The next big leap - baby boys!

Ah man! I'm just so excited, I can't wait any longer to share! My partner and myself are going to be picking up three baby rescues from a friend down in Cheyenne. She had an oops with her rats, and needs rehoming for some babies... (Anyone in the Wyoming/Colarado area interested in babies? Lol!) We're taking two boys and a girl off her hands. We saw pictures when they were just newborn little jellybeans, but we haven't gotten much news since due to busy lifestyles. And it's been a long time since I've posted anything positive about our current girls, so... Whoo! Long thread time.

The new babies are going to be picked up this Sunday. We've got two separate travel cages ready to go, and we're going to keep them in a divided cage (Boys on the top, the little girl on the bottom with nanny-rat Bella for company) until after they're completely healed from the neuter they have scheduled on Tuesday. Our vet suggested waiting until 3-3.5 months old on the female to spay, as estrogen plays an important part in young rat development. Once they're grown and big enough not to escape, we'll intro everyone and move the new babies into the DFN with the current colony.

Sad to report that nanny-rat Bella has developed what my partner and I have dubbed "Old rat syndrome"... Over the course of what seems like just days, she got light (didn't visibly loose weight, but feels like a feather) and is losing hair around her spine and head. She's seen a vet and just been pronounced "elderly", but it happened so fast! She calmed down a lot, too, and prefers to cuddle all day long rather than roughhouse with the other girls.

Primrose's facial abscess is healing, and her shaved spot where they lanced it is finally growing thicker fur, although it's coming in white/silver >_> She's definitely getting her spunk back, because she prefers NOT to be held! Lol she's a really touchy baby who prefers the company of other rats to people, despite daily socializing.

Talitha has developed a UTI, but she's on Baytril for it. She's a brat and likes to hide when she sees me coming with her medicated "treats". Ah well, she takes it either way in the end! She's taken over the spot of "dominant female" of the colony, and humps every other girl into submission daily.

Scarlett and Gwen have both passed away in the past three months. The vet we're seeing said that their passing is most likely due to antibiotic overdose - the vet we'd seen for a URI for both of them prior to that gave them a horribly incorrect dosage (and I trusted the doctor! They're supposed to know more than we are, and I didn't even question it! I feel so guilty!) and said that the dosage that they got was nearly triple what they needed. Gwen passed in the night while we were asleep, but we got to the cage in time to hold Scarlett just in time to hold her close as she closed her eyes for good. It was heartbreaking, but I'm glad I was there for her. Nature must've agreed - as she passed, we got 10-minute flash flood that dropped nearly 2 feet of water in our front yard. RIP to our first and oldest babies, we'll miss them forever.

We got a new baby almost a month and a half ago, her name is Charlie! She's a big sweetheart, very curious, and super super energetic! She's already been intro'd and is living with the current colony, and is slowly becoming more comfortable with us. She takes a bit to warm up, but she likes to climb and explore and be curious, much more than any of the other girls have been.



That's the only picture of her we have at the moment, a quick shot of her passed out in a patch of sunlight after tearing holes in the pan liners and kicking poop out of the litterbox. I think she aims to get it out of the cage, because I have to vacuum daily now. >_> She has a vexing habit of chewing on the bars of the DFN, but I don't know what to do to curb the habit.

I'm excited for the baby boys, and I'll post with much more pictures after I get off of work! This will be our first time owning males, and I'm very interested to see the difference of personality between them and the females.

Congratulations on your soon-to-be new additions! I feel it is nice to have a mixed colony - I guess it just seems more natural. Remember you need to keep the boys separate from the girls for three weeks after the surgery to ensure all the sperm are gone.
I'm sorry your first two girls have passed on. At least they will have each other's company at the Bridge. It sucks even more when you wonder if it was preventable.

Oh, I am so sorry about your babies that have passed on..I send my condolences...it is SO hard. They are keeping each other company at the Bridge and having joyous times now, I am sure.

Charlie is such a sweet little girl, and what a cute picture of her...just a doll.

Is it possible she is chewing on the bars of her DCN because she wants to come out more for outside time, or trying to get your attention, as in, "Hey, I want to come out!" Just a theory, but it could be something else completely! If she is already getting a lot of outside play time, then I guess there goes my theory! :wink:

Charlie is adorable, sorry for your losses - that just :cuss: that the vet got it wrong. I would of been all over them.. Cannot wait for pics of the newbees

Sonja, I just read about Scarlett and Gwen...oh my god, what did the vet say to you after fatally overdosing your girls??? "I'm sorry?" :evil: Did you have any recourse at all? I would have ripped him/her to shreds and tried to sue them or something. What was the follow up to that? I cannot believe a vet could do that and just get away with it.

Goodness. .. I had this big long post full of pictures and videos, and it crashed as I was posting! So instead you get pictures of a super unexpected rescue. Her name is Sully, and she's a dumbo, but we don't quite know her color. The girl who had her kept her with cagemates for a while, but her roommate moved and took them with her, leaving poor sully behind.







Some pictures of sully and the setup her previous owner gave us. She seems fairly healthy despite cedar shavings and cheap lab blocks. Yes, that "cage" is a storage container with holes drilled in the top! Poor baby. Hope this post looks okay, first time sending from the mobile app.

Oh my God! She can't get air in there that is so awful!

I know x.x I felt so bad for the poor baby. And the ammonia buildup!

This is Winry! She's adorable and I love her. Very shy though.



And this is Sinclair. She took an Instant liking to me.

We ended up getting these 2 from petco on the way down... we had to get an igloo for the person we were picking them up from, and just couldn't leave them behind.

So how many rats do you have now?! Are you planning on keeping that rescue girlie?

We're officially up to 11, Joanne! We've got the original crew of Primrose, Talitha, Scootaloo and Bella, the somewhat-but-not-really-recent addition of Charlie, then the two new petco girls Winry and Sinclair, the three rescue boys and girl Caboose, Vega and Epsilon, and finally the newest Sully, who is going to become Sunny.

Happy to report that the boys are quickly recovering from their neuters on Tuesday, and despite the cage only being 1.5 levels high, Vega is crawling across the ceiling backwards, upside down. >_> The girls were just put back in their original cage with two floors and a level per floor a few minutes ago, and I'm seeing an immediate improvement in their moods... They're no longer sad and sulky, but bouncing around and cuddling and grooming like they were prior to the spays. I don't think they liked the "hospital" cage.

Sunny is adjusting well for being home for only 2 hours. We did bathtub intros with the youngest girls and Charlie to see if we could get Charlie some company sooner, and Sunny has since decided that she wants to be the dominant rat of the household, and started humping anything that moved in the area. Now she's in the cleaned up hospital cage rather than her old tub, and she's on aspen bedding, and enjoying shredding a paper towel roll. All by herself for the first few nights until we can really properly intro, since with the dominant behavior in the first meeting, we don't want to subject the girls who were recently spayed to that. Don't want to do anything to potentially tear open those sutures or make them hurt.

Ah, the clan is growing and I'm so happy. xD Our rat-room is so full of life now. It was getting really quiet with Scarlett and Gwen gone, and I forgot how energetic babies are.

Sonja, I too was so sad to see poor Sully's (now Sunny) old home with no air and on that bedding...poor sweetheart. How did she and her former roommates survive that??

So glad you have her (and your other new additions!) and that your growing clan of bubs will have happy lives in a loving home. Makes my day! A special kiss for special Sunny, who I of course took a very special liking to...a dear girl.:cuddle:

Goodness it's been a while! The babies are all doing so well. The colony size seems to change very abruptly however, so let me give you all a run down on the kids...

First, losses. Sadly enough we just lost Primrose a few weeks ago due to a sudden prolapsed uterus. It happened so violently and fast that the vets could do nothing for her. She was swiftly approaching her 3rd birthday, so we thought it might have just been her time. We'll miss her dearly, but the vet made sure she passed as peacefully as she could.

Bella too has passed, of a heart attack or stroke, we think, but it happened too fast for us to know. Alex was able to hold her for her final few seconds, which was both good and bad. Both Bella and Primrose are buried with Gwen and Scarlett at Alex's parents house.

Scootaloo and Talitha are probably going to be rehome soon, if possible. They're both almost as old as Primrose was, but they're getting so incredibly aggressive that we cant handle them. At first the old gals just couldn't handle the new babies, so we separated them into their own cage. It continued to deteriorate however, and now we can't even walk by the cage without the two of them violently lunging at the bars and trying to get out. I don't understand what's causing the sudden behavior change- their free time out of the cage as well as diet etc hadn't changed, they don't have any health problem indications. I'm wondering if then fact that the entire original colony they were raised with has passed has anything to do with it. I have to provide a distraction just to get oxbow into the cage most days, but every now and then they have lucid days where they return to the sweet tempered babies they used to be. I'm at wits end with it, and losing tolerance for bitten fingers, toes and arms every time I try to care for them. One of our local vets offered to take them in though, and he seems like a competent person, so I may let him take them.

The youngins are amazing though! Vega, Caboose and Epsilon are approaching 4 months old, and they grow bigger every day. Vega in particular is shooting up in size and weight. He's going to be a massive potato n just like his dad!

Winry is slowly getting better with her shyness, and Sinclair continues to habitually gnaw the cage bars. I've found that giving her extra time to free range without the other rats seems to help her. I'm still worried about her damaging her teeth on the bars, but hopefully we can eventually eliminate the bad habit. She also likes to kick all the litter out of the box and spread it around the cage. Our hyper little demon.

Sunny is doing well, and is basically the lead lady now. She's a big old potato who just wants to kiss everything. She's passed her habit of non-stop ratty kisses on to the younger babies and now at feed and play time we're greeted by a tumble of 8 kids rushing up to kick hands, arms and faces.

Charlie's eye is almost totally healed now, and the fur is re growing over the area. She's gotten more shy after the surgery though, so some focused socializing is in order for her.

Aside from them, we have one two babies to introduce- Alice and Poppy. Alice has been with us for a while now, she's a PEW. I don't think we ever introduced her to Ratshack though. She's still very shy but warming up quickly. Poppy is very new, and still in quarantine, but next week I think we can slowly start intros. Poppy has a color I've never seen before, too, so as soon as I get pictures I'm going to ask for help identifying her! If she were a dog I'd immediately say "blue merle", but I don't think rats come in that coat pattern. She's an absolute doll though and wants to do nothing but cuddle forever. I've never seen a young female so calm and cuddly.







Just a few pictures until I get more. this is my first long post from the mobile app so please excuse typos or bad formatting.

Wow, so much has changed! I'm so sorry for your losses and congrats on the newbies.
It's too bad though about the two needing to be rehomed. I hope you find a family that is willing to put in the extra time they need for proper socializing, maybe a home with no other rats but them will change them completely around.

I hope so, Jorats. I feel bad but I think the loss of the original sisters has just upset them too much here.

Lots of changes for your colony! I'm sorry you have lost a couple of your older ladies. It seems odd that your other two oldies are getting aggressive. Maybe too much change for them to handle I guess, although you'd think they would have settled down once in their own cage. I agree, perhaps once in an otherwise rat-free environment things will improve.
I'm glad your new kids are coming along well.