My silly Ensie girl

[SoA]

I had Encephalon and Fyn out on the bed last night, and both went nuts.

She's healing up very nicely from her spay!

It's funny watching Ensie, because I always learn something new about her that makes her different from other rats because of her neuro issues. For instance, if she hears any sort of weird sound, or sees something move in the distance, immediately she turns into a meerkat for about a minute. And because she has impaired vision in one of her eyes (or she might even be blind in that eye), she tilts her head and will even go in circles.

I've never had a more food-oriented rat, it's strange. She just... utterly loves food. She never turns it down, regardless of what it is, and tries anything and everything new.

Of course, eating is another adventure for Ensie When she picks up a piece of food, she holds it (in her mouth) really high in the air while flapping her hands around - cutest thing EVER. Then she starts running backward, in circles, until she finds the side of the cage where she'll then lean on it to eat.

She is the blackest rat I've ever had. There's absolutely no silvering or rusting on her whatsoever

And for good measure, the only semi-decent picture I could get of tiny 4-month-old Fyn. He is insane and never wants to stop moving :roll:

 

[jorats]

That Ensie sure is a beauty, I love how you describe her... lol... a meerkat, that's too funny, I love it when rats go up on their back legs like that to investigate but mine don't stay up that long. You must get some great belly shots of her.
Aww.. Fyn's little nose!!

SoA, are all your rats spayed and neutered? Or just the girls spayed?

 

[Melissa]

They are so pretty. Glad to see her incision healing nicely.

 

[SoA]

SoA, are all your rats spayed and neutered? Or just the girls spayed?

Everyone's speutered, since I think that's the healthiest way to go personally. Quite a few of them were already spayed/neutered because they were rescues from Kaia. Now that Ensie is spayed, my whole group is done. She was my last intact rattie

 

[mamarat]

Ensie is so cute, love the peekaboo pic of Fyn.

 

[jorats]

Nic and I were having a discussion on our future rats. She wants to have all her males neutered and I'm still on the fence about it. I know that my vet recommends all rats to be neutered and spayed.
Nic currently had a cage where all the girls are spayed and all the boys are neutered but this was due to aggression. She tells me her males are so happy, sweet, calm and just plain comfortable that she realizes that there are health benefits to neutering a male, especially when young. I'm leaning toward that as well.
The males I had neutered young, have all turned out to be super sweet and amazingly happy. It's like when you neuter a young pup, it seems he remains pup like for ever...same goes with the rat. And it does come down to no stress = health.

 

[SoA]

A lot of people call me a neuter nazi I honestly wish I could spay my mice!

To me, it just seems like even if intact boys are friendly to me, they're rough or even downright aggressive with cagemates and aren't very accepting at all of newbies.

Back when I had six boys, they would fight CONSTANTLY. Every night I'd wake up to screaming and tumbling sounds, only to find blood in the cage the next morning. Fitzy was an extreme biter, even after his neuter (admittedly, I neutered him fairly late in life so his aggressive outbursts were probably learned behaviors by then). For a little while, my brothers Nigel and Widdershins turned into biters because of him!

Winterbane barely looked like a BEW, more like a fawn, because he had excessive buck grease; he was also a terrible alpha that was always chasing/fighting someone.

No one cuddled with each other or played at all They were all so pre-occupied and overwhelmed by raging hormones. It stressed me out a lot, and the rats lower in ranking would always have myco flareups. I just couldn't take it anymore, and I decided (with lots of info and encouragement from Kaia/Blackthorn) that all of my future boys would be neutered. At the time I never wanted girly rats (now I have seven!), so I didn't think about spaying until I adopted (already spayed) Peri & Hazel.

And like you mentioned, Jo, when boys are neutered young, they remain in that playful, sweet, happy stage. I think it's because they were never forced to deal with raging hormones.

My group now is very, very peaceful. Although there are 11 rats in one cage, they rarely fight, and if they do it's just a couple squeaks because someone's trying to take someone else's food. I don't even need to bother with introducing new rats now; I just pop them in the cage, and call it a day. The resident rats will sniff them, maybe pin them, and then that's it. I remember the days when I thought introducing any new rat took weeks or months :roll:

I highly, highly recommend neutering boys. The difference between my crew a year and a half ago, and my crew now, is absolutely astounding.

 

[RatsForever]

Gorgeous rats! I love the meerkat shot - so cute!