Bear on the loose!

Shop with us on Ebay
Fins us on Amazon
Advertise with us
The Rat Shack Forum

Help Support The Rat Shack Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Petunia

Petunia

Supporting Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2009
Messages
6,126
Location
USA
I've got 3 brothers who will be 3yrs old (so I was told) in August. One boy, a dumbo rex PEW is very active and quite the escape artist. he gets out of the homemade play pen easily and goes for long excursions thru out the entire apt.

here he is on part of today's first excursion.




I put him back in the play pen and he was out minutes later, but this time, he walked around, got bored, I guess and went back IN the playpen where he's now taking a little nap. <3
 
Wow 3 years in August? I have my boy, Primus, whos the same age but in much worse shape from HED.... Just saying he looks very spry for his age, or mb they told you wrong. He looks more like a yr younger from my experience... Just saying... But if he is 2 and a half he's doing supurbly! ...good job with his care!
 
hi Krysta
I am starting to have doubts about the age. I got these 5 boys from a shelter (I've lost two) and the shelter said they got them from another shelter, so they've lived their entire lives this way... and they gave them a birthdate of Aug 2015, which would make them 3 yrs old this August. I don't know how they got that age, perhaps the first shelter was unsure and estimated older than they are.
I was also told they all came from the same litter but I'm having doubts about that now, too, as the ones who have passed away already seemed much older. Bear actually LOOKS older than his brothers Nolan and Boo, but he's far more active. The other two just sleep and eat, that's about it. No signs of HED in any of them except that maybe Bear is dragging his tail a bit now..
 
Perhaps one of the rescues mis-stated their ages..
The SPCA here is consistently Terrible for posting rats with wrong ages! :mad: It makes me SO mad as that can affect not only their chances for adoption, but decisions about their future care for their adopters -for instance, you might not want to put one under anaesthia at 3 yrs old where you might if it was 2.. Victoria has 2 listed as 3 yrs 2 mos right now, and Kelowna has one listed as 5!
 
I really thought that this rescue KNEW when these boys were born. :(
I was very impressed with the care package and instructions I was sent home with, telling me not to feed yogies (they're mostly sugar!!) and no junk food, etc. SO I guess that led me to believe they were going to be careful with everything, including the age estimate. I think some of it is laziness, I had two fosters (for a different rescue) that were known to be different ages and purchased at different times but the rescue listed them as the same age, making it look like they could have been sisters (they were not) That might help keep them together, who wants to split up sisters? but I think it's better to give accurate info when you have it.
oh well, however old they are, I love them!!
:)
 
Last edited:
Petunia said:
hi Krysta
I am starting to have doubts about the age. I got these 5 boys from a shelter (I've lost two) and the shelter said they got them from another shelter, so they've lived their entire lives this way... and they gave them a birthdate of Aug 2015, which would make them 3 yrs old this August. I don't know how they got that age, perhaps the first shelter was unsure and estimated older than they are.
I was also told they all came from the same litter but I'm having doubts about that now, too, as the ones who have passed away already seemed much older. Bear actually LOOKS older than his brothers Nolan and Boo, but he's far more active. The other two just sleep and eat, that's about it. No signs of HED in any of them except that maybe Bear is dragging his tail a bit now..
Click to expand...



I am glad you took my comment under consideration. I actually just lost my boy to toxic shock. He was my first Rat, so I made many mistakes in his upbringing. You are absolutely right to be upset over them getting age incorrect, for your reasons exactly. I apologise for the late response, I have been grieving.

Also, I would take him to the vet to check with his tail dragging... It could be HED or it could simply be an injury. Either way, he would probably be ever thankful for some meloxicam and/or gabapentin. This was what Primus was prescribed for HED/tail injury as it made his life a less stressful. A low stress environment is the most important thing you can do for them in their older age; their little hearts are typically the first thing that can cause death. Also make sure you pay attention to their water intake as this was my mistake for Primus. He stopped having the ability to unrinate on his own and died from toxic shock. I waited until noticing an emergency, instead of taking him in for lack of water intake, which turned out to be a fatal mistake. I thought I was doing so well when in reality I could have been paying more attention than I did... Almost a month later, and STILL beating myself up bc I miss him so much.[/QUOTE]
 

Latest posts

Back
Top