OH MY GOD HE'S HUGE!!! Hahahahahahaha!!!
Well that makes me not so concerned about Buck now....
Can Achilles move around ok? He reminds me of those morbidly obese people that get stuck in bed and end up growing into the mattress...
Happy fat boy [emoji1]
Actually, Marc (my husband) and I have both made comments about Achilles just like you did...how he reminds us of those super obese people who can barely get out of bed, oh lord!
Well you posed a good question about his movement. He is able to get around, but he does not move around TOO much, but since he is getting so elderly and slow, we wonder how much of it is his age and how much is his large frame. :shock: Marc and I discuss this almost every day and it is not a fun topic.
By the way, we moved him permanently to his "play village" that we have set up on our dining room table, since he was starting to have trouble going up and down the narrow ramps in his ratty condo. So now he lives in a nice play village (no cage) with lots of fleece, hidey huts and "nesting lounge" boxes, as we call them, with his lab blocks, water, toys, etc, all on one level. Like a single floor home if you will.
So he has a very easy place to call home with no ramps or anything. His "retirement village". And it is just steps away from where Marc and I spend all of our time in our living room so he always feels like he is hanging out with Mom and Dad only steps away. He gets a LOT of attention and snuggle visits from us at the village.
I remember when our vet (who is terrific by the way...she knows her small animals very well and she specializes in the them) told us, "Achilles is very elderly and at this point, especially since he is so happy with his snacks, I would just let him enjoy his time that he has left and not start depriving him, etc." and I got some similar advice here on the forum too.
But I think he would get around a bit better if he was not so fat, the poor guy. I also think he is so used to us bringing him everything that most of the time he probably thinks, "Why should I move around and do stuff when Mom and Dad bring me everything?" Oy! A vicious circle..
We dote on him and wait on him hand and foot since his brother passed away. So he is spoiled, big time. And lazy. Not sure what to do at this point but I think we created an obese, lazy King of the House. A very lovable and sweet King, but, you know what I mean. A difficult situation when we want to make him as happy as we can, but...
I think we dote on him TOO much (meaning that we bring him everything), if that is possible with rats being so dang charming, and also we know that every day he is still with us is a huge blessing, so we just keep wanting to make him as happy as we can, but what makes him happy is food. His eyes sparkle, he does a "head popcorn" shake when he gets a treat (his version of a baby popcorning with joy, but he just does it from the head up since he is fat of course), and I swear he smiles from ear to ear.
This is a very hard situation to rectify. And do we give him cheesecake and potato chips? No, of course not! Marc and I are vegans for cryin' out loud and we do not even have junk food in the house. We give him things like Romaine lettuce (his favorite veggie), a small chunk of fruit, a bite of whole grain bread, a shredded wheat, cheerios, things like that, but...
