Goodbye Marlon

Marlon died on Friday night. I thought he was getting better from his respiratory infection, the snottiness was getting less, he was eating and seemed brighter and was even putting on weight slowly. He was ok Friday afternoon, snuggled under the shelf with Bob, then I checked on them in the evening and he was stretched out, passed away. He hadn’t been gone long bless him. I took him, gave him a last cuddle and then he got buried in the garden.

I will do him a proper obit when I’ve found some decent photos of him.

Now of course Bob is on his own. I have decided to get him castrated and move him in with the girls. Hopefully this will also make him a nicer rat and will stop him biting and getting territorial and grumpy. I did try Sugar in with him today (she’s been spayed) so he has a bit of company and so he knows someone when going in with the girls, but he was a bit rough with her, pinning her down and making her squeak so I felt sorry for her and took her out. She’s so good natured and such a sweetie, it seemed mean to put her through it! I’m sure he’ll be ok on his own for a few weeks. I’ll phone the vets on Monday and book him in as soon as possible for the op. Fingers crossed it goes ok this time.

Website changes

Just a little post to say I’ve been working on the website a bit. I have changed the Home page to give some more details about my breeding aims, added a litters page to document planned, current & past litters as well as homing information and added pages for Bob, Monty, Marlon & Jemima. I have also re-arranged the my rats page and added a loving memory section for the rats I have lost.

Marlon finished his course of antibiotics on Thursday and though he is still snotty he does seem happier and brighter. He is still painfully thin though so I am currently trying to fatten him up and build up his strength.

I am a little bit worried about Rupert, I think he has a tumour in one of his testicles. I noticed today it was bigger than the other one and felt quite hard when I poked it. So I think I need to get him up the vets. If it is a tumour, presumably castration would solve the problem, which is a scary thought due to my experiences with Beau.

Everyone else is fine however and I am pleased to report that work on my new rat shed should be starting shortly. I can’t wait.

Luke

Well I have made a decision about what to try with Luke. He is definitely not happy at the moment and is particularly nervous of Rupert & Charlie. I have decided as the first course of action to attempt to intro him to Bob, Monty & Marlon. If that doesn’t work I will re-think my options.

Yesterday Luke met Marlon for about 10 minutes out on the desk in the rat room. They sniffed each other and that was it. Marlon was too busy wanting to get off the desk to explore but they sat on my lap together, taking very little notice of each other, so I was pleased about that. I then put Marlon away and Monty met Luke. He was slightly more boisterous with his sniffing but it was only sniffing, nothing more. He was more interested in the smells on the desk as well as was slowly getting a bit puffed up, so I put him away. I think Bob is going to be the hard one and it was only 10 minutes with the other two, but it was a promising 10 minutes. I am planning on doing intro’s very slowly in the bath, which is total neutral territory, introducing the 3 boys to Luke one at a time and going from there. So, fingers crossed.

Please welcome..

Bob, Monty & Marlon, who arrived on Saturday. They have settled in really well, especially Bob, who was out for a run round the rat room within an hour of arriving. Marlon is the most shy of the three and hid behind my food storage box on Saturday and refused to come out. I ended up having to put a carrier on the floor with a biscuit in, which he eventually got into so I could then get him out. He was very squeaky every time I picked him up but has been fine the last two days when he’s come out of the cage on to me and climbed on my lap during free range in the play pen.

Bob and Monty are both little hooligans and are very brave and have no problems at all with being handled. They make me laugh becuase they get quite grumpy with my girls, particularly Bob, who puffs up and scrabbles at the bars. My original daft boys just sit and gaze lovingly at the girls while they’re foofing and squeaking at them, but Bob gives back what he gets! They are more lively than my boys and will come to the bars to say hello, rather than peer lazily out of bed at me. They also stash food which is amusing. Bob will take it out of the food bowl and pile it in a corner, and Marlon will come along after him, emptying Bob’s pile and putting it in one of his own 😀 They also haven’t quite grasped the concept of the fresh food bowl yet and even left food in it yesterday. Strange boys! I’m assuming they’re just getting used to the idea and will soon come running when it gets put in like the rest of them.

I’m still undecided about whether to intro them to my boys or not, because they’re fairly feisty characters and there’s likely to be a fair amount of squabbling.

Here are a couple of photos:

Bob (black hooded) & Monty (PEW) looking angelic

Bob (top), Monty (bottom left) and Marlon coming out to play.