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.

Photo of the Day, 2/4/2020

 
Today’s Photo of The Day, selected randomly from the Photos page. There’ll be another tomorrow!

Derek in the tube. (Click thumbnail to enlarge image.)

Message from Derek

 
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

Scratch ‘n’ Sniff

 
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.

Photo of the Day, 3/4/2020

 
Today’s Photo of The Day, selected randomly from the Photos page. There’ll be another tomorrow!

Ronnie sniffing blossom, Apr 2019. (Click thumbnail to enlarge image.)

Rude Tube

 
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.

Photo of the Day, 4/4/2020

 
Today’s Photo of The Day, selected randomly from the Photos page. There’ll be another tomorrow!

Cosy in the house, Apr 2019. (Click thumbnail to enlarge image.)

A ‘tail’ of woe

 
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.