Ratablog

Getting old

It's hard to believe...seems like just yesterday these guys were hyper little babies...but I am realizing that the frat boys are getting old.

It isn't anything dire yet...no dragging rear legs, no trouble holding food...but other signs are there. George, my solid linebacker of a rat, is losing weight, and his fur is changing color. Jim is thinner too (I can feel his spine), and his coat isn't as full and shiny. Jack is still putting weight on, at least, but the tan fur on his face is whitening, and he's grumpier than he was.

When they come out to play, they meander around the bed, then settle in for long grooms or even naps under the blanket.

They are much more inclined to curl up on my lap now, and instead of zipping away when I pet them, they'll cuddle with me for hours. They no longer destroy everything they can get their teeth on, and I can leave them unchaperoned outside the cage for a few minutes without them trying to escape.

It's bittersweet, though, knowing this is twilight time.

Old pictures

These are from a few rat-generations ago now...but I needed to dig them out to show someone, so I'll show everyone.

These were the original Rink Rats: Kono, Metro, Calle, and Olie.

And Witter.

The drawings are Caricreatures by Sarah Davis. Cool, huh?

Bruxing and Boggling

Our friend Eanna asked us about bruxing and boggling. If you're a rat owner, you've almost certainly heard and seen your rat brux, but you necessarily might not have seen him boggle...and the first time you saw it you might have thought something was wrong.

Basically, bruxing is an emotional release for your rats, like purring for a cat or laughing or crying to us humans. It's *usually* a good sign, but just as a cat might purr when in pain (or a human cry when they're happy), a rat might also brux when in pain or under stress. The rat will grind his incisors together and a sort of chittering sound will come out of him.

When a rat is really, really into a brux, you might see his eyes bulge in and out rapidly, and you'll think his eyes are ready to pop out of his head. That's a boggle and it's admittedly freaky looking. Boggling occurs because one of the jaw muscles (medial masseter muscle) loops through the eye socket, and as the muscle relaxes and contracts during severe bruxing, the eye is pushed in and out of the socket. It's usually a good thing when a rat boggles, but, as with bruxing, it's just a mirror of your rat's mood.

So, when Jimmy bruxed and boggled while the vet student was holding him, either he really liked the way she was scratching his ears, or he was really freaked out. Only Jimmy knows for sure.

There's a great video of a rat bruxing and boggling here.

Bandit update

Isn't he still a cutie? He's made some progress, but he bit Abita last week and he bit me tonight (and drew some blood, though the bite was more of a scratch). I think Abita and I have to resign ourselves to realizing he might just be a biter. Ever had a dog you couldn't trust around strangers? Same thing, basically. We have to be careful around him.

However, he's definitely a playful, curious and personable little guy (I mean, just look at that face!), and he really seems to be enjoy interacting with us...and he for sure loves getting his ears scratched.

We've also moved him into a larger cage. He certainly loves chewing the wooden roof to his new house, and being able to jump from that roof to his balcony.

We still haven't decided if we're going to get him neutered.

Frat boys at the vet

We hadn't made a vet visit yet this month, so we were due...

George started doing a guinea pig imitation over the weekend, that tell-tale grunt that signals a respiratory infection. Since I had Zithromax for Rab, I went ahead and put George on that, but I wanted the doc to listen and make sure we weren't dealing with anything more serious. Since I was taking George in, I figured Jack and Jim should go along for the ride, to make sure I wasn't missing any signs of congestion in them.

Jack checked out just fine, and Jim's lungs were ok, but Dr. G noticed the clouding of his eyes. We had speculated that he was developing cataracts, but since his vision is so bad anyway, we weren't too concerned. When Dr. G looked closer, though, he saw something else (I think he said vascular keratitis), so now Jim is on eye drops. (And his just loves them, as you can imagine.)

Dr. G had a vet student with him today, as he often does. She handled them well, and more importantly, she fawned over how beautiful Jack is and cuddled Jim until he bruxed and boggled. (She'd never encountered boggling before, and was at first afraid he was having a seizure.) At the rate we're going, and entire generation of DVMs will have done their first rat exams on one of ours...which is great, because the world needs more rat-friendly vets.

Rabskuttle update

I haven't been updating on Rab the same way I did with Misto...although you could pretty much just look back at the Misto posts to see what's happening. He's on Zithromax twice a day, and we're monitoring his weight, which has stabilized after his initial drop of a couple hundred grams. Hopefully we've caught this early enough that his decline will be held off...he's less active than you'd expect from a rat his age (he doesn't turn 2 until May), but he's eating pretty well and he doesn't seem to be struggling to breathe.

Here he's eating some yogurt with Arthur. (Poor scarface Arthur. One thing that does get Rabskuttle moving is the need to squabble with Arthur, and it shows.)

(Almost) spring cleaning

It's been too long since I cleaned up the broken links and prettied up the site, so this weekend I intend to get that done. If anybody has a new URL, or if you'd like me to add your page to our links, please drop me an e-mail or leave it in a comment to spur me on. Thanks!

Oh, and here's another Valentine:

Arthur hasn't changed much in the last year, has he?

Happy Valentine's Day

This is actually Jim's picture from last year (somebody has been lazy about finding holiday props and taking pictures, I admit it.)

I do like this picture, though, and because Jimmy came to live with us on February 7 two years ago, he'll always be my Valentine rat.

It's been awhile since we had a Jack picture

Bandit's busy day

This morning we brought Bandit out on the bed to play. Since this is his first "unconfined" trip, we made a fence of cardboard so he couldn't flee.

He was a little unnerved at first, and dashed around like he wasn't sure where to hide.

Some of the boxes weren't new. We did this on purpose to see how he'd react to the smells of other rats. He didn't get puffy, but he definitely noticed.

After sniffing and dashing, he did loosen up and play for a little while, all good signs. Also, today was the first time he came out of his cage right to me...he's crawled on me a few times when he was out with Victor, but usually he heads right back to Daddy after just a few seconds on my arm. Today he seemed a lot more comfortable.

Since he's over the gastro bug, we've moved his cage up to the rat room with everyone else. There's a big piece of cardboard between his cage and the frat boys, mostly because George is known to be less than hospitable. Bandit seems to be extra alert right now, but not totally freaked.

Groundhog Day!

I was looking at the news coverage of Punxsutawney Phil and his annual shadow-watch, and I kept getting that "You look familiar" feeling.

Then I realized what it was. Phil:

George:

Next February Georgie will definitely try to get in on the weather-predicting rodent gigs.