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Thursday, 09 July 2009

  • Preparing for Unexpected Adoptees

    One of my husband's customers has a pair of male rats that she is trying to give away. It seems she is terribly allergic, and if she is unable to find a new home for the rats they will have to go to a shelter.

    After a few weeks of contemplation, my husband and I have decided to take these little guys in. At first I wasn't sure that we had the room for two more squeakers...but talking to my husband convinced me that yes, if we organize things a bit, we will have plenty of room for another cage.

    So for the next few days we'll be cleaning things up a bit and reorganizing things in the living room to make room for the new rat cage. Plus, I will be doing research into rat introductions...because this would be the perfect opportunity to integrate Remington into a family group!

    Edit: That last idea will have to be nixed. The two ratties are GIRLS. XD

Wednesday, 08 July 2009

  • Dead Laptop, Gerbil Reunion, and Gratuitous Rattie Love

    Yep...my laptop is absolutely toast...in a literal sense. The motherboard is fried, and the cost to repair it is hardly worth it given the computer's age.

    So for now I'm computerless at home, and will probably remain so until December-ish. At least I have my computer at work with which to check e-mail and browse the web. I just won't be around on weekends much.

    But I can say one positive thing about it: it leaves me plenty of time to play with the Squeakers. :)

    Speaking of which...

    Gerb Reunion

    Ladies and gentlemen, we have victory! Amber has now been fully reintroduced to her family! I'm both excited and relieved at the same time. Honey is still a bit of a bully, but now she mostly focuses her attention on Topaz (who quickly quashes any uprising--Big Mama is in charge!) and Ambie is in the clear. It took three weeks to fully reintegrate them, but it was so worth it for the positive result.

    Mmm Peanut

    Treat time! Remington loves his peanuts...

    Yummy Toeses

    ...which he follows up with a side of toes. (just kidding...he was cleaning himself)

    Lazy Rat

    Then, time to relax.

Monday, 29 June 2009

  • Open Mouth, Insert Foot

    This is the sight that I woke up to on the 26th:

    Together Again

    Sometime through the night, Citrine had squeezed through the tiny space between the top of the wire partition and the cage lid to join Amber on the other side. There were no apparent wounds, no evidence that the two had fought...just Amber and Citrine happily going about their normal gerbil business.

    So literally the day after I wrote here bemoaning the fact that Amber would probably never be reunited with her family, her littermate decided to prove me wrong.

    But this is one case where I am more than happy to be wrong. :) Go Ambie and Trini-Bean!

Thursday, 25 June 2009

  • No Dice

    Amber will probably never be reunited with her mom and sisters. I attempted a supervised reintroduction today, and Honey Jade instantly went on the attack.

    Sigh.

    Poor Ambie.

    FYI...my laptop is toast at the moment. Just a heads up as to why I'm not around much right now. :/

Tuesday, 16 June 2009

  • Update on Amber

    As much as I'd like to think that I know what's best for my gerbies, there are some cases where I've turned out to be dead wrong.

    Such is the case with Amber.

    She has always been small compared to her mom and two sisters, and as such was the constant target of bullying by her larger cagemates. Food was a major issue of contention between them, and Ambie was never allowed her fair share of the pickings. Even picking her up and feeding her individually did nothing to curb the issue, and Ambie was losing weight.

    So I removed her from the tank and put her in a completely new environment.

    Total. Mistake.

    The poor girl was miserable. She spent most of her time chewing on the cage and didn't gain much weight at all, despite my intentionally over-feeding her. My intention to help her well-being had the exact opposite effect.

    So Sunday I righted the wrong...or at least I'm trying to.

    I put Amber back in the main tank with a wire cage split between her and the rest of her family. My hope is that they'll get used to each other again and I'll be able to reintegrate them into one family unit, though I'm not totally optimistic that this will actually occur. It may be that I'll have to keep that split cage for the rest of their lives.

    Ambie in New Home

    Here she is in her new environs on the other side of her family's tank. She seems to be doing better now, though she's a little nervous with her siblings at the moment (Honey has been pretty aggressive at the bars, though she's starting to tone it down a bit.)

    See that bald spot on her nose? That's from when she was on her own and spending most of her time with her muzzle between the bars, trying to chew her way out. :(

    We'll see what happens.

     

Featured Links

There are a lot of wonderful websites out there dedicated to all things small and fuzzy.
Here is just a small smattering of sites that I have found. Enjoy!

Twin Squeaks Gerbils belongs to one of the members of the AGS (American Gerbil Society)
board, and is a fantastic reference for gerbil lovers.

I Can Has Rats hasn't been updated in a while, but contains
many captioned rat photos that are sure to bring a chuckle or two.

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know!

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