Bye Bye Fogwatt – ?/2007 – 25/11/09

Fogwatt passed away peacefully at home with no signs of ill health at all, the way I wish for all of my babies to go when it’s their time.

Fogwatt arrived in September 2007 with Burmickity & Sugar. She was meant to be a foster but stayed when Steve fell in love with Burmickity.

Fogwatt was a character! She was a grumpy bum with other rats, it was always her picking a fight, either with current cage mates or new cage mates and it didn’t matter what size group she lived in. She was possessive of her bed and would bite me if she was in the cage during cleaning out time. But despite all that, I loved her and once she was out of the cage she enjoyed her cuddles and would seek me out to play with during free range time.

She slowed down and got grumpier as she got older and loved nothing more than snuggling in bed with Sugar and Tinkerbell.

Bye bye you little madam, the cage is quieter without you but I shall still miss you and love you lots:

Soon after she arrived

Posing during out time

Glaring at me from her bed when I was trying to remove her to clean out!

Taken during a potoshoot in Oct this year

During out time in Jan 2008 with Treacle, Doughnut and Burmickity

Some ratty photos

I took a few photos today after I cleaned the ratties out and thought I’d share some with you:

Rupert looking gorgeous!

Fogwatt did her usual at clean out time and refused to move from her bed!

Sugar and Nutmeg peering out the carrier

And Sugar doing her favourite thing – eating!!

Sugar and Fogwatt need a Birthday Party soon. I don’t know how old they are exactly but it’s coming up 2 years since I got them around 20th September, so in theory they must be 2 by now as neither of them were little babies when I got them. So once I get them goodies we can have a party.

Sugar and Fogwatt

It was clean out day today and when I did the girls I took Nutmeg, Tinks, Saffron and Jemima out of their kennel at the top level, then worked my way down, cleaning the cage out. Sugar and Fogwatt were in the bottom bed and had baricaded themselves in, I couldn’t even see Fogwatt, she was that snuggled underneath a great big wodge of shredded paper. Sugar did poke her head out and come out eventually but I ended up carrying Fogwatt, still in the bed, to the carrier where she climbed out! I took a couple of photos as they looked so cute and had made such an impressive nest – Treacle would’ve been proud 🙂

Sugar:

Fogwatt:

A registered Rattery

I got confirmation yesterday that my application to the NFRS to become a Novice breeder has been approved. This means that I can now earn points and compete for the Novice Award at NFRS shows and shows that award NFRS stars, though in practice, it’s unlikely I will be getting to any NFRS shows! It also means I can call myself an NFRS registered rattery, and I am on the NFRS breeders list. It all feels very real now and has motivated me to get on with the website, so expect some updates shortly.

I am also pleased to report that Jemima’s abcess has burst and is already healing very nicely, after only having to clean it up once. Fingers crossed for no more! I have noticed the poor girl has scabs on her back again, I’m assuming this is from being picked on my Nutmeg and Fogwatt. She still seems happy though and is certainly not scared of them – yesterday, she stole a chicken bone off of Fogwatt. I do think, though, that when I get my girls for my breeding I will put Jemima in with them. She is a lot younger than my current girls, and she won’t get picked on like she is at the moment.

Jemima update

New girl Jemima is being picked on and has a lot of scabs across her back, so I have been watching them all carefully and Fogwatt (as usual) and Nutmeg appeared to be the main culprits. They would both chase after her and I caught Nutmeg holding on to her back with her teeth and not letting go! So Nutmeg and Fogwatt have been taken out of the aviary and have been moved into the spare Jenny cage. Hopefully, this will give Jemima a chance to build up some confidence and settle in better. I will still let them out to play together and hopefully, eventually they will all go back into the aviary together.

Jemima does seem happier already. At food time she is now sitting with the other girls round the bowl, not just sneaking down for a bit of food when no-one’s watching and rushing up to eat it in ‘her’ tube. Doughnut is being a bit grumpy with her and Sugar has grumped a couple of times, but they don’t keep on at her like the other two did, so hopefully she’ll be fine. If needs be, I can move Doughnut to the naughty cage too!

GMC

GMC is an acronym I discovered on Fancy Rats that stands for Get More Cages. It’s not generally something I suffer from, especially now i’ve got the aviary. However, I have just ordered a new cage from work.

It’s a Savic Freddy 2 and isn’t actually on order simply because I have a desire for a new cage. As I said previously Beau is definitely going to the vets to be de-nadded at some point and there is a chance he won’t integrate back with the rest of the boys. My other problem is Fogwatt. She is the most argumentative rat I own. And I can’t get her bits chopped off!! She had a right go at Tinks the other day and poor Tink ended up with a sore eye for a couple of days. If there’s fighting in the girl’s cage it’s Fogwatt. And it’s not just coz she’s in a big group. She fought with Burmickity when it was just the two of them, with Burmickity and Sugar when there were three of them and then when the baby girls moved in she fought with them to.

So the new plan is to move Fogwatt and Beau into a cage on their own. I may move Fudge in with them as she can also be grumpy with Tinks and the older girls. I also believe from my own (limited) experience that groups more than two are better. When i’ve had two i’ve always had two single ratties sleeping apart.

The new cage is big enough for 4, is slightly smaller than the Jenny but with far superior access and it’s cheaper. So, fingers crossed it all works out!