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Thanks for the nomination guys!

These 2 are adorable. I am a bit worried about Glinda. She doesn't respond to change well, and she should have come around by now... but I will keep watch of her. After all, daytime is naptime for them! I will have to turn out the lights tonight and watch the cage. See if maybe she comes out? I hope she does. I haven't seen her leave that house! I think Delilah is bringing her food, but somehow she is getting water, I have been watching for dehydration and she seems ok. So maybe she is coming out? I'll have to check again tonight.

I feel bad too beucase I HAVE to clean their cage tonight. The aspen is starting to hurt me (I think I have reacted to it, I have had a raspy throat from what seems to be spending time in the room with them). So I will change their bedding to nice happy fleece and hopefully things will straighten out for me, and maybe Glinda will come out... Baby steps!!

Gah! these 2 are so adorable. I too am glad I adopted them :) Can't wait until I can intro them! I wonder how they will get along with Delilah's kids :giggle: They are their mothers daughters!
 
Poor Cocoa... I am going to stop the antibiotics. They aren't doing anything now :( It looks like the lump is getting bigger again, but this time I think it is a mammary tumor and not an infection, it has a different feel:



It sucks too because I will be going away this weekend... ok well Saturday morning to Sunday night, so not really all that many days, but still. I worry a lot about her. I would take her with me, but alas, I can't





Hehe the last one, she kept looking around for the source of the light :D It made me giggle.

Also, she is losing quite a bit of fur... is that "normal" for a rat that is 31 months old (OMG, she is 31 months old o_O). When I say quite a bit, its more of when I pet her, I get some fur coming out - and I am very gentle with her - and it is just maybe 20 furs... but that is each time I pet her
I dunno, I have never seen that with any of my other girls. Her coat is getting thin, but I attributed that to age, and she isn't scratching.

Maybe I will take her with me this weekend, and make it work. Oh my little sweetie! WHY do you have to have such a short lifespan??!!??!! Where is the fountain of youth when you need it? Wouldn't that be the greatest thing???
 
Caution: Long post, but not a whole lot of typing! TONNES of photos

So tonight was my very first intro session that didn't go horribly wrong :D
I have been dreading them since all my girls have come here. The last time, or rather the last few times, Cocoa decided to bite to draw blood. It really left a foul taste in my mouth when it came to introductions. That being said, tonight was a wonderful experience. I started in the tub with a bowl of ensure/baby cereal and I added rats. I made sure that the tub was escape proof as I have one rat who is particularly skittish - Abby. WOW! Having other rats around besides her semi-skittish sister REALLY helped!!

There were no boxing matches, no puffed fur, no eeeps (except from drama queen Glinda - I'm guessing she is vocal, although I have only known her for a bit over a week), no anger, no selfishness and most importantly, NO BLOOD!!!!

I feel great about how tonight went and can't wait until tomorrow's session. They all just fell asleep together, and although I wanted to leave them together... I was getting tired of supervising sleeping rats, and dinner is yet to be made. So after 1.5 hours, I packed it in. They are all now sleeping in their designated cages... ok all except Delilah, who is apparently harassing Glinda right now... although she may just be grooming her neck. I guess this due to the eeps coming from Glinda, whose voice I have begun to recognize ;).

Also, Trixie is in heat! and BOY do those ears flutter. I tried to get a video, but it didn't work :(

Anyway, I said not a lot of typing so here are the pictures :D





















 
:joy: This makes me so happy! As for how to continue I would probably move intros to their out time area at first start with no toys then slowly add their toys and see how they react with each other. But you need to do what you are comfortable with so if you feel a few more bathtub play times are in order then go for it.
 
Good heavens, the PICTURES!!

Okay, I honestly can't decide which one to nominate for RPOM - so someone else pick, and I will say that I have officially seconded whatever photo you pick of these beauties!
 
Oh believe me! I was SO happy too!
I thought a couple times a fight was going to break out - like in the picture where Glinda and Yoshi are touching noses? I thought there was going to be an eruption of some sort but Yoshi put her head down and Glinda started grooming around her mouth :heart:
This made my day. I was so nervous because I knew that I was going to do this tonight. I jsut had NO idea that it would go this well.

Maybe I will do one more in the tub tomorrow and then normal outtime place.
Actually, I might want to change where they have outtime to the tub, cleanup was a snap and noone seemed scared!
 
So I was thinking last night. Tonight I think that I might add Cocoa to the mix and see what happens. MAYBE she will be ok?
I will have to watch her closely, she has injured 3 rats and I don't want any more to suffer on account of her being an old lady rattie... but for her sake, I think I will give it a shot and see :)

OMG though, if she settles in and sleeps with everyone like they did last night I will melt! :heart:
 
I wouldn't yet Jenny, leave Cocoa out until you have a happy group of girls. Adding a volatile rat at this time is too early and could upset the balance you have going right now.
 
(GAH, my computer decided to screw up just as i finished writing a reply!)

Basically what I had said is that I will wait.

I will just make sure that I have an extra long out time with her tonight. She seemed so sad last night when I had all the rats out in the tub and she was the only one left in the rat room/office. I felt so bad :( I think that she enjoys the sights and sounds of the other rats in the room, but as soon as they come into contact with her... Actually she is set off when someone sniffs her... behind... And obviously that is an important part of introductions.

Poor little Cocoa. I wish she could make friends and play nice.
 
When would be an ok time do you think? Perhaps when they are all in the same cage? Or should this just be right before they are all in the same cage.

Other thing is that I don't think she has a whole lot of time left :( I want her to be happy (she seems happy now, and I do notice changes in her moods very easily, like last night) but I also worry that if I introduced her to the other girls and she... passed on, it might be hard on the other girls. Anyone have experience with a fresh intro and then one cage member passed away?

ETA: Sorry about the multiple post, I jsut have so many questions, and not enough brain organization to ask them all at once ;)
 
Ok, so day 2 of intros went well :D

I had one minor boxing match between Lily and Glinda and then another between Lily and Yoshi. Lily was just getting too excited about the... sniffing :giggle: so the older girls had to put her in her place :D

They basically went back to the rat pile mode. When I took the pictures off my camera I actually had to look at which picture was last taken yesterday to determine where today's started.

Here are some pics :)



















Here is one of Glinda napping :)



And one of Lily getting into mischief



And finally one of Cocoa



My poor old lady is really starting to show her age and it saddens me so so much. Her tumor under her back leg is not allowing her to really, use that leg, although she seems to be coping ok. She is propped against my old psych book and my monitor cleaning her... she asked me not to mention where :giggle:

She is still bright and extremely cheerful! Such a sweetie :heart: I love her so very much!

Lol watching her groom her incredibly large tumors is so funny, if you try and forget about the negative side...
 
So, tonight Cocoa has been chilling with me on my desk while I prepare for a presentation that I have on Thursday. I hear some VERY happy noises coming from her, so OF course I look.

There she is sitting under my computer screen bruxxing and boggling :heart: just happy as can be. Then I notice she is doing this really weird action... during "the end" of the brux/boggle, just when they kinda come up for air she does this thing where she pushes her arms out in front of her and holds he paws in fists...

My first thought was oh s***. And I grabbed a cheerio... but she ate it fine and she seems fine otherwise.

Maybe I just worry too much, but she will be watched for the next loooong while!
 

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