Oasis' Nut house

I didn't get a good shot of Gus, but, these are the last photo's of my baby's I got. I actually had to give my rats away due to not being able to devote any time to them. I gave birth to my first born a little over 3 weeks ago- and having to take care of him and everything that goes with it left no time in taking care of them.

The brown and white rat- Dusty- also had been getting more aggressive and was attacking his cagemate Pongo. He bit him really bad the night before I decided to give them another place to be. He had bit him before a couple times, but not that bad- this time it was so bad, Pongo was terrified to return to the cage, even when I pulled Dusty out. He was visibly shaking when I held him close to the cage with the doors wide open and no other rat to be seen inside.I didn't want to have to wake up to a dead rat one morning plus, I couldn't afford to neuter Dusty. So for the benefit of them and me, they got new homes.

So I had to take this little fuzz-face to the ER vet today and have him put down.

I heard a rukus in the cage and went to check on them, things seemed fine, but while I was checking on the other two, Dusty pinned Filbert and it didn't look playful, so I opened the cage and get him off, but then I noticed a bad bite mark on the lump on Filberts neck. He's had a lump on his neck (non-tumorous) for a little bit. I didn't get it removed because it wasn't dangerous, and there was a high risk of him dying on the operation table due to his respiratory problem (like most rats get). I didn't want to pay $700 on the high risk chance he might die, esp if the lump wasn't dangerous to him.

But, at some point tonight, either Dusty or Pongo attacked Filbert and bit into the lump. When I opened the door and tried to help Filbert, he squeaked a little as though in a lot of pain, his mouth was hanging open and one eye (the one opposite of the lump) was open wider in a panic. I noticed this last week he's been having a harder time moving around, and overall he's lost a lot of weight in the last couple of weeks- so I had planned to take him to the vet today- but then things got in the way, so I was gona wait until tomorrow (or today being Sat now) and then this happened, so I had to do it in the middle of the night. I didn't have a spare cage for him to keep him safe until morning, and with how he was breathing and just rather panting and freaking out, I felt that I shouldn't let him suffer several hours until the vet office opened in the morning.

So, I said goodbye to this fuzzball tonight and let him go to the rainbow bridge to play with his brothers- Almond and Peanut. I'm sure they're having a lot of fun being reunited again.

Thanks for being such an awesome pet Filbert. I'm going to miss you. ;.;

So, my boys had been out playing and I think the water bottle was empty before I took them out. So when I put them back in, they were all very thirsty.... this video is almost 4 minutes long and before I started recording they'd been drinking like that for a few minutes before. So.... needless to say, they were super thirsty and hilarious to watch trying to get the water all at once. xD;;

Njoi the amusement!

I keep hearing people say that rats never bite. This is a false assumption and teaching.

Sorry, but it is.

They do bite in certain circumstances. Most time it's by accident. The one time I got bit by an older rat was by accident-  and my fault. I put my hand between him and another to stop a fight (as it broke out on my lap) and the rats top teeth slid across the top of my hand, cutting it- but the rat did not chomp on me. The rat at the time, instantly looked remorseful for having done so, but it wasn't his fault and it wasn't aimed at me.

When you bring home a brand new rat, if they have never been cage trained or human socialized (usually younger ones) they will bite if you put your finger between the bars as they think it's food. I have had this happen twice when attempting to train them not to bite when a finger comes between the bars (easier to train rats not to bite than trusting kids not to put their fingers between the bars xD). You can train your rats not to bite your fingers between the bars. I have done it to all of my rats. You make squeaking noises at them the moment they attempt to nip or bite, or even when sniffing just to warn them not to bite; use the word 'NO!' also, and you can give them a quick blow in the face as soon as they attempt to bite you (so your face has to be right up close to the cage to do so). You have to be constantly on alert, as they can bite quickly.

They will always back off the instant they realize it is not food.

The only other time I almost got bit was when giving a yogurt drop to my rats and two tried to get the same one and one almost bit my thumb in his eagerness to get the treat. Again, this was no intentional, not meaning to bite me.

Like any animal, they can bite, but like any animal (that has no mental problems), they can be trained not to. In general, rats will not bite, but sometimes, they do in certain circumstances.

But never assumed that when recommending a pet rat to a child, that it will never bite them. Never ever assume that any animal will never do something, as there is always a chance it will.

TL;DR Animals are animals, never assume they don't act like them.

Be safe! And remember, rats rule! C:

The one, Dusty, sneezed a lot more when I had them in the smaller rat cage with the paper bedding. The dust from the bedding I think made them sneeze. Once I finally moved them into the big cage, they stopped sneezing. I've had them at the vet and they're perfectly healthy, at least the young boys are.

Filbert has a respiratory issue, but I'm medicating him.

The new boys- the black and white, also has been sneezing a bit since I put him into the cage. It's not because they're sick, thankfully, but due to the paper dust. I've been watching them and I was worried about the sneezing too, but like I said, it has gone away.

Meet the newbies! No names yet. Picked up from PetSmart. Saw them on Sat, got them on Monday, I couldn't resist. SO CUTE!!! Appx 6 weeks.

No names yet.

Isn't that the most wonderful thing you've ever seen?!

However, when I tried to put them together in the cage, it got a little scary, not horribly, but Dusty started having his episodes again where he'd freeze and breathe or gasp heavily like he was freaking out.

So, I've been having them live separately, but play together. Over the last week and a half, when they've been together playing, there were no incidents and Dusty would actually pounce on Filbert who would voluntarily filp over some and let the younger rat pin him. But sometimes, he'd still pounce on Pongo while puffed up and it worried me. However, Filbert has also stops when I say "No!" just in case

But today, I did a thorough cleaning of the cage, did a whole rearrangement and then put all 3 rats in it. I've been basically freaking out for the last several hours, just worrying terribly something was going to happen.

I went upstairs just a little bit ago and to my immediate surprise and utter delighted to see Dusty in the hammock with Filbert who was just sleeping! I just... I started to cry being so happy seeing that cuz I've been so so so worried lately and other life stresses had been building up and that was just one less thing that I feel I have to worry about.

I'm so freaking happy right now and hopefully I can snag an awesome picture of them soon.

My boys Pongo and Dusty deciding that scaling my head sounds like a great idea!

This is a short vid me and my hubby caught of Filbert trying to dominate Pongo a few days ago and the resulting almost fight that happened.

This may make you jump a bit, so be warned.

Filbert is being far too aggressive here, so I had to stop him to keep him from thinking such behavior is okay.

After such encounters, I will remove Filbert, give him some love and then put him back after he's calmed down. After this, he did do a little attack to Dusty, which I also stopped, calmed them down and then Filbert spent the rest of the time rather napping in the corner of the couch- with me constantly watching.

See the little red toe/finger on his front left paw there? Pongo got it caught between the cage panels- from climbing up along the corner of the cage and most likely, went to slide down and jump off (like he does a lot) and got it caught. My husband found him as he was getting ready for work (heard him too) and after several minutes (and 4 bites from Pongo, one rather deep) got him free. When my hubby came down to tell me and show me Pongo, his own hand was covered with blood and I started freaking out a bit, then when he said one of the rats got caught, I thought the blood was from them! But luckily it wasn't any rat blood. He said that he wasn't making noise when he first came into the room, so it probably happened at around the same time he was there, so it wasn't very long, but long enough to cause him immense pain! Ran him to the vet (Hubby went, cuz I had the flu so I couldn't go)- got him some meds and he's all better, but it looked just awful for over a week.

Thought he might lose his claw, but it seems to be growing back, so I'm glad there was no permanent damage!

Did another one yesterday, used the bed. Filbert has been there before. He was a little too aggressive towards Pongo again. I had to stop him. Pinned him with my hand and said NO really loud and that seemed to make him stop. He bruxed and boggled his eyes almost immediately- which was weird, but I think a sign that he understood at least that I didn't want him doing that.

So I decided to do the 'scary place' intro today and put all three rats in the bath tub.

Discovered one thing though. Filbert is not afraid of the bath tub. Yeah, so... so much for 'scary place intro'. lol! Well, it scared the boys, just not Filbert. xD;

Overall, the intro went well. Pongo was really cautious of Filbert. He got pinned a bit, but was uninjured. Dusty also go pinned, and that seemed to scare him quite a bit, but he too is fine. Both babies were startled and a little nervous about Filbert, but after a half hour, that's all that happened and Filbert was even sitting there bruxing with Dusty sitting next to him.

I'm sure people have seen this, I couldn't really find these together on tumblr, so I thought I'd just post it myself... cuz it's too cute to pass up.