July 1, 2000: Rotte is born, in Århus, Denmark.
August 5, 2000: Rotte moves in with us. After some years
without rats (I basically had enough trying to finish my MSc) I'm
looking forward to their loyal company again!
September 9, 2000:
I am thinking about getting her a mate, and hopefully produce small rats with
her color, a nice shiny blue-grey, like steel. But first she needs to
become more accustomed to being handled, as she is still a bit
skittish. She approves of being lifted up, and likes to take short
expeditions out of the cage to explore the living room.
October 14, 2000:
Rotte is over 4 months old, and old enough to produce her first
litter. She is tamed, and is now ruling our home with her little
(but strong) paw. I finally found a suitable partner for her! His
name is Rotte B, (we call him B for short), and he's cream/beige
colored with red eyes. He is now about 5 weeks old - unfortunately
I do not know his birthday, as he is a pet shop rat.
October 22, 2000:
With a webcam and my videocamera I've managed to get a few more photos
of the rats. Everyone who has attempted to photograph animals knows
how unpredictable they can be! B is completely tame, he's such a
trustworthy little fellow. I discovered some strange lumps on his
ears, it turned out to be
ear mange mites, so both him and Rotte has
been treated with ivermectin and show no signs of mites now.
December 16, 2000: Poor B has been neutered! I changed my mind
about producing a litter with the two when Rotte didn't conceive the
first week - that meant the kiddies wouldn't be old enough to
leave us before we were going home to Norway for
Christmas. Besides, I figured it was kind of risky to mate B as I
don't really know anything about his parents and history.
And since I didn't want to keep the two rats separated any
longer I took B to the vet and now he's castrated. The whole
thing was done quickly, he was awake (although pretty dizzy) when
I picked him up from the vet's. He had a shot of penicillin
and a few self-removable stitches. He's still a bit sore I guess,
he walks around pretty careful, so I'll give him another few days
before he's reunited with Rotte.
February 10, 2001: We've been training with Bjørn, and now he's more
secure on handling the rats, which proved to be necessary after he had
an "all-nighter" trying to get Rotte back in the cage when I was at a
party... News,
Message-ID:
<wbpuh0a0cd.fsf@homer.oslo.infostream.no> (in Norwegian).
B has been scratching a bit lately, I don't see any
signs of mites and in that case Rotte should have been infected
too. I've changed their nesting material from hay to old rags, as I
read somewhere that albinos were more often allergic to additives in
hay. Well I don't know if it is true, but at least he doesn't scratch
so much anymore, so we'll stick to the rags for a while.
March 4, 2001: Me and B are having a cuddle in front of the
computer and testing the webcam, now that Bjørn's away in Oslo.
Have a look!
May 24, 2001: I am not completely convinced the hay had anything
to do with B's scratching. But it surely stopped when I removed the hay
and kept them on "Farmers" and rugs for a while. After that I have
tried to put hay in their cage againg and the scratching didn't come
back. Well, at least we got rid of it, whatever it
was. B has started to lose his winter fur, too. I wasn't aware that
rats can change fur (they probably didn't in Norway either), but
obviously the thick mat B had previously was
a bit too warm for the summer (now slowly starting to emerge here in
Denmark), and his present fur is thinner and more glossy. Rotte is
starting to calm down now when she's out of the cage, she more often
comes jumping up on the sofa with us and wants to play. She still
doesn't like to be held and cuddled, but she accepts it reluctantly.
My flowerpots are still not left alone if I'm not watching, but
now it seems more like "Look at me, I'm doing something bad, come and
get me!". Both Rotte and B sometimes sit at the pot rim and look at
me, anticipating a reaction.
July 1, 2001: My sister Aina and her 5 year old daughter Maria
have been rat-sitting for us while we were on holiday in Italy. Maria
was very eager to have the ratties out of the cage and cuddle them,
and they were surprisingly tolerant with her. If it was too much they
just ran to their favourite hiding place in the book shelf, and Maria
would sit on the floor and try to lure them out with treats. When Aina
and Maria left, the rats slept for several days, and were not very
interested in coming out of the cage! (Phew! Finally some peace and quiet!)
September 29, 2001: Some more photos are on the way! The rats
love their new big
cage, which I made from an old book shelf.
The rats trying it out prior to
construction. OK, approved!
B has gotten really big, last time I weighed him he was 450g (Rotte was
370g) so he could surely use the exercise from climbing from the
bottom floor (food and toilet) to the top shelf (favourite sleeping
area).
December 16, 2001: I have been training B for a while, teaching
him to jump up on a box to get a treat. Today I thought I'd capture
the clever fella on video, but he didn't quite agree on the
idea. Rotte, however, was eager to try to copy the achievement (and
get some treats), so here's a piece showing the training process (she
hasn't quite learned to associate me tapping the box with what she's
expected to do yet). Besides, when Bjørn leaves the room she follows
like a dog (especially when he's cooking dinner...) Anyway, here's the result. (2.05 Mb)
February 17, 2002: We got a digital camera, and I've put up some
more photos of the rats on their gallery-pages. Looks quite good :)
Unfortunately it seems like B has developed an eye-infection. I took
him to the vets a week ago, when his right eye had been red and a bit
runny for a few days, and didn't seem to improve. The vet said it
looked like he's had a scratch on the cornea and it has gotten a bit
infected. We got some eyedrops that he'll be having for 10 days.
This is what it looked like a week ago.
March 10, 2002: Sad news. Rotte passed away at 02AM the 4th of
March. I noticed she had become scruffy and
thin a week before that,
and took her to the vets. She was also breathing rather heavily, but
the vet could not hear anything unusual in her lungs. She was put on
medication (Baytril), but unfortunately not much improvement was seen
during the next week. She stopped eating altogether, she had lost all
strenght, and was a sad sight at the end.
We had a new appointment at
the vets the morning she died - just a bit too late. But as I was soon
to discover - it would probably not have done any good. I was allowed
to watch as the vet performed an autopsy on her (at my request). Her
liver was highly damaged, and her lungs and stomach region was filled
with fluid. I should be happy her suffering did not last longer. Rest
in peace dear Rotte, you will always have a special place in my heart.
B did not understand much of what was going on when Rotte was
sick. They were separated because I did not want B to eat all the good
food I tried to tempt Rotte with. He's still a bit overweight! But it
was clear he missed the company of his friend, and still he searches
the room thoroughly when he's out of the cage. It is heartbreaking to
watch him sit by the door and wait. So of course, we needed a
replacement. Some friends of mine from Rottenet are breeding at the moment,
and I will be getting a walnut from them as soon as the youngsters are
old enough. But that was not soon enough... Yesterday Bjørn and I saw
some young boys imported from Sweden at Petworld (Viby), and one of
them was just adorable,
he insisted on coming out of the cage and home with
us. He hasn't got a name yet (and not his own web page), but we have some
photos coming up soon! Unfortunately he has got sarcoptes, just as
B did when we got him. I have "told off" the pet store, and they
promised to get treatment for the remaining boys. I've put my little
new one on ivermectin, he'll get it once a day for a week, and then a
second treatment (probably one day is enough) a week after to kill off
hatched eggs.
And in the middle of all this: B's eye did not
improve after one week of medication. The vet suggested another week
with the same thing, after which B looked like this. I've now got a different type of
"ointment" to rub his eye with for a week.
April 05, 2002:
Fenris has moved in! He was bred by snapdragon at Rottenet, and is a
lovely black husky boy. He is now 5 weeks old, and has a very nice
personality already. He is secure and confident, and a kisser-rat :)
Before too long he will have his own page with lots of photos!
April 05, UPDATE: Both Juster and
Fenris' pages are now up and
running... and the Rat FAQ is under major reconstruction.
April 28, 2002: The Rat FAQ v2.0 is ready,
with major updates
and new layout. Enjoy!