I am so very sorry for your loss
I am very sorry your boy is all alone
It sounds like you are right to be worried as he will miss his friends
You could see if there are any shelters or rescues that might have 1 or two older boys that would be company for him ....... perhaps a rescue would allow you to foster
You can check animal rehoming sites like Kijiji to see if anyone is rehoming an older boy
Spend hours each day with him,
- keep his cage near you or in an area where there are people and talk to him,
- get him a small stuffed toy to cuddle with - one that does not have small part or stuffing he can swallow because he will chew it.
- keep cloths etc in his cage that smell like you and also like his missing friends for him to cuddle/sleep in
-Tempt him with his favorite foods and make sure he is eating and stays well hydrated (dehydration kills) because he may become depressed and stop eating and drinking.
In addition to his regular food, he might like soft foods such as his blocks soaked in cool water to make mush, cooked and mashed sweet potato, frozen/thawed peas, baby food, organic soy infant formula thickened with baby cereal, watermelon, a piece of ripe banana, etc If you syringe feed him make sure it is only a drop at a time into the side of his mouth so that it does not go into his lungs
Please let us know how he is doing
Hopefully others have suggestions
good luck to both of you
- I'm spending more time next to him. He doesn't like people touching and grabbing him, so I grab him for 5 minutes a few times every day, let him and his home with me on the bed at night (I go to sleep very late so I'm spending almost the entire night with him on the bed) and I also let him walk around my bedroom at night when I'm awake. Yesterday he was only sleeping, but today he's more active.
- I'm still looking for places where I can foster an old rat to make him company.
- Besides the cage, I'm letting a corner of my bedroom for him, so he has a bigger space to stay and I'm always close to him.
- I gave him a stuffed toy that has Nick's smell and a cloth with Toddy's smell. There's also two little houses where Toddy used to sleep a lot. He's sleeping more in those places than in his favorite house.
- He wasn't eating much yesterday, but today he seems to be eating enough. Besides his regular food, I'm giving him baby food and popcorn (his favorite snack).
We're having trouble with the water. He's simply not drinking it. The only liquids he drank for approximately 24h were:
- a children's vitamin (I used to give it to the four boys everyday by their vet's recommendation. He drank 0,1ml of it yesterday and 0,1ml today)
- a natural juice (I don't know how to translate its composition to english and google isn't helping. But I told the vet about it and he said it was okay for them to drink it. He drank about 0,4ml yesterday and the same dosage today)
- He ate a few pieces of watermelon and pear but soon he lost the interest in it, which is strange, since he always liked watermelon.
- I gave him Nesquik with water and he loved it, but I imagine Nesquik is not that healthy to be drank constantly.
- I tried giving him water with a syringe, but he fought and I couldn't even put the syringe in his mouth.
Basically he's drinking different liquids I offer him but he refuses to drink water. I checked his bottle, changed the water and everything's alright, but he doesn't drink it.
What should I do? Should I take him to the vet?