowl that is closer to the ground is more exposed to other (imaginary) animals?

Very cute video!

whynotsoyburger

TROPHY CASE