Pets, including rats, should be fine as there's no evidence that the humain strain of coronavirus can pass from humans to animals. This is stated on the UK Government website. There's more information in this veterinary article.
You could say “it’s a rat’s life”, judging from these photos and video of Ronnie and Derek enjoying being scratched…
(Starring in the video is Ronnie.)
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
Watch Ronnie and Derek making a cress mess as they tucked into a tub of tasty watercress.
Ronnie and Derek love supervised exploring and one of their new favourite places is under the sofa – a dark, small space which may even have the odd tasty crumb lurking under there.
It’s not easy to get them out, requiring lifting of the sofa, as they’ve learnt not to be tempted by food which is offered as a bribe for their exit. Derek has also ripped up a cloth bag that was under there and made a semi-nest from it!
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
Ronnie and/or Derek have tried some DIY by moving some furniture and re-upholstering. Unfortunately it ended up a bit of a mess.
Yesterday morning, one of them had dragged one of their ‘surfboard’ cushions into their house and started to rip off its cover. Last night it got chucked out and the cover had got half ripped off and pulled into the house (see photo, below left).
By this morning, the inner cushion and cover were both ripped into bits and mostly dragged into their house (see photo, below right). They probably won’t be invited onto any DIY TV shows any time soon!
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
Ronnie and Derek have separate ‘cosy tubes’ but they usually end up getting in the same one, resulting in trouble as I’ve previously posted about. See below a storyboard of new photos showing what happened when Ronnie rudely barged his way into the tube that Derek was happily resting in!
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
Watch Ronnie and Derek rifling through their food ‘bouquets’, picking out the best bits of some rat muesli and making a mess in the process – not exactly ‘keeping up appearances’!
Leaving a ‘cheesy ball’ potato snack on top of Ronnie and Derek’s cage is one way to keep them occupied, although not often as they’re not exactly nutritious!
Watch the videos below to watch them in action – the first one is the ‘fisticuff’ highlights and the second one has more of the action.
‘Fistycuff’ highlights
Main action
Ronnie’s been caught on camera stealing from Derek – see video below.
It’s the usual routine – Derek goes to the side of their house with a couple of rat nuggets, then Ronnie spots him, goes up on top of the house and launches an air assault by stealing one of the nuggets Derek has. Usually there’s a bit of protestive squeaking from Derek but he was quiet this time.
I suspect Derek takes two nuggets because he knows Ronnie’s likely to steal one. It’s a mystery though why Derek always goes down the side of the house when he must realise Ronnie will be a thief – but perhaps it’s more of a mystery why Ronnie has to steal from Derek in the first place when they both have easy access to the nuggets!
See photos below of Derek enjoying a good scratch while he and Ronnie relaxed on a chair.
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
I recently weighed Ronnie and Derek again using kitchen scales. It’s quite tricky to do because they inevitably don’t want to keep still – particularly Derek who kept wandering off! See the photos below.
Ronnie’s previously been a bit heavier than Derek, but now Derek is slightly heavier at about 540g (and Ronnie at 535g). The ideal weight is a bit less at about 500g, so I’ll slightly reduce the amount of food I feed them and see if it has an effect. Another good method is apparently to scatter dry food around their cage instead of placing it in a food bucket.
Exercise is obviously the best way to reduce weight though, including running up the stairs, which Ronnie and Derek like doing!
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
All content hosted on this website, including text and visual materials, is Copyright © David Watts 2019 - 2020. It cannot be reproduced in any form without the prior permission of the copyright holder. All information provided on this website is based on experience of caring for Ronnie and Derek. Whilst the information will hopefully be useful to those interested in caring for rats, it must not be treated as a defintive care guide. If in doubt regarding the health and well-being of your rat(s), be safe by contacting your vet.
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