Ronnie and Derek are occasionally allowed to lick up the remains of food, such as from the bottom of yoghurt pots – see video below. They’re not allowed to do it too much otherwise they’d become overweight and risk ingesting too much sugar!
Message from Derek:
I’ve been naughty and, while I was allowed to run around on top of the cage this evening, I nibbled the water bottle and now it’s leaking. Our water’s now being put in our backup water holder which is a tealight container.
I’m so naughty because our humans will have to buy a new water bottle tomorrow!
Derek
Ronnie and Derek are quite the posers. See below some photos of them posing in various positions!
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
We were told Ronnie and Derek were approx. six to eight weeks old when we got them on 30 January 2019, so to set a date for their birthday, I worked backwards seven weeks from 30 January which gives 12 December.
That means Ronnie and Derek will be celebrating their 1st birthday on 12 December 2019.
This is coincidentally the day of the UK General Election – something rats are unfortunately not eligible to stand or vote in, which is a shame as a Parliament of rats would surely do a better job! The 12th also happens to be one day before my 32nd birthday.
Ronnie and Derek love sniffing intently when they know there’s food about – they’d surely love to wear a perfume that was the smell of food (possibly branded ‘Odour Food’). Watch the video below to see them getting over-excited about sniffing out a meal that was nearby!
If there’s one thing Ronnie and Derek love doing, it’s eating. See below more photos of them indulging themselves!
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
I previously posted about how I bought a ‘cozy’ tube and hammock from Silver’s Rattery Etsy shop.
Ronnie and Derek were recently both in the same tube and it ended with Derek kicking Ronnie out – see the photos below. I subsequently bought another tube so they can use one each!
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
Watch Ronnie and Derek giving a plate a good lick and clean!
Below are a selection of photos of Ronnie and Derek celebrating Halloween… and a video of them tucking into some pint-sized pumpkins!
Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.
On Wednesday evening, Ronnie started squeaking loudly when he moved in any way that caused his tail to move upwards. It seemed the source of the pain was at the base of the tail where it joins his back. By Friday morning, he was obviously still in pain whenever his tail moved upwards, so I took him to the vet that afternoon.
As there were no other symptoms (he was eating, drinking, defecating and urinating normally and had no loss of energy), the vet was satisfied there were no major problems and that the tail may have been slightly injured, possibly during a play-fight with Derek, and it’d cure itself. Something similar happened to Ronnie’s tail in July (but obviously to a much lesser extent in terms of pain) and that cured itself within about 10 days.
The vet prescribed Metacam to Ronnie, an anti-inflammatory and painkiller which is primarily used for dogs. He takes a daily dose and the problem should be cured within a week. If not, he’ll need to have an x-ray, but things are looking positive as the pain’s mostly subsided since taking Metacam.
I initially gave the medicine in the morning so it’d be in his body while he was sleeping and would assist the healing, but this meant it wore off by the time he was active at night, so I started giving it to him in the evening instead to cover his active hours and ensure they’re as painless as possible while his tail’s healing.
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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