Mole, Mouse, Ferret & Otter

Mouse (front), Mole and Ferret exploring the sofa

We popped to the garden centre to top up on supplies for our other three rats and saw a trio of rats. They were big guys and had obviously been at the garden centre for a while. I felt really bad to them, they had obviously grown too big for the tank that they were kept in and because it had glass sides they had no where to climb. They were a very sad sight. As we already had three rats at home, we didn’t really feel we had the room for anymore, but I couldn’t just leave them all there. I asked Derek if we could take them and at first Derek said no, but he felt as bad for the rats as I did and in the end, after much pleading, he said I could go back and get just one.

I had already fallen in love with Mole, he had been lying on his back with his head propped against a wooden log and his chubby bottom pressed against the front of the glass tank. He looked so miserable, they all did. Mouse was stretched out over the top of the log, behind Mole, and he didn’t even lift his head up when we went to look in the rank. All we could see of Ferret was his bottom, as he was hidden away inside the log.

Derek made the mistake of waiting in the car while I went back inside the garden centre to get Mole. I did have every intention of just getting the one rat, we were both hoping that if there were only two rats it would increase their chances of someone else being able to take them.

I told the assistant that I just wanted to take one rat and she didn’t look very happy. They, correctly, have a policy of only selling rats in pairs and weren’t keen on selling me a lone rat. She obviously saw that I felt bad for the rats because she offered me the remaining two rats for free! How was I supposed to refuse?

Derek wasn’t very impressed with me, or the number of new comers, but he can’t deny they are a very cute bunch. So, we now have three extra rats.

Mole, Mouse and Ferret

Otter

We had both agreed no more rats, but I had to pop back down the garden centre foor some more rat supplies. While there I couldn’t help noticing a rat they had there. He was obviously not a baby and I was curious as to where he had come from, as we had only taken Mole, Mouse & Ferret from them a few weeks before. The assistant there explained to me the the rat had been returned to the store for being vicious. I do not beleive there is such a thing as a vicous rat, just badly handled ones, and so after a quick call to Derek I agreed to take the rat home with me.

He is a very stressed little guy. The guy at the garden centre had to wear gloves to put him in a travel box for me and I could tell even with the gloves on he did not want to handle the rat. Once I got him home and put him in a cage he went beserk, climbing the bars and along the roof to see if he could find a way out. The poor little thing is understandably terrified. I can’t image what he feels like being taken back to the noisy garden centre like that and his first family were probably not very patient with him if he did bite them.

As the new arrival appears to be a similar age to Mole and his brothers, I hope, once he’s had time to calm down, that he’ll be able to live with them. I’m sure having some big cuddly brothers will help him settle down and start to feel safe.

Otter, Mouse, Ferret and Mole all squished up

We have named our surprise new arrival Otter, to match his new brothers who he is now happily living with.

I was a little weary of handling Otter at first, he had been returned to the pet store for being vicious and I was concerned with all the stress he’d been under he may be a little snappy. I needn’t have worried after a good nights sleep, Otter was a lot calmer. So much so, that I decided not to wait and introduced him to his new rattie family.

Armed with a pair of gardening gloves (just in case things turned nasty) I put both rat cages next to each other and took the lids off. Typical rats, they all ignored each other and were more interested in the new cages and Mole went straight for Otter’s food bowl and started eating, typical Mole. I tried to wait patiently for them to notice each other, but when Mouse and Ferret started to curl up for a nap in Otter’s cage I decided to intervene. Putting on my gardening gloves I scooped all the ratties up and put them in one cage together. After a few hours of initial excitement, nothing major happened just climbing the bars and some bottom sniffing, all four rats went to sleep in different parts of the cage.

Otter is a little weary of his new brothers at first, but that is starting to pass now and they are starting to all sleep together, which is always a good sign.

I have no idea where Otter’s first family got this silly notion that he is vicious from, he is such a sweet little guy. I’m really happy he’s part of our family now.

Otter enjoying his new life with his brothers

The boys new home

The four boys have settled in so well together that we have treated them to a fancy new rat cage. It is an Imac cage and the same as the one our other rattie boys live in, except this one has a tunnel that comes out of the top.

Otter was the first one to discover the tunnel. I think because Mole, Mouse and Ferret grew up in a pet shop and never knew anything besides the glass tanks they keep them in, they never learned to climb much. Otter has no such troubles and he was straight up there. Ferret has taken a bit of a shine to Otter and he follows him around a lot, not that Otter seems to mind too much, anyway he has followed Otter into the overhead tube. They are a funny pair, if one is already up there they have a shoving match if the other comes up. It looks like they are trying to stop the other one getting up, but I don’t think they are because once they have squeaked and shoved a bit they’ll both go right to sleep squashed up together.

There is also more room in this cage for me to hang beds and tunnels, without it becoming so cramped, so Mole and Mouse have some nice new places to sleep too. I think all the extra space is going to be good for the guys, Mole and Mouse still aren’t the best climbers, but they are trying and I’ve tried to make everything easy to get to so hopefully they won’t have any falls.

The four guys are such sweet little chaps. It’s not nice to think about the tough start in life they all had, but I am so glad they are ours now. I really hope we make them as happy as they make us.

Our gentle giant

Shockingly our gentle giant Mouse has passed away. It was a terrible shock for us, I came home from work lunch time and found him on the floor of the cage.

It was a terrible day for our family, we had no real warnings that anything was wrong. Looking back he had stopped climbing as much, choosing to sleep on the floor of the cage rather than up in his hammock. But all the rats had got to that age were they were a little less active, so Mouse’s behaviour did not seem odd.

When we first got the rats Mouse was a little intimidating he would just come charing at our hands and we were a little nervous of his intentions. Then as we got to know him we realised he was jsut incredibly affectionate and only wanted attention.

We are going to miss him very much, he was the most affectionate out of the four boys and we had formed a very close bond with him. He had a very happy life enjoying lots of cuddles and treats and we will always love him.

Our sweet boy, Mouse

With Christmas fast approaching we thought an update on how our three boys are doing would be fun. It was a shock to all of us when Mouse died so suddenly and his sweet ways are still missed by us all. We are pleased to say that Mole, Ferret and Otter are all doing really well.

Unfortunately a couple of months ago Otter developed bumblefoot on his right foot. We keep it clean with TCP and have and emergency supply of Baytril in the cupboard for if it flares up to badly. So far we have not been able to clear up the infection completely, so at the moment it it a case of managing the wound. Otter seems to be ok coping with his foot and does not show any signs of it causing him pain, he still gets into trouble climbing places he shouldn’t be. We have had to stop Otter running around on the carpet and now he and his brothers play on our bed. As they are getting quite old now they don’t seem to mind the limited space on the bed and seem to enjoy snuggling down in the nice soft duvet. They really are a lovely bunch of boys, we still can’t believe how much they have changed from the shy bunch of rats that we were given at the garden centre.

Ferret, Mole and Otter

Mole, Otter and Ferret

We uprooted our little family and moved from Cambridge to Ipswich. The three boys coped very well with the disruption of the move. As their cage is so big they could not travel in it, they had to spend the day in a small cat carrier. All three boys already had tumours of varying sizes before we moved. Ferret’s was the most advanced and we knew we would soon have to make the difficult decision to put him to sleep.

All that we wanted for him was to see our new home with his brothers, a bit soppy I know, but there you go. Otter was also having a problem with his tumour, he was scratching at it and making it sore and bleed. We are very lucky that there is a really good vet very close to where we have moved, so we booked our sweet little boys in and had them put to sleep. Initially Mole was lost without his brothers, but at least he had their company for the trauma of the move. We have been spoiling the little chap rotten, giving him many bits of human food. He has never been a big fan of our attention, but he loves our food.

We know that a lot of people choose to have their rats operated on at the first sign of a tumour, but we have given this subject a lot of thought and spoken at length to several vets about it. Having an operation for any little animal is a very traumatic experience and in many cases the tumours will return. Taking into account the age of our boys, we decided that surgery with their poor start to life and the disruption of our house move would have been too much for the boys to cope with. This way we were able to say goodbye peacefully, and enjoy the memory of them in our new home.

Mole

We’ve had to make the difficult decision to have our chubby little Mole put to sleep. Just like his two brothers, Ferret and Otter, he had a tumour which was getting quite large in size. It was a very difficult day for us, saying goodbye to him was like saying goodbye to all of his brothers as well.

Mole was such a sweet chubby guy. Back when we first got him he didn’t take long to figure out that living with us meant lots of yummy treats. Which he took to mean that our hands were treat dispensers and the little horror would always give us a little nip, before checking to see if there actually was any food on offer. While we’d have preferred he didn’t bite us, it was part of who Mole was, a greedy little chap. We are really going to miss him.

Mole and his brothers were a very special bunch of rats especially considering the tough start in life they all had. It took a while for us all to get to know each other properly. Even so, they became a very large and special part of our family.

My happy boys