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

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

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!

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.

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.