This was a post i made elsewhere about one of my girls, Venus, who is no longer with us. I intend to get around to posting about our current boys and the other girls who have been part of our lives over the last few years when time allows. Right now though, I have four boys desperate to come out of their cage.
This is Venus.
Venus has been with us about 18 months now and must be about 2 years old given her age when she came to us.
We are onto our third generation of rats and Venus is the last (for the time being). She and Bella came to us when one of our older girls, passed away, leaving her sister on her own.
Venus and Bella lived in a Cozypet RC01 cage for the first two weeks, close to their new sibling but far enough away to ensure no agitation – a gentle introduction. Their sibling, Lumpy (subtlety named for her tuft of fur which turned into a tumour within weeks of being rescued) underwent three surgeries for tumours during her life and had little time left when they joined us, but i didn’t want Lumpy to be alone and was always going to get more rats, so this approach worked like a charm.
When they were finally introduced (into the big cage) it was very smooth integration and Lumpy mothered them both. Here are Lumpy and Bella together, not long before we lost Lumpy – a month or two after them being introduced properly.
Alas i don’t have a similar pic of her with Venus but they were close too.
Venus is named after our dog, we lost her too young to heart cancer.
And now, Venus is the girl that is left. Having to experience losing both Lumpy and Bella in her life.
Venus is a fatty, there is no question, she is, and always has been, food obsessed and managing her weight has been incredibly difficult due to not being able to deprive Bella of food (Venus would nick it all!).
She’s a very gentle girl, like her sister, but a little more nervy by nature.
Venus loved to climb, doesn’t do it so much now due to weight and feet problems, which we are managing with leucillin and clean, fleece-lined environment – this has made an enormous difference compared to the auboise substrate we used before.
We’re about 10 days from losing her sister and i was worried how she would take it, I always show them their departed sibling so they know what has happened. She sniffed and nudged her a few times then she was buried.
I am amazed at her resilience -she engages with me more frequently and easily than she did, is enjoying having some new toys in the cage and plenty of attention. She no longer seems affected by the loss and is taking to solitary rat-life incredibly well.
She seemed a little more comfortable when i took out the lower levels of the cage, so now she lives on the mid and upper level and loves being in a box nest or a pile of fleece blankets. The cage sits right next to my desk in my home office and i will often turn around to see this and of course, always engage with her.
We have a Chihuahua, Lily who has been around the rats for years and doesn’t bat an eyelid at them. Venus shows an interest in Lily so carefully supervised lifts up to the cage for Lily mean they get to sniff each other at a distance. Venus feels absolutely no threat from Lily and visits are short.
We’ve had a URTI with Bella and Venus a few months ago and I have antibiotics on standby if her feet flare up or we see signs of an infection returning, but i must admit, she seems better and brighter now than she did even when Bella was around – which shows how resilient she is.
Anyway, i wanted to tell her story so there we are.
Leave a Reply