# New Adoptee



## shadowshearth (Nov 21, 2017)

Hey guys, been a little while. Thelma and Louise are doing really great! Super friendly, meet me at the cage door and are always ready for play time. But... I've now added a new girl into the mix. Story time:

I was going to Petco to buy some new bedding and a new wheel for my girls cage (the one that I ordered online doesn't come apart very easily, so I'm just going to use it for the playpen). As I was shopping around, I was talking to one of the employees and mentioned that I had rats and was considering getting another. That's how this all started.

The employee mentioned that they had an owner surrendered rat - surrendered because she had bitten their six year old daughter. They offered to let me see her, so I went back to the back room and put my hand in. She was willing to let me pet her, but she was extremely stressed and nervous... She came with a large cage, so I adopted her.

We're home now - she's very scared and very sick with a respiratory infection. I went and offered her some baby food (which she was interested in, but wouldn't take). I also offered her my fingers just to see whether or not she was aggressive or would bite out of fear. She did put her teeth on me, but she didn't bite down, as once she felt it was my finger, she let go. When I took her out, she chilled out on my shoulder and let me pet her without any problems... so I honestly feel like this was just a case off her disliking having a six year old poke and prod and chase her around.

I also assume, based on how large she is, that they've had her for awhile... and in that time, she's been completely isolated from other rats. So that is likely a source of her stress and discomfort. And I noticed when cleaning her cage up once we got home, a fine layer of dust had accumulated in the corners - so she was likely on improper bedding and probably why she's sick now.

Anyways... I have a new baby. I'll be calling the vet tomorrow that I found that will see and treat rats. Get her on some antibiotics - treat her special for the next two weeks while everything clears up, then I will work on introducing her to my girls and see how it goes.

Meet Rue everyone.  Guess I'll be buying that new rat cage for Christmas that I was looking at.


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## Maple~ (Feb 27, 2017)

She's so pretty! I'm so glad she has a good home now, I'm sure she'll enjoy the rest of her life there ^_^


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## ChloeJ (Sep 27, 2017)

I'm so glad you took her in and gave her a good home! Hopefully she recovers well from the respiratory infection and lives a happy life with the other girls.


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## DanielM (Nov 20, 2017)

It's a good thing that you gave this rat a home, honestly, lonely rats are not a good pet to have for such young children, they'll mistreat it accidentally, thinking it's like a toy. Hope she recovers from her sickness too. By the way, what cage is that? I've been thinking of getting a better cage for my two rats, since their current one is wide instead of tall and they'll eventually outgrow the height.


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## shadowshearth (Nov 21, 2017)

DanielM said:


> By the way, what cage is that? I've been thinking of getting a better cage for my two rats, since their current one is wide instead of tall and they'll eventually outgrow the height.


It is a You & Me Rat Manor Habitat. It's a nice cage, but it has a lot of drawbacks to it. It's pretty difficult to put together and take apart, the doors are extremely small, and the only way you'll manage to get a wheel or large toys/hides inside once it's fully put together is to detach it from the base and put it through the bottom (potentially having to take the middle section out, which is difficult). If you're honestly looking for something bigger, I'd save the money you'd spend on this one for something else, like the Critter Nation... but that's just my opinion. I suppose it would be worth it if you couldn't have something as large as the Critter Nation, though.


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## shadowshearth (Nov 21, 2017)

Also, thank you everyone. I took her to the vet today to get her breathing looked at - said that her lungs sounded clear, so to hold off on any antibiotics treatment unless I notice her symptoms getting worse. It's likely that her labored, grunty, growly breathing and eye **** are just from her being in a bad situation, not to mention the discovery I made this morning when I was getting her ready to leave.

Last night, I'd left some of the things that the owner provided in her cage so that she would hopefully settle in better. I was going to take the towel that was with her to the vets office but the moment I picked it up, I noticed a very overwhelming, cloying scent. I put it to my nose and realized it'd been sprayed with something... so I started smelling the rope toys to and found the same scent. They had been spraying her cage with some sort of perfume to get rid of her scent, apparently, instead of properly cleaning it. So hopefully she'll get to feeling better without getting any sicker now that that crap is gone.


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## Shadow <3 (Jan 25, 2017)

Good on you for taking her home! I think the biggest issue with children having rats as pets is that they just don't have the responsibility and skills to know how to properly handle or care for them. You can have the sweetest, most gentle rat, and they might still bite you by accident. Case in point is my girl Latte, she's the absolute sweetest, most gentle thing, and would NEVER bite in any situation. Yet when I brought her home, my 10 year old brother washed his hands with a fruit scented soap, walked over to the cage, and offered his hand to her. She lunged forward and bit him, then immediately let go once she realized he wasn't food! My poor brother was so afraid of the rats after that that he wouldn't even approach the cage or pet my older girl Shadow (who he had known, held, and interacted positively with for over a year before I got Latte)! She didn't mean to bite him, just didn't know that the strong fruity scent of soap wasn't a new treat. Similarly, his new fear wasn't something rational he could avoid. A few months later, he got to know Latte better and lost any fear of her. I also conditioned her to accept food gently from the bars, without any lunging or immediate biting. 


But I can see a gentle rat like Latte being neglected or even returned over this one mistake. I've now had her for over a year, and seen her refuse to bite even when in pain. You can't expect rats or little kids to be perfect, and it sounds like in this case, the parent didn't even read up on proper rat care. 


I bet she'll improve with some TLC, but keep an eye on those grunty noises. I'll be the first to say that I don't treat my rats for every new noise, but I've also found that in small animals, you can't easily detect any errant noise in their lungs when its a upper (think nose and mouth) respiratory infection. My vets will usually encourage treating rats who are grunting/making respiratory noises, just because its so hard to hear differences in their lungs and heart. Its only when the URI turns into a LRI that you can clearly hear chesty noises, and LRI's are much harder to treat.




In any case, she looks like a sweet little hooded girl. Hopefully she's feeling up to snuff soon and can be introduced to your other girls. I bet she'll enjoy having other rats companionship again


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## shadowshearth (Nov 21, 2017)

Hmm, thank you Shadow <3. If I don't notice it improving, I'll offer the antibiotics for sure.


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