A blog about Skip's and Alxandra's pets. The rittles are pet rats. Bittle is our Catahoula Leopard mutt. And, my crafting which is mostly for the rittles.
I caught Doctor being very, very bad, and, of course, I had to grab the camera to document his misdeed.
Ok, that may seem strange, but one does develop an odd reaction to rat's modification of objects. It sort of becomes your fault if you leave something that they shouldn't chew on in reach of their chompers. In Doctor's case, he isn't a chewer typically. He is much more interested in getting places and exploring. Lily, on the other hand, is incorrigible when it comes to chewing. She is never left unattended near fabric otherwise, she WILL make lace. She's already nibbled holes in a couple of my slacks. So, I've learned to not let her squeeze into my pants leg.
(Note: Mabel is a rat with the rex mutation which gives her curly whiskers and fur, but she also has hair loss. Her fur grows in and then, falls out in patches.)
By the way, I'd been working with her on charging the clicker for several days. And, unfortunately, she had a lung exacerbation, so she took a break from training for a few days. So, the first part of the video is from her first session after she returned to training, and the next day, she was just an extremely bright pupil and learned the spin, which is what you see in the second part of the video.
Also, Mabel saw her doctor yesterday. The doctor was thrilled that she's gained 50 grams since her pneumonia, but she still has lung issues, so she's going to be on theophylline for the rest of her life which reallybums me out. But, we just will have to deal with it. At least, she likes the taste of theophylline.
And, on the subject of medicating rats, Dean has just been started on Bactrim for a secondary infection of contact dermatitis. And, Skip Lee was thrilled to report (Skip is just amazing at medicating rats, so he gets to do all of it --grins-- ) that Dean avidly reached for the syringe when he clicked, and Dean drank all of his Bactrim quick as can be. A couple of weeks ago, I'd done a few clicker training sessions with him. This is a wonderful consequence of clicker training, easy medication administration.
Now, I need to figure out what Dean is allergic to. Hopefully, it was a one time issue. My rats are all on a gluten free diet because of Rose's sensitivity, so it's not wheat.
Does anyone know what the most prevalent rat allergies are other than wheat?
Patches loves anything and everything that she can eat. And, she loves hunting for new yummy morsels.
So, here's an old video of Patches' enjoying the chocolate she found.
Please note: Chocolate is NOT poisonous for rats. I will concede that chocolate is NOT good for Patches' waistline, and in excessive quantities they could have problems from the stimulant effect. But, they sure love chocolate.
I stumbled across this awesome video, and I just wanted to share. (The above photo is only a screen capture from Vimeo. Please click on "video" in the above paragraph that will take you to the webpage.)
