first photos of Krümel...

[ratcreature]

While I'm -- for the obvious reasons -- not in the giddy "new rats!" headspace, I did take some photos. Krümel is curious, but still somewhat shy, that is he still prefers to run and hide in a tube or a basket once he fetched treats from me, though he does come onto my arm when I coax him with food to get to said treats, and while he is already used to humans handling him he's not yet happy to be just picked up by me. So photos are a bit more difficult. Also I apologize for the blurriness.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Aww, glad you have Krümel.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I'm thankful Ben didn't wait until the night to suddenly go all terminator!rat and might have gotten both of them, so I could at least take Krümel out.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

*nods sadly* how will you keep them, always seperated?

[ratcreature]

Yeah. I can separate the modules in my cage easily to open or close them to each other, so right now I'm doing that. I talked with the breeder I got them from and she advised against trying with Ben again, because he wasn't aggressive at first, but then just killed Gonzo, so he wasn't just interested in his submission.

I mean the barrier is still a mesh one for group integration purpose so they can see and smell each other through it, and I may try to see how they react to each other one Krümel isn't so tiny anymore that Ben could kill him in second, and maybe try with some limited supervised contact outside the cage, though when Ben was still with his brother Dustin they were more aggressive and likely to scuffle outside the cage. Then Dustin usually was the more aggressive and dominant one, despite being smaller (he had a mean kickboxing trick for overpowering Ben), and they never had so much as a bite wound from each other. Anyway, I will get another baby rat from the next expected litter so at least Krümel won't be alone, because even though my anxiety about introducing rats to each other is at an all time high it would be unfair to little Krümel to keep him in isolation through no fault of his.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/]

Yeah.

[derryderrydown.livejournal.com]

Oh, he's gorgeous - I love the little splotch on his head.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, he is very cute.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

What a cute little ratty!

[ratcreature]

Yeah, he's adorable, and definitely still has that baaabyanimals!! thing going for him.

[catmoran.livejournal.com]

Awwww! So cute.

[ratcreature]

He really is. And he also still has his ridiculously soft baby fur, which is great for petting. (Or would be if he held still long enough to actually pet him.)

[caia-comica.livejournal.com]

Awwwww! He is so adorable.

[ratcreature]

Yeah, he's all big black eyes and fluffy fur.

[cereta.livejournal.com]

Awww, he's adorable.

[ratcreature]

He really is. And I'm making progress in getting him comfortable with me too. By now he runs voluntarily onto my shoulder without much coaxing when I bribe him with tiny bits of food and sometimes relaxes enough to eat on me instead of darting back quickly, while even this morning he prefered to just venture half-way onto my hand. He's still not thrilled if I try to pick him up nor with being petted (though part of that is that he's at this extremely hyper phase of younng rats and just prefers to run around all over the place), but I think he'll be more comfortable soon.

[tazlet.livejournal.com]

That is one cute rat...would he like a little brown house mouse friend?

[ratcreature]

Heh, you can't keep mice and rats together, since once they're grow rats may hunt much smaller rodents as potential prey and competition. It's why when you have a vermin problem you usually will have either rats or mice, since rats won't share with the latter. I mean, I could conceive the rare exception for tame ones, after all this little one grew up in a household with a very mellow cat who wasn't at all interested in the rats as prey, not even the tiny ones, but the far more likely scenario is that the little brown house mouse would end up like Gonzo.

[littlegreenworm.livejournal.com]

Awwwr! Rat love. :-)

Hopefully with time they'll settle down and be friends.

[ratcreature]

Maybe I'll see how they react to each other once Krümel is older and couldn't be killed so quickly, but I'm not going to risk trying with Krümel right now again. I mean, Ben wasn't interested in just asserting his dominance, he ignored the tiny ones at first and then suddenly killed Gonzo. I feel bad that Ben was so unfortunate that his brother died with just over a year and was alone for a while, but I gave Ben a chance and Gonzo paid with his life.

If all works out I'm going to take in another baby rat from a litter that's due soon so that Krümel won't have to life in isolation through no fault of his, and hope that with two rather young ones everything will go well (though my anxiety about introducing rats to each other is at an all time high right now), and that it won't be too hard on Krümel to have to be alone for a few weeks. I mean, I wish I could get him new company even sooner, but I don't like getting rats from pet stores, because I don't want to support a system that treats animals like any other random merchandise, but prefer to get them from hobby breeders, but obviously that way it takes a little while to get one. I mean, it would have been cool if there had been another male rat from Krümel's litter for me to take in, but they were all already spoken for.

[littlegreenworm.livejournal.com]

Kudos to you for avoiding the pet store trap. :-)

Did you try the vaporub trick? I read that you cleaned everything, which is important- but smells are smells. Sometimes if you put a tiny dab of vicks vaporub (or a similar stinky substance) on their noses, they'll smell the same to each other and accept each other more readily. Since they're just little ratties, you might want to rub it into your fingertips first; I'd imagine too much would really sting their noses.

I'm sorry that Ben is being so persnickety about making new friends. That's gotta be hard to lose a little one like that. :-(

[ratcreature]

Well, the cage was new so it wasn't his territory before, and at least based on what my vet told me when my rats had respiratory infections eucalyptus and other harsh essential oils are harmful to rats. I mean, I was advised to only let them inhalt steam with chamonile, never anything stronger, so I'm not sure rubbing vicks vaporub is such a good idea. What I might try should I make them meet again is to rub some of Ben's piss on Krümel before so he smells familiar, which is the smelling trick I heard of.

[littlegreenworm.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... well, that sounds like nature's way of doing it. ;-)

I'd never heard of strong smells being bad for ratties, but if your vet said no strong essential oils then, yeah- no vicks.

Good luck to you, and rattie scratches for your littles. :-)

[meret.livejournal.com]

He's a cutie!

BTW, has Ben been fixed? Do they do that for rats? That might make him less agressive. Just a thought. *hugs*

[ratcreature]

No, he isn't fixed. You could do that with rats, but operations always are a huge risk for such small animals, so afaik it's rarely done. I don't plan to, especially since Ben is older and has ongoing respiratory problems because of mycoplasma that might get worse with stress from an operation.