As some of you may know, Roger, our much-loved pet rabbit, passed away on the morning of Sunday March 20th, after a short illness. He died in Gill's arms at 09:30 in the morning, while we were waiting for the on-call vet to turn up at the surgery. If she had have turned up a few minutes sooner, I doubt it would have affected the outcome. We have mourned Roger's passing - it has affected all of us deeply. More so than ever we imagined.
But time passes, and we must move on. So now we have another pet. Pets to be precise. Plural. Two of them. As is the rule in our house, I get naming rights. Gill spotted these two in the Pet Shop and asked what I thought. And so we ended up with them. As is often the economics of these things. The two of them themselves cost £15. The various bits that you need in order to keep them had an initial cost of nearer £100 - a figure which grew thereafter.
Naming our new pets was not difficult. The mainly white one actually has an "F" on his back - so Frank was the obvious choice - very quickly abbreviated to Frankie. The other is a dark grey in colour, so Sammy seemed the obvious choice. Frank and Sammy - our own little Rat Pack. Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davies-Junior. They are Dumbo Rats - so named because of their little round, sticky-out ears.
I have made jokes about rats intelligence, their IQ's, for some time. How you have to line their cages with broadsheet newspapers, because tabloids make them ill. How you should always move the wood-shavings away from the crossword and supply a pencil - this kind of thing. Now I was going to experience these things first-hand.
When we got Frankie and Sammy, they were relatively old by new-pet standards - about twelve weeks old. This has presented its share of challenges, some of which we are still dealing with. They live in a large (70x70x43cm), three-level wire cage, and they have many toys. Very many toys. Their cage gets re-arranged almost every day - things are put in different places, and things are added and taken away. Gill's research online, and later in books, suggest that rats like this constant change, and find it stimulating/entertaining. This is interesting to me - because some time ago I read "Life of Pi", which has interesting things to say about zoos and animal habitats - that animals don't like their routines or their domains messed with. It would appear that rats are exceptional in this respect.
Rats, like most mammals and especially micro-mammals, are nocturnal - so they generally sleep all day, and we get them out in the evenings. We've been through a number of iterations with this in order to find out what they like best. Cutting boxes in two to form open-fronted enclosed cardboard spaces. The first night, we put a Ritz cracker box on the top floor of the cage. I am came the next morning to find that Frankie had spent the night in the Ritz. :)
Whilst they generally poo in a specific corner, they'll wee everywhere - especially in their bed area. We bought them bedding, but we came down the next morning to find all the bedding in a neat pile outside the bed. We bought a plastic sleeping enclosure - like an igloo - but they didn't like that. So we settled on half cardboard boxes, changed when weed in. Now we have added sheets of kitchen roll to absorb the wee, make something soft for them to lay on, and extend the life of the boxes. Today, we found that Frankie had actually folded one of the sheets of kitchen roll - they really are ingenious!
The pet shop didn't have any books on rats, so we went looking online, and found a wealth of information readily available - including a leaflet to download from the Blue Cross. One of the most helpful was a long list of foods that can be fed frequently, infrequently and to be avoided, and harmful - so that was good.
Frankie and Sammy are incredibly different - they are as different in their personalities as they are in their colouration. Frankie is a bundle of inquisitive, wriggly energy. He is into, and all over, and scent-marking absolutely everything. He will find everything - he will jump and crawl and
stretch everywhere. If you're holding him in your arms, he'll climb up your chest, round your neck, over your head, and down your arm. He has been in t-shirts, up skirts and inside shorts - so he's probably deeply traumatised by now! He very, very rarely stays still on your or around you - but he's extremely entertaining to watch. He's not scared of you, but also not really wanting to just "be" with you.
Sammy is extremely shy and timid. This has made him very hard work and very frustrating. He will struggle to get away from you. If you approach him, he'll move away. If you move your hand towards him, he'll cower and back away. Sometimes, he will just give up, and let you stroke and touch him - he'll usually be backed into a corner, and standing up, and he'll feel very firm. Sort
of rigid with fear - petrified. This can be quite disturbing - I don't think any pet owner wants to think that their pet is too petrified to even run away. Sometimes, though - if you catch Sammy in the right mood, he will sit in your arms, of his own volition, and just enjoy being stroked and petted - so relaxed that his eyes half-close - and that is just magical - especially after everything I've previously described. When we first got the rats, it was Sammy who would leave deposits when you tried to catch him - he was that scared. But that was only for the first day or so - then that stopped completely - we didn't chastise him for it - we just took it as a good sign that he wasn't THAT scared.
I hope over time, and with treats, Sammy will become more confident in general and more comfortable to be handled and petted. I think Sammy actually has the capacity - as he's proved - to be the more affectionate of the two.
We've now been watching them for a number of weeks - their behaviours and ways. We think that Frankie is the alpha-male - there is a lot of rough-and-tumble - a lot of standing up and boxing - with the occasional squeak and yelp. We redoubled our efforts to find books to learn more about their behaviour. We didn't find anything at all in local bookshops, but found four
books at the library this last weekend. This is good in one sense - we have now been re-assured about some of their behaviours that we thought were unkind to each other and violent - but - the four books all contradict each other on many points - especially around diet and what to feed!
All the books say you should have your rats out for at least an hour every day - so we've been doing that. We've ratproofed the kitchen, breakfast room, utility room, hall, stairs, landing and main bathroom - so they have quite the run of the house when we let them out. It's amazing to see Frankie bound down the stairs. Just the way dart and tear around has led to the phrase "mad as a rat" in our house. Having said that, though, Frankie is normally quite happy to be picked up and played with or petted - whereas Sammy very rarely lets you pick him up.
Very little cardboard gets thrown away now - boxes are turned into sleep areas or tunnels. Swiss roll boxes are taped together. We've got single and double Pringles tube tunnels. An old school rucksack, old school sweatshirt. Many of the toys that we've bought from the petshop are designed for puppies - we have a big rubber chunky tire and a hanging rope that they play with, climb over, and chew - it's wonderful to watch them. We often sit transfixed watching their antics - "ratvision" has replaced television as a form of entertainment.
Just as with rabbits, it's hugely rewarding to have an animal in your arms, or on your shoulder, that would normally be running away from you, or no-where near you, in the wild. Rats can be, and generally are, very rewarding, and wonderful to play with - but - because they are so smart and active and interactive, they are quite hard work - certainly the most demanding pet we've
had, I think.
Frankie and Sammy are extremely hygienic - they seem to spend hours washing and grooming themselves. It's lovely to see them holding food in their little hands, and putting to their mouths - like a squirrel. They really do have hands - perfectly-defined fingers and wrists and nails. Sammy even has white shirt cuffs - it looks like he's wearing a grey suit! Sammy also has a white line down his tummy. Just as Frankie has the "F" on his back, so Sammy's line seems to become an "S" when he bends forward.
During the day, of course, they are generally asleep, or dopey. It might be a good time to try and handle them more, but it doesn't seem right to interrupt what is essentially their sleep time. One website recommended a cure for overly-timid and afraid rats. To pick them up and hold them, no matter what they do - for 20 minutes. The theory is that no rat can continue to be scared stiff for 20 minutes. Eventually, they'll realise that they are not being hurt (only
constrained), and that this person is actually feeding them treat after treat, and stroking them. Once you've done it a few times on consecutive nights, the rat is supposed to get the message. We haven't done this religiously with Sammy - in spite of testimonials to it's success, I'm still not sure that it's right to do something like this to a rat of Sammy's age and disposition. I've tried it
a couple of times - but probably for less than ten minutes, and then the struggling and the unhappy noises have just become too much, or he's wriggled free. I hope Sammy will warm to us and learn to trust us and be less timid over time.
I would love to be at the stage where we can wander around with a rat in our pocket or on our shoulder - but I suspect we didn't have Sammy and Frankie from young enough. Still - it's early days for us all still - so you never know!
