Ratablog

Quick update

Victor's out tonight, so I took Bandit, Oliver, and the girls out by myself. I was a little nervous...Bandit hasn't bitten in awhile, but I'm still not 100% comfortable handling him, and if I did have a fight to break up, that's easier with two people. But I didn't want to set them back any by skipping a night.

So I started by taking Oliver and the girls out of their cage. They are trained to hop in "the bus," the tray of a travel cage, to make it easier to carry them to the other room. Bandit stood up on his hind legs at his cage door, so I opened it, figuring he could hop on the bus too.

Except Neiko hopped off the bus and right into Bandit's cage.

I about had a heart attack...violating the sacred space of a territorial rat! Bandit sniffed along right behind her as she went into his wooden hut, up his ramp, down his ramp, in his soda box...I quickly put Roo and Oliver on the bed, expecting to hear blood-curdling shrieks from Neiko and/or Bandit at any second. Then I decided that the best way to get Neiko out of the cage without risking my hand (seeing as I only have seven fully-functional fingers left) was to take the top off the cage and carry the cage base into the bedroom.

While I was trying to unfasten the cage top, Bandit crawled out the open door on my arm.

After that, Neiko came out no trouble, and the rest of the playtime was uneventful.

The fact that Bandit didn't go violently nuts when Neiko had the audacity to enter his cage is a very good sign that he's chilling out and that they will be ok cagemates. (And it only cost me a few dozen new gray hairs.)

Posted by Abita at April 12, 2006 08:47 PM