Welcome to Gaia! ::

Today I let the girls roam in the bathroom while I had my tub. Multitasking win biggrin I set up their house, tunnel, ladder and some stuff to do and they had fun waddling around sniffing the new smells. They just LOVE their tunnel and I feel obliged to buy 1 or two more xp

One thing that really worries me though, Aida striked me as...having difficulty getting around. We're talking about the same rat who jumped off my night table, just CAUSE. The same rat who when I tried to seperate her from he biological sister for a few days by removing the ladders, just jumped the two feet like it was no different.

Tonight, she was climbing out of her house, which is, no taller than she is stretched out, so involves no jumping. All she needed to do was reach the top and pull herself up. She had pulled herself halfway and couldn't hold on anymore and fell. sad She also sorta looked like she was waddling around slower.

She doesn't appear to have any issues with the ladders. If you recall my cage is a bookshelf and the three main shelves are connected with bird ladders. Those she's fine with. The midlevel shelves she doesn't jump up or pull herself up eaither, she climbs the chicken wire which is the door of the cage. She jumps down easily enough it seems.

I dunno how long this has been going on. And I dunno if it's normal, or if maybe she's hurt her leg or something...Is it possible that if she hurt her tail she couldn't balance on her hind legs?

Aida is my first rat and therefor the oldest rat I've ever had at only 2yr 4 months. I thought she would be much closer to 3yrs before I started to notice any changes. He fur is still shiny and gorgeous, still no lumps, never any resp issues, great appetite and incredibly a great body condition despite eating twice as much as pudgy lil Blaze.

I think I will go prepare them a big bowl of fresh veggies for tonight.

All the members who've had rats much longer than me care to share stories of your ratties, what was the youngest they passed of natural causes and your oldest lived ratty. And when do they typically start slowing down, and what's it like when they grow old???

K, I took a few videos so you can actually see what I'm talking about. This is Aida climbing the cage door to get to the shelf rather than jumping up, like Blaze does.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJkdtj9U390

Here she takes the ladder with ease and actually jumps to the shelf, maybe because the water bottles prevent her from climbing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CliWBZZOpu8

Next chance I get I'll try to film her in her playhouse struggling to climb out. Or maybe she was just tired...She's VERY excited about the cucumber she got for dinner tonight. They also got spinach, green pepper and tomatoes.

Age is usually genetics and environmental. Her acting slower and falling alittle is normal hun (my younger rats do it at times of cold or rain). My rats act slower but I have one that is still feisty as ever. She might have alittle but of arthritis or maybe she was just sore that day.