Sisters

Have I mentioned how happy the girls are to be back together again?

Together Again

Sleeping and sleepy.

Sushi was strong enough to rejoin her sister this weekend, after 6 days apart. They quickly nestled together and took a nap.

Sushi is much better in terms of appetite and activity. Her breathing is still rough and we'll call the vet today to see if there is something else we should be doing. She sounds pretty good most of the time, but whenever she is excited, or when she is eating, she sounds pretty terrible. Our guess is that most of the time she is breathing through her mouth, hence she might sound better, but that when she is forced to breathe through her nose she starts to have problems. I'm also not sure of the long term effects of her being on the antibiotic and prednisone, so we'll see that the doctor has to say.

Content.

Watermelon

I'm not sure why it didn't occur to us before to give the girls watermelon. We finally did the other night and they seemed to enjoy it. Saké ate one piece quickly but then resumed doing her normal busy rat things. On the other hand, Sushi ate every piece as quickly as possible and before too long the dish was empty. And then she licked the dish.

In Need of a New Home

I'm not sure why the girls are destroying their new nest when their old nest (which was identical) lasted forever.

However, I do like that they are stacked inside.

Sisters

This speaks for itself:

A Year of Blogging

It's hard for me to believe but today marks one year since we started blogging about Sushi and Saké. So much can change in a year.

We started this blog as a way to share what we were learning as we dealt with Sushi's malocclusion. Since then, our tiny Sushi, who weighed less than 40 grams a year ago is now at just under 300 grams. She may be small but she is healthy. Sushi has also gone from teeth trimming under anesthetic every 3-4 weeks to not having visited the vet since her post-surgery checkup in October! Even though only 2 of her 4 incisors were removed when she had surgery, her remaining teeth seem to no longer cause problems. She is in a drastically different position than she was a year ago.

Saké too has changed in the last year. She has normal teeth but is taking advantage of the lab block and baby cereal mixture her sister has to eat, meaning she has put on an enormous amount of weight. I'm not sure how to tackle that - we don't want to separate the girls because rats are such social animals, yet because Sushi eats frequently throughout the day, it isn't as though we can separate them just when they eat. Thus, Saké is definitely obese and I spend my evenings attempting to get her to play and exercise.

The picture that started all of this off a year ago is of a much smaller Saké:

Thanks for all of you who have visited this blog in the last year. I know you're out there - in fact, you're from 76 different countries! That is amazing to me. I hope your rats bring you as much joy as our's do.

Settling In

We bought the girls a new nest a while ago (see http://bentorats.blogspot.com/2011/10/new-nest.html) and they have been pretty steadfastly ignoring it. Recently though that changed and the girls began spending more time altering the new nest to their liking.

Renovating the new nest

One of my favorite things about the above picture is that the towel in the nest is actually the liner for the top floor of the cage. Evidently someone thought they needed more bedding in the nest. Any guesses as to who is responsible?

Trouble

Here is another shot of the culprit:

Saké the trickster.

Sometimes I wonder what Sushi thinks of all of this.

Checking In

There isn't much happening with Penelope and Saké these days. Penn still spends a lot of time by their cage but Saké's tendency to grab Penn through the cage means that Penn mainly stays out of reach.

Checking each other out.

Penn is equally careful around Sushi. Saké has taught her well - trust no rat!

Cautiously aware of each other.

This all leaves Penn becoming bored rather quickly.

Unimpressed.

Ahoy!

Saké gets a lot of use out of the hole in their current box. If we turn the box so that the hole isn't on the top, she immediately rolls it to place the side with the hole up. If she wasn't so rotund, she might be able to get more than her head through the hole...

Saké (and a slightly hidden Sushi)

It's Almost Christmas!

I always feel like everything is more fun around Christmas.

Boxrat Saké

Sushi

Sushi hides among cat faces

Saké

Saké ventures out

The perfect gift?

Play Time

The other night I decided to let the girls out while I was getting ready for bed. I expected them to play in the bathroom, but I didn't expect them spend all of their time playing on the counter top while I was washing my face and brushing my teeth.

The girls enjoyed themselves:

One Year!

It's hard for me to believe that we've had the girls for a solid year now. Not just that, but in a few days it will be a year since we had to make a tough decision regarding Sushi and her teeth and whether we were going to try to treat her.

I'm glad we gave it a try. She's short a few teeth these days, but she is really thriving.

Sushi

I think her sister is happy too.

Saké

It has been a good year.

Size Doesn't Matter

I'm often amazed by just how different Sushi and Saké's body types are, considering that they are litter mates. Even though Sushi has gained weight since her surgery, she is still just a shadow of Saké.

Sushi: bigger than a mouse but tiny for a rat

Sushi's skeleton is easily felt and she looks like she is at an awkward adolescent stage. In reality she's nearly 14 months old.

On the other hand....

Saké is more akin to a water weenie.

Saké has weight to spare! She is taking full advantage of Sushi's baby cereal and lab block mush and has put on a few grams. Holding her is similar to holding onto a wet water balloon.

Not surprisingly, the skinnier Sushi is by far the more active of the two. Saké prefers to be held and have her fat belly rubbed.

Dave was kind enough to pose with both of them so we could see the size comparison.

Dave, Sushi, and Saké

Poor Dave. His neck is all red because instead of perching quietly, the girls were more interested in racing back and forth on him.

Sweatshirt Paradise

Sushi

When the girls were playing in laundry the other night, they particularly gravitated toward one article of clothing, a thick sweatshirt of Dave's. They burrowed deep inside, ran up and down both of the sleeves, and generally did not want to leave. Normally when I put my hands near them they stop whatever they are doing and quickly run up to perch on my shoulders. Last night they wanted none of this, and each time I tried to grab them they simply burrowed deeper into the sweatshirt.

Saké

Dave might end up sacrificing his sweatshirt for them.

Happy Rats

Don't underestimate the excitement of a good pile of laundry.

Crazy Rats

The rats have had limited playtime outside of their cage, due to a lot of unexpected stuff going on at home. We always hold them whenever we get a chance, but their concentrated playtime in the last week has been almost nothing. Thus last night we made a particular effort to get them out for a while.

For the first couple of minutes they were fairly quiet, just hanging out on my shoulders while I read. Then it was as if someone flipped a switch and they were off! Sushi raced up and down the length of the bed in great bounding leaps and Saké repeatedly would climb up to my shoulder, jump to the bed, and then do it all over again.

I tried to take pictures during all of this craziness but the girls were not inclined to stay still.

Sushi pauses before jumping off the towels and racing to the foot of the bed.

I think tonight I'm going to have to build them a jungle gym out of boxes and towels to really let them get that energy out.

Hanging Around

A New Nest!

Sushi and Saké received a much overdue new nest this weekend. Their old one was more than a bit threadbare and smelly. Of course, the old one also was completely broken in just the way they wanted it. Now they have to start over.

New beginnings are tough. You have to figure out the best positions for napping again. Is it better to have your sister on top of you like this?



Or to lay on top of your sister instead?

Pancakes!

We had delicious apple and cinnamon pancakes the other morning, which meant that the girls also had them. I was pretty happy with how well Sushi did eating her piece. She was definitely slower than her sister, but despite her speed, she didn't seem to have too many problems.

Rearranging

The other day Saké was busy rearranging the first floor of the cage.

As part of this, she flipped over their wine box and balanced it on a block. It didn't seem to matter that Sushi was in the box when she moved it.

Fortunately Sushi is used to her sister's antics and didn't seem to mind.