The boy rats have kept things interesting here over the past few weeks. (I have 4 boy rats. Templeton, Teddy, Remy & Emile). First Teddy came down with a respiratory infection and had to be treated with antibiotics and separated from the other boys.

When Teddy finally rejoined the other guys, he decided he wanted to torment Emile (as usual), chase him around & fight him. Only this time their fighting got out of hand. The day after they had fought I picked up Emile to notice a scab on his one finger. At first I thought he had just torn off a fingernail fighting. But when I looked closer... he was missing half his finger!

Surprisingly, there was no blood anywhere in the cage, which is crazy. Because when a pet rat just pulls off a nail it bleeds like crazy. There was just a scab. I decided to separate Emile while his finger healed so he wouldn't pull the scab off accidentally. Less than 2 weeks later he is doing just fine, just missing part of his finger... though he doesn't seem to notice.




Then... Saturday. A little after my husband had filled all the rat's food dishes up. We noticed Templeton was heaving/gagging and drooling. He must have choked on something, most likely a lab block. He gave us such a scare because the choking went on for at least 30 minutes. He would heave and gag and drool. It was terrifying. I would pound him light on his back and sides, we tried giving him an oral syringe with water. Eventually he started to regurgitate this food colored... drool... (gross I know, sorry- but may be helpful to another rat owner out there). I kept wiping it away with a tissue. He really gave me a heart attack.

About 40 minutes later he was doing much better, though sleepy. I got this cell phone photo of him napping in our emergency rat towel. I didn't want him to have anymore solid food that day so we gave him baby food sweet potatoes for lunch and dinner. Today he his back to his normal self, thank goodness!


   
Templeton. And Templeton below yawning... check out that crazy tongue!

Just two weeks after Cherry passed away... we woke up Friday morning to find Belle had passed away during the night. When I woke up Baby Rat (Violet) was cuddled up next to Belle. Belle was our last little dumbo eared girl and the last of our adopted rats from Star's Rat Rescue.

We only had the girls a year. Cherry & Belle were born in the same litter at Star's Rat Rescue on Christmas day in 2011. They traveled 1,500 miles from South Dakota to Philadelphia when we adopted them last August.

Belle was always petite, she would run on the wheel a little bit. She was very spoiled in her elderly years always popping her head out of her hammock for a treat before any of the other girls got one. Belle was very frail and had one small mammary tumor on her chest in her old age.



 

Cherry, one of my dumbo eared girls passed away this past Monday. When I woke up, she had already passed sometime during the night.
 
Cherry & Belle were adopted from Star's Rat Rescue of South Dakota last August. The girls traveled 1,500 miles to reach Philadelphia PA, thanks to a lot of great people that volunteered for the rat train. Cherry & Belle were born in the rescue on Christmas Day 2011.


Both the girls are elderly now, and both had mammary tumors. Cherry had two tumors, the one on her hip was getting quite large. But she was too frail and old to survive a tumor removal surgery. She was getting around okay on their one level cage, until she passed away the other morning.

Belle is now living with Buttercup, Baby Rat, Pumpkin, and Toffee after some intro's this past week. Buttercup was very territorial and that is why the dumbo girls never lived with her before.

 

Someone came home with us last night... a pretty little black berkshire girl. Her name is Toffee! She looks to be around 3 months old. She's very curious, playful & loves to explore. Not skittish or nervous at all. ♥♥♥

She will be moving in with Buttercup, Baby Rat & Pumpkin soon. Belle & Cherry my two elderly dumbo girls are frail with tumors, so they are living separately from my other girls who can be too energetic and rough at times. 

 

Sweet Pea came down with a bad respiratory infection a few day ago... she was on antibiotics but by Saturday was having a hard time breathing. She was making awful wheezing sounds, struggling to breathe. We had her in a towel and I was petting her to comfort her and calm her down. She ended up messing herself really bad in the towel, (side effect of the antibiotics) and I wanted to rinse her off a little to clean her up. She passed away while I was rinsing her off in the sink....

Back in March, Sweet Pea had a really bad inner ear infection. She was left with a permanent left tilt to her head afterwards. But she still had a lot of energy and was still running to hoard food or treats even with her tilt. ♥

My husband picked Buttercup & Sweet Pea out back in December 2011. Sweet Pea was really shy at first and it took her a really long time to finally show her personality. She could be very mischievous sometimes, sneaking up beside one of her sisters and then nipping one of her sisters on the ears or face & running away. ♥

Sweet Pea had really interesting coloring. She was a beige hooded rat, but her beige color was so light it was almost gray, and with the camera flash she would sometimes just look all white. ♥