Last Saturday we adopted two rats via Petfinder from a local couple who were moving to an apartment that doesn’t allow pets.
Shortly after bringing them home, we noticed the white and cream colored one had a weird held tilt and slept a lot more than the other. Wednesday we took both rats to the vet and she gave us antibiotics (as well as probiotics) to give the one rat. Since then he’s been more alert, although he scares me a bit with his unpredictable behavior and over-excitement where food is concerned. Hence he was dubbed Nutter Butter because there’s just something a bit off with him. We named the dark one Templeton after the rat in Charlotte’s Web since he’s the explorer.
I have to say, I’ve been doing research on different small animals (rabbits, ferrets, guinea pigs, and rats) for awhile, including checking out books from the library, but it wasn’t until after we got these two that I found out male rats have a distinctive odor and it’s not all that pleasant. The first day we had them it made me lose my appetite. We went to Petsmart and picked up a better quality litter/bedding called Yesterday’s News which helped a lot, plus threw out an edible log that they had in their cage that was stinking to high heaven and replaced it with a piece of PVC pipe that we can easily clean, but we still have to change the cage every couple of days to avoid the stink.
The thing is, I’m not 100% sure they are going to stay with us since they are making me really itchy. The kids really liked them, but we told them we’re babysitting them for a friend of ours just in case we have to get rid of them. I’m committed to nursing Nutter Butter back to health before finding them a new home if that’s what it comes down to, however.
I don’t want people passing judgment on me thinking I’m not a responsible pet owner – I feel bad about the possibility of having to find them another home but it’s going to be at least another 10 days since the round of antibiotics Nutter Butter is on is a 14 day regimen. Perhaps by then I won’t be so itchy.
Ugh. Life would be so much easier if I could just get a cat. At least being itchy would be worth it, but for these guys, I’m not so sure. We’ll see what happens, though, as it’s only been a bit over a week and they are more entertaining than Oreo.
Here’s two videos I took of the little rascals today.
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Funny side note: Nutter Butter’s original name was Professor Dickweed (taken from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby) since that part always cracks us up, but we thought better of it since we couldn’t have the kids calling him that. That’s his nickname, however.