New ratties update: Shelves is for sissies!

[adoptaratcanada]

...so says Thor the Maniac!

If anyone is hanging from the bars, or sniffing the top of the cage (from the inside), you know it's Thor!

He's decided he's above using such pedestrian items as rattie walkways. He was ready for action in vertical position and I could hear him thinking (and doing!), "I'll just shimmy straight up the bars, continue past the shelf and hang a horizontal right to bypass the ramp and shoot right past the next shelf and to the top!!"

He's nuts!

He's picked up the bad habit of flinging himself out of the cage onto me! Fortunately he's done it only when I'm quite close! Yikes.

10pm each night is the commencement of mass "popcorning" time! Earl Grey made the mistake of revving up right below the lowest-hanging shelf. Ooops.


Linda

[Die Fledermaus]

>> He's picked up the bad habit of flinging himself out of the cage onto me! <<

Only Sam (gerbil) ever did that. Best gerbil I ever had. Smartest. Would make quite a photo, of Thor.

A number of rats eschew ramps and just go right up the sides, such as Kahini.

>> 10pm each night is the commencement of mass "popcorning" time! Earl Grey made the mistake of revving up right below the lowest-hanging shelf. Ooops. <<

Jumping! Hit his head?

[adoptaratcanada]

Jun 16, 2009 23:04:36 GMT -4 Die Fledermaus said:

Jumping! Hit his head?

;D You got it!

I've taken to calling Thor "Snoopy" (as in Charlie Brown). One of their nests is a chinchilla bath house

and he insists on sleeping on top of it! It comes to a point on the "roof" but he manages to stay perched on there! He also spends alot of time just "doing stuff" on top of it, too!

Silly, I tell you, just plain silly

[Die Fledermaus]

Always fun to see how the rats in a single habitat differ in what they do.

Meanwhile, I left out several small hot dog pieces, and strawberry pieces, and they STASH them instead of eating them. As in the past, some stashed stuff never got eaten, and I cannot have strawberries and other fruit stashed for long as it attracts bugs. Thoughts?

[Hamsters82]

Hehe, that's funny that he jumps from his cage to you!! I once saw a rat do that but the other way around and a co-worker and I were stunned.

Tell Thor I said, "Hi!"

[Die Fledermaus]

Kahini might do that someday. She is the friendliest and most confident.

[pinky]

Jun 17, 2009 13:20:04 GMT -4 Die Fledermaus said:

Always fun to see how the rats in a single habitat differ in what they do.

Meanwhile, I left out several small hot dog pieces, and strawberry pieces, and they STASH them instead of eating them. As in the past, some stashed stuff never got eaten, and I cannot have strawberries and other fruit stashed for long as it attracts bugs. Thoughts?

If they only stash those foods, and do it consistently, you may have to omit them. I know bugs are a concern of yours.

If they eat some and stash the rest, then feed what they'll eat in front of you. That's my strategy with Jayde--I know how much she'll eat in front of me (eat, not merely pouch) and I only give her that much.

And Linda, your rat boyz sound hilarious! ;D

[Die Fledermaus]

As I said, >> cannot have strawberries and other fruit stashed for long as it attracts bugs << I have to go get them out. Not sure if it is due to overfeeding. Doubt it.

Thankfully, the cool wet weather has kept down the bugs. Hope the bats in the parks are getting enough.

[doctorbob]

Finally getting around to participating in this thread because I wanted to post some of our rat behaviors.

First, I wondered how other folks had their rats come out of the cage. That flinging is pretty impressive. Silver will walk right out and climb up your shirt and park herself on your shoulder. Pretty normal. When we still had Dizzy, she would require that you lower yourself so that your shoulder was even with the open door. Sometimes she needed to come out (cleaning, etc.) and she just wouldn't do it so you had to lift her out. That's the only times she ever bit me because she sure as hell didn't want out some times. Millie is my girl. At least I'm the human she trusts the most and somehow she connected to me. When I want her out and I open the door, she comes out and throws herself up in my arm (imagine your right arm held close to you so that there's a bit of a shelf and the crook of your elbow is there). She gets in that and just hangs out. It's pretty cool to have a rat trust you so much that she can completely relax like that. She'll sleep on me if she decides to have a nap.

I want Millie and Silver to stay in the same cage. It's certainly big enough and if they don't want to cuddle, they do each have a house. Some may remember my early posts where the 2 (Dizzy, who's gone and Silver) beating up on Millie. Of course that still goes on, to some degree. Silver harasses Millie all the time. Millie is clearly passive. I wonder if Millie was the runt of her little and maybe that's why she puts up with it -- she's had to her whole life. She certainly isn't getting any bigger than when she got here. Silver is now bigger than Millie so that's another strike (the first being she's still the newcomer).

But being in the same cage, the hoarding of food is so much more pronounced! It's funny to watch as one will take something special and go hide it and the other will go right to it and take it. And while that rat is raiding the stash, the other is in the house, also on a raid!

Finally, Millie had developed this thing where she's more or less giving me a manicure. It's weird but she seems to enjoy it and does all 5 fingers on each hand. And what I mean is she just chews on my fingernails a little. She'll also groom my arms or whatever if she gets bored.

Note: these 2 also only do ramps or shelves about half the time. They sometimes like to just run up the side. And they're quite good at it.