Ronnie the Swinger!

Watch Ronnie having a good time swinging in one of the ‘coconut shells’!

Rabbit Pie

Rabbit pie

Ronnie and Derek enjoyed investigating a ‘rabbit pie’ ornament. They probably think it’d be a tasty pie, but are having second thoughts now they’ve seen the rabbit popping out!

Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.

Hickory Dickory Dock…

…Derek ran up the clock! See below some photos of Derek exploring a 1920s striking wall clock.

Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.

Tomatoes and stockpiling

Ronnie recently stockpiled some rat nuggets by carefully placing them in the corner of their house and then covering them with some of their bedding cardboard! See photos below, along with photos of Ronnie enjoying some home-grown, juicy cherry tomatoes.

Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.

Play fighting

The video below shows an example of Ronnie and Derek play fighting. Read more about this on the Habits page.

‘Summerats’

At the start of meteorological summer, here are some recent photos of Ronnie and Derek.

Click thumbnails to enlarge. More photos on the Photos page.

Feeling minty!

Ronnie and Derek recently enjoyed climbing around in the mint plant and eating bits of it! Watch a clip of this below.

The 1

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.

Weight Watchers

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.