Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Rat Behavior Worries, Nail Filing And Treats
By Shellyane Bryan
A rat owner from England shares tales of living with her first rat, Queen Dumbo Duncanson-Bryan, and a rat named Mouse.
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Photo Courtesy Shellyane Bryan
Mouse the rat surprised her owner by sitting still to have her nails filed. |
I’m happy to report that Dumbo the rat hasn’t been acting quite so strangely over the past week. She is still not quite herself, but she is a bit less lethargic and is much more eager to come out and play when she’s not dozing. I think her age probably has a lot to do with her general tiredness. Unfortunately all of us need a bit more sleep the older we get, so it didn’t come as a surprise when I let her out to explore and she flopped in my lap to snooze.
I’m also happy to say that I finally managed to sort out the needlelike claws of my other rat, Mouse. Believe it or not, I discovered little Mousey rather enjoys having her claws filed. This wouldn’t be unusual if she didn’t squirm and squeak whenever I tried to cut them with the specially designed clippers. When I used the file, however, she just sat patiently in my lap, chattering her teeth, letting me give her a rodent manicure. I think I was one step away from painting them, too!
Both my pet rats had a hefty appetite this week. We’ve had a bit of an influx of fruit and vegetables, so I gave my rats one or two things they’ve never tried before, along with some things I know are favorites.
My rats tend to be especially fond of blueberries, grapes and cornflakes, bit this weekend they had the pleasure of trying walnuts and almonds. Dumbo has become a big fan of the latter! It sometimes surprises me that my rats eat anything that gets put in front of them, but it must be an instinctive quality. Not to support their unfairly determined reputation, but rats have always been notorious scavengers and would take whatever they could lay their paws on.
Honestly, though, all animals seem to act like they never get fed ...
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