HeroRATS

I read a great article yesterday about training African giant pouched rats to sniff out landmines (www.good.is/post/could-giant-rats-eliminate-land-mines-in-thailand). Amazing! The rats are light weight enough that they do not set off the mines, and yet can indicate where the mines are so they can be safely disabled.

It turns out there is an entity called APOPO (www.apopo.org/), which trains rats for various humanitarian purposes. The African giant pouch rats have a longer life span than domestic rats (6 to 8 years), and are smart, inexpensive to care for, and easily motivated by food. In addition, because their sense of smell is so strong, these rats can even be trained to sniff out tuberculosis!

Image from APOPO

I am continually amazed by how smart Saké and Sushi are, and it is fascinating to know that there are other rats out there using this intellect for a greater good. If you are inclined, APOPO has a variety of ways in which you can support the HeroRAT program at www.apopo.org/cms.php?cmsid=34&lang=en.

Hightailing

The other night I let the girls out for their first serious play time since their Great Escape (read about it at bentorats.blogspot.com/2011/09/tired-rat.html).

I put the girls on the bed and expected to just sit and read for a while while they played. Saké climbed next to me and started quietly grooming herself. Sushi had other plans.

Sushi has a destination in mind...

She immediately headed to the foot of the bed and by the time I took this picture and put my camera down, she had made it to the trunk at the foot of the bed and was sliding down the bedframe to the floor. Evidently she didn't do all of the exploring she wanted to do the other night when she hid inside our box spring. Fortunately this time I caught her before she made it to the floor.

Sisters

Ratovations!

Sometimes our rats make no sense.

We woke up yesterday to find that they had taken the towel lining the bottom of the cage and shoved it into their hammock.

Step 1: Insert towel into hammock.

At the time I saw this, they were upstairs sleeping in their nest.

An hour or so later, I noticed that things were not as neat.

Step 2: Push the towel around for comfort.

The rats were no longer in their nest.

Step 3: Climb inside!

They were burrowed into the towel, and seemed quite comfortable.

Look at those teeth!

At least they keep busy!

Faces

Obviously I think Saké and Sushi are adorable. But I really love how distinct they are from each other, despite being litter mates.

Saké's head is substantially wider than Sushi's.

Her head is also longer.

Even Sushi's tail is small in comparison.

Tired Rat

This is a tired rat:

Saké

You might wonder how a rat who spends hours each day sleeping could be so tired that she just collapses in her wine box.

Because she spent an hour exploring the bedroom and avoiding capture.

Yes, the rats escaped last night.

They were on the bed while  I was cleaning their cage, which is normal. I noticed Saké hanging off the footboard and looking at the floor, but I didn't worry too much. I wasn't even concerned when I saw her slip onto the floor and disappear under the bed. She has been on the floor before and normally walks right over when you call her. I also wasn't concerned when I saw Sushi follow her sister a few minutes later.

I should have been concerned.

What I didn't realize is that there was a hole in the cloth covering the bottom of our bed's box spring. Unfortunately, Sushi realized it.

An hour later, both rats were safely returned to their cage, where they had a very quiet night. The box spring will never be the same.

No Cooperation

Whenever I see adorable, obviously posed rat pictures, I think to myself, "how did they do that?" Nearly every time I try to take a picture of our girls, it turns out like this:

Even broccoli can't help Saké resist the draw of the camera.

Shoulder Rats

A couple of other pictures of the girls with Dave, because I love these so much:

Saké and Dave

The girls were hanging out on Dave's shoulders the other night, so I snapped some quick pictures. I realized later that I took virtually the same pictures in January, when the girls were only a few months old. They are eleven months old today.

Saké in January.

A much bigger Saké at eleven months old.

Box Rats

You really can order anything from Amazon!

Sushi checks out the view.

Saké pokes her nose out...

...and then climbs underneath her sister.

Renovations

The girls have been very active lately with moving things around in their cage. We strip everything out every two days and put in fresh litter, bedding, etc. Their cage often becomes a complete disaster in the time between cleanings. We've talked in this previous posts about their fort building and how often they move things between floors. However, this week there was a new one.

Yesterday morning I woke up to discover they had moved their litter tray from the corner of their cage to the middle. This morning I woke up to find the litter tray back in the corner where it belonged. Maybe they had to live with it for a bit to see if they liked it in the new spot?

Saké

Cutest. Rat. Ever.

I'm always amazed by how cute Saké is:

Shy Sushi

The other night Sushi was sitting under her wine box eating a Cheerio. She was perfectly framed in the doorway and I grabbed my camera to catch what would have been a perfect picture.

The moment Sushi noticed, she turned just enough to block my view.

Sushi

You'll have to take my word for it that she is adorable when eating a Cheerio.

Saké and Marty

I love how much Saké is stretching to get a good look at Marty:

Broccoli

Saké was funny the other night with her vegetables. Normally the girls get a dish of vegetables each night, and depending on the kind of vegetables, they treat it differently. If they get a dish with peas, corns, or tomatoes, they eat it quickly and immediately. If they get broccoli, carrots, beans, or something else, they tend to nibble throughout the evening.

This time though, Saké behaved differently. I put a small dish of broccoli and carrots into the cage and Saké immediately rushed over. She grabbed as much as she could in her paws, shoved broccoli into her mouth and took off to a corner of the cage. She dropped her entire load, raced back to the dish, and loaded up again. She returned to the dish a third time, picked out a single piece of broccoli, and climbed into their nest to eat.

During this entire time, Sushi was on a different level of the cage, asleep in the hammock.

Saké and her broccoli.

Sushi's Teeth

This picture isn't very good, but it's important.

Do you see that large block Sushi is chewing on? It's monkey chow. Sushi can only eat monkey chow after she has her teeth trimmed, because otherwise it's too hard/big for her to break pieces off of. That picture was taken a few hours after Sushi's teeth were trimmed last week.

Her teeth trimming went well. She's at 238 grams. Her weight is pretty steady these days, and I don't expect we're going to see her get any bigger. She is ten months old.

We did receive amazing news from our vet. We've decided to go ahead with the surgery to pull all of Sushi's incisors. This is a drastic step but will overall improve her quality of life. Right now her upper incisors appear to be dying and her lower incisors are loose and wiggly, making eating difficult. Not to mention that she has to go under anesthetic once a month to get her incisors trimmed, something that is more dangerous each time.

Last month we received a quote for the surgery - $450-600, depending on how it goes. At Sushi's appointment last week though, our vet offered to do the surgery for cost. Essentially, we pay for her anesthesia and her medications and the clinic will cover the rest of the expenses. Why? Because they appreciate that we are willing to do the right thing for her, and have done everything we can for her up to this point.

That is amazing news. A huge thank you to everyone at Cedar Creek Veterinary Clinic and especially to Dr. Derek Nolan for helping us to get Sushi the care she needs. Her surgery will be next month.

Sushi's a pretty special rat.

Saké

Some days are lazier than others.

Sushi Climbs Mount Laundry

The other night the girls were out and I pushed a basket of their clean bedding over, to give them something to explore. Saké was unimpressed but Sushi dove right in.

Initially I couldn't find her, but then I saw this:

That looks suspiciously like a tail...

She then pulled her tail in and disappeared for a few moments, surfacing later at the top of the pile.

Success!

Sushi realizes she's been sighted...

...And back down into the towels!

Where's Sushi?

There is a rat in this picture:

Cage Renovations

We woke up the other morning to discover the girls had rearranged the first floor of their cage in the night. Everything easily moved was lined up along the front.

This provided them plenty of vantage points to  keep an eye on things.

I'm just glad they didn't also decide to move their litter tray. That gets a bit messy.

Rat Ingenuity?

I witnessed something the other night that may have been a clear example of rat intelligence, or it may just be that I am overreacting.

Due to her teeth, Sushi has problems eating very hard food, such as lab blocks. She has a lot of other food options and gets enough to eat, and usually only eats lab blocks immediately after her teeth are trimmed.

Last night I noticed that Sushi was hanging out in the area of the cage by the water bottle and there were a couple of lab blocks laying underneath the bottle. As I watched, she used her shoulder to repeatedly bump into the end of the water bottle, causing drops of water to fall out. The water fell out onto her perfectly aligned lab block laying below it. She wasn't playing or moving around during this time, causing her to hit the bottle inadvertently. She was staying still and just repeatedly touching the end of it.

Once the lab block was fairly soaked, she very carefully scraped off the top half or so, which was completely saturated. She ate this while sitting there, and then carried the remaining damp but not soaked lab block to her nest. She ate the rest of the wet block at that point.

I might be crazy. Or, I might have watched Sushi soften her food so that she could eat it.

Saké Loves the Camera

I've mentioned before how tough it is to get a picture of Saké, because the moment she sees the camera she has to investigate. These pictures illustrate how this usually works.

Saké enjoys a Cheerio.

Saké sees the camera and pauses.

Coming in for a closer look.