[sleepyangel]

Hi my name is Angel. I have owned rats for years but haven't had any for a while after loosing my boy to a heart condition. The other day I was in the feed store trying to buy food for my dogs and I noticed these poor little baby rats in the feeder cage. I thought one was dead but when I went to check the breathing one he moved too. At that point I new I was going to get them. I immediately went to the counter and told them to ring me up for two rats. Once I got into the car with them I was off to the vet. I didn't know if they would say the one boy needed to be euthanized or not but I figured anything would be better than leaving him to slowly suffocate in that aquarium. Once we got to the vet they immediately got them both into a breathing chamber and after a few mins in there they started to breath a bit easier, and the really bad one started to perk up. Once they were more stable they got to come out and get fully examined. They were found to be pretty healthy other than the severe respiratory infection, and the one being a bit malnourished. They got an anti parasitic in case they had worms and mites, as well as a quick bath (they were covered in urine and poop), and we were sent home with antibiotics to give twice a day for 10 days. They said I could come back for more breathing treatments if they got really bad again but so far they haven't. They are very cute little boys but seem to be on the older side for babies maybe 7-8 weeks or so. I am working on gaining their trust which has proven to be quite difficult. I try to take it slow but then the time comes to give them their medicine and it's a fight so I loose all the progress I had made that day. They are now eating out of my hand though which is good. They will crawl on me but not willingly. They one boy that was real sick acts more like a female, he loves to roam around and explore instead of just sit and be pet. I still haven't figured out names for them so any suggestions are welcome. They are both dumbo's one has a few dark grey/bluish spots on his head. They other has them too but only on his skin, the color doesn't come through to his fur.
This was they really sick one I thought was dead

This is the other one. He is really skittish

 

[mimsy]

both are adorable and very lucky to have found you.

 

[Fairy]

Aww, that is so sweet! You should name the one that almost died Ostentus. It's Latin for miracle, and you could nickname him Os (pronounced Oz)! For the other one how about Eximius (pronounced Ex-im-eye-us)? It means special/glorious/extraordinary in Latin! I'm so happy that you saved these rats. You are a truly amazing person!

 

[Drakmanka]

Wow, what an awesome story! I'm so glad you were willing and able to help these little guys out. I lost a dear old rat to a respiratory infection, and I can say that I never ever want to see another rat suffer that kind of death; especially a baby.

 

[meldiggity]

I agree with everyone here. You are such an amazing person for saving them<3 I hope their journey with you continues to be happy and uplifting every step of the way sleepyangel.

 

[janrobwei]

Such adorable boys, they are so very lucky to have you. x

 

[sleepyangel]

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I'm glad I was able to save them. I wish that this feed store wasn't the only place that sold the laying hen feed I like or else I wouldn't ever go there again. I have boycotted the main pet store here because of their horrendous treatment of animals particularly small animals like rats and mice.
So far training is still proving to be a challenge. They have no trust whatsoever and the lighter boy is extremely skittish. Thankfully they haven't shown any aggression to me at all. They do seem to play very rough though. I have caught the lighter boy literally dragging the other one around the cage. That has me a bit worried because the only other time I have seen behavior like that is with an extremely rat aggressive female I had once. They fight over food constantly too. I have gotten them to eat from my hand but they grab a piece and run away terrified. I can't wait until the medication is done and over with so I can really start gaining their trust and not loosing it right away when I have to medicate them.
I actually caught him grabbing the other ones tail so he could drag him around the cage

A better picture of the lighter boy.

 

[MousE190]

Bless you for saving thm,,,,may they bring smiles

 

[Drakmanka]

I had a rat who would drag others around sometimes as well. She had a serious alpha complex, which was humorous since she was the tiniest rat I've ever had. Of course, I wasn't having to fight with her to give her medicine, but once she trusted me I learned that if I gave her a little extra attention she wouldn't bully her fellows. Rats are so much like humans sometimes, crying out for attention however they can.

 

[LittleIdealist]

Aw they are so precious. I'm having some trust issues myself - my boys won't let me pick them up and I'm barely allowed to pet them without them running off. Have your sweethearts been feeling better?

 

[ButchVincentJules]

I did a similar thing yesterday and am now a proud Rat Mama!
I've been thinking of getting rats for a while but the boyfriend wasn't convinced. So I dragged him to Pets At Home (UK Chain Pet store) yesterday and they didn't have any rats. We got talking to one of the shop assistants and she put us right off Gerbils/Hamsters as she said they don't massively like to interact with humans. I mentioned that I'd been thinking about rats and her face lit up! She took us to the back of the store where they had a separate adoption/rescue animal area. She said they currently had three male rats who were around 14 weeks and had been brought back in simply because the owner hadn't realised the responsibility. She said they were lovely and if she didn't already have rats of her own, she was going to take them herself!

However... the catch was that they wanted to home all three together. You should have seen my boyfriends face!
She got one of them (now named Butch) out of the cage and as soon as I had handled him, my boyfriend had a go too and immediately softened.
We took all three and are now proud Ratty parents of three gorgeous little PulpFictionRats (Butch, Jules & Vincent.)
I'm so glad we took them- its going to be a long hard couple of months (they have commitment/trust issues obviously) but they'd still be in the Pet store staring out of a glass box if we hadn't!

Anyways- I'm off to make a rat run! Well done to everyone who takes the chance with an animal, I think its nothing but rewarding!

 

[sleepyangel]

They still are not to keen on being handled. We have finally finished the medicine and they seem perfectly healthy now YAY!!! We have a follow up this week at the vet. The other day I walked into the room where they are and was surprised that the light boy was on the top hammock sleeping and didn't run away. Until I said hi to him then he took off. I don't want to push them but I'm thinking it's gonna take some one on one time with me to get them to come out of their shell. I have a small travel cage and I think I'm just going to take one individually to work with me each day so they can hang out on my shoulder and build some trust. We will see how that goes.

 

[ButchVincentJules]

I have a small travel cage and I think I'm just going to take one individually to work with me each day so they can hang out on my shoulder and build some trust. We will see how that goes.

Does anyone else have any advice on 'one on one' time? I have three but I was worried about splitting them up.

 

[MousE190]

Angel...you are an angel,,,,,saving the two little guys,,,may the time you spend with them , be fully rewarded,,,,