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I haven't posted in a while, so thought I'd share.
My big black self boys Jeffrey and Tucker are almost 15 months old! That's roughly 45 in rat years (If the calculation of 10 days = 1 year in rat growth is correct). I can't believe my baby boys are now middle aged. They went through a mid-life crisis with the addition of their four new juvenile cage mates, each losing a fair amount of weight with the stress of new additions. But now, they're gaining weight again, and are fat and sassy patriarchs of their domain.
Black Pete, their biological younger half brother and the cage baby is now close to full sized. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to tell he and his physical 'twin' Tucker apart once he was full grown unless I looked at is little irish paws, but it's striking to me how different they look. Pete is daintier than Tucker, with the cutest, most perfectly perfect pink ears, and he has enough of the silvering fault in his coat that in some lights he looks closer to russian blue than black. He is the content omega of the gang, and relishes his job of peace maker.
Zmei my smeezy BES has never seen a nom he didn't feel compelled to snatch, steal, horde, inhale, or otherwise claim as his god given right. He's always been fluffy squishy, but now he's getting roly poly on top of it. At six months he's already matched Jeffrey's top adult weight, which Jeffrey didn't obtain until he was 10 months old. I keep trying new ways to limit the little dust buster's food consumption.
Skinner and Melon, the naked twins I had been monitoring with their drama queen potential aggression issues. Last week they started humping everyone and everything that moved, and started showing more than the usual rough housing naked rat battle scars. I decided it was time, and took them on Friday for neutering. The surgery went so smoothly, and after a day to recover, I went ahead and reintegrated them back into the colony to minimize any separation issues. It was a complete non issue, with both of them finding separate snuggle burrows and generally refusing to talk to me for a couple of days while soaking up the nursing attention of Zmei and Black Pete.
Today was deep down cage clean day, and Skinner and Melon are back to eating and behaving normally and being perky and bright eyed. I will miss their glorious naked bums, but I am already seeing a decrease in their cheekiness now that their behavior is back to normal.
Could it be that we will have a completely happy integrated cage in the next few weeks? Crossing fingers!
My big black self boys Jeffrey and Tucker are almost 15 months old! That's roughly 45 in rat years (If the calculation of 10 days = 1 year in rat growth is correct). I can't believe my baby boys are now middle aged. They went through a mid-life crisis with the addition of their four new juvenile cage mates, each losing a fair amount of weight with the stress of new additions. But now, they're gaining weight again, and are fat and sassy patriarchs of their domain.
Black Pete, their biological younger half brother and the cage baby is now close to full sized. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to tell he and his physical 'twin' Tucker apart once he was full grown unless I looked at is little irish paws, but it's striking to me how different they look. Pete is daintier than Tucker, with the cutest, most perfectly perfect pink ears, and he has enough of the silvering fault in his coat that in some lights he looks closer to russian blue than black. He is the content omega of the gang, and relishes his job of peace maker.
Zmei my smeezy BES has never seen a nom he didn't feel compelled to snatch, steal, horde, inhale, or otherwise claim as his god given right. He's always been fluffy squishy, but now he's getting roly poly on top of it. At six months he's already matched Jeffrey's top adult weight, which Jeffrey didn't obtain until he was 10 months old. I keep trying new ways to limit the little dust buster's food consumption.
Skinner and Melon, the naked twins I had been monitoring with their drama queen potential aggression issues. Last week they started humping everyone and everything that moved, and started showing more than the usual rough housing naked rat battle scars. I decided it was time, and took them on Friday for neutering. The surgery went so smoothly, and after a day to recover, I went ahead and reintegrated them back into the colony to minimize any separation issues. It was a complete non issue, with both of them finding separate snuggle burrows and generally refusing to talk to me for a couple of days while soaking up the nursing attention of Zmei and Black Pete.
Today was deep down cage clean day, and Skinner and Melon are back to eating and behaving normally and being perky and bright eyed. I will miss their glorious naked bums, but I am already seeing a decrease in their cheekiness now that their behavior is back to normal.
Could it be that we will have a completely happy integrated cage in the next few weeks? Crossing fingers!
