Nutmeg – 20/09/07 – 31/07/09

Nutmeg was one of Sugar’s babies. She was the smallest of the litter, not runty but definitely smaller than her siblings. She was originally going to a new home with Saffron & Fudge but the home fell through and by the time it did they were about 12 weeks old and I decided to keep them!

Nutmeg was a bit nervy as a youngster and not keen on getting picked up. She retained the dislike of getting picked up and was a nightmare to get hold of at the end of free-range, though I think it was more mischief than nervousness as she got older! When she was very little (less than a month old) she fell off my hand and went down behind a unit in the bedroom. I couldn’t get her out, eventually coaxing her into a empty Lactol tin they used as a bed. When I picked up the tin, she calmly walked straight out and up my arm, bless her.

She became a little hooligan as she got older and you wouldn’t have known she was the runt, she got as big as Sugar & her sisters. She was never a people rat but she was well happy in her group of other ratties and could be surprisingly bolshy when she wanted.

Baby Nutmeg at about 19 days old

And at about 10 weeks

Hiding in the wine rack

And looking for trouble!

And the last photo I took of her.

Bye Bye little girl, play hard with saffron & Fudge and the other girlies.

Bye bye girls

Northern Lights has had to say goodbye to two of the girlies. Nutmeg was PTS on Friday as she was just not improving and looked so sad and confused.

And I found Saffron dead yesterday. She’d been losing a bit of weight but was still very lively, the first one at the bars and climbing up on my lap at free range time. She came out to say hello to our visitors on Monday night, then she didn’t appear last night when I fed them. I found her curled up in her bed. She never visited the vet in her life and to be honest I wish they could all go like she did, at home in bed with her friends.

So now we only have 4 girlies. Sugar has outlived all of her daughters. I am going to have a cage change around today so I can pack up the Tommy and without wanting to sound really depressing I’m going to have to think about getting a couple more girls so Jemima won’t be left on her own if the worse should happen between now and the new year, which is the earliest it looks like i’ll get my ratties for breeding.

I will dig out photos and do proper obits for my girls later.

Nutmeg :(

Ok, i’m back with bad news again. Nutmeg is very poorly. On Tuesday night I found her all wobbly and un co-ordinated again. So I took her to the vet yesterday and she was given an injection with a mix of steroids and frusemide as the vet said her chest was very raspy and her heart didn’t sound good. Today I took her back as she hasn’t really improved and she was given more steroid, antibiotics and a vit & mineral all in an injection. She doesn’t seem to be improving though. She is trying to eat a bit but is unable to hold her food, her front feet are curled when she stands up and she has no co-ordination or strength. She does seem to be walking better today but will then randomly fall over. She is going back again tomorrow, but I think I may be saying goodbye to her 😦 .

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.

Good news about Nutmeg

After my last slightly depressing post I am pleased to say that Nutmeg seems to be getting better!

She is no longer wobbly, is holding her food whilst eating, using the water bottle correctly and washing herself and getting around as normal. Occassionally her front feet still look strange, her toes splay, but she is definitely a lot better. I don’t know if maybe she had a stroke or something, I’m just pleased she’s ok. 🙂

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!

Happy Birthday to you

It was Sugar’s babies birthdays on 20th september. A year ago they looked like this:

Then they (very quickly) grew up to look like this:

Jools at 12 days old

Rupert at 12 days old

Nutmeg at 19 days old

And now they’re great big chunks who (*touch wood*) seem to be healthy as well as lovely and friendly. Nutmeg is particular has grown into a really pretty girl, very dainty, especially compared to Fudge who is competing with her mum for the ‘fattest rat’ title. And the boys are just lovely softies. I’m so glad we ended up keeping them!! They haven’t had their birthday treat yet, because I haven’t been shopping, but when I do, i’ll get some photos.

Sputnik

Just had to share this lovely photograph of Nutmeg and Doughnut sharing the Sputnik. They don’t all squidge in it like the babies and Sugar did with their hamster-sized one, there’s normally just one or two in it but they do seem to like it. Nutmeg in particular seems to have taken it on as her own!

A brief update on Mustard. I just think she’s been eating all the pies and i’ve been unobservant! Have weighed her again and she isn’t putting any more weight on. Will carry on keeping an eye on her and weigh her again in a week but I am happier now that there isn’t anything wrong with her.

A nest made for one…

Here is Sugar chilling out while the rest were playing on a pile of shredded paper just big enough for her.

And here is Nutmeg on look out duty