#pet training
Egg’s turn to learn to fetch the mail - Egg tends to be more wary around new props than her cagemates, so I’m always super proud when she masters a new prop-based trick!
Trick tutorial for the “fetch the mail” trick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgpMg56ENJM
This weeks ratty paw paintings! Everyone was super excited to paint & take photos again - we took a bit of a break last week, but we are now starting up again!
Pickle had her last photoshoot the day after her 1st vet visit, and she is no longer painting or training. She painted these 3 paintings seen here about 2 weeks back, but we hadn’t gotten pictures yet, and I was holding off until I knew she wasn’t in pain. She’s doing well so we snapped the last few photos of her with her final paintings, and she really enjoyed the yummy yogurt and photo session!
If you would like to commission a painting from Omelet, Olive, Egg, or Donut, you can do so on our Etsy shop (called “RatPaintings”) here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RatPaintings
Olive’s turn to work fetch while walking backwards on two rolling barrels in a row - and yes she is walking backwards on them, watch her feet closely and you’ll see she has to backup on each barrel in order to move it forwards!
Trick tutorial on training a rat to walk on a barrel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KVjImgn0-c
Trick tutorial on training rats to fetch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsALU4xbzo
Pickle continues to do well, and she is not liking her training retirement much yet lol - she sees me training the other rats and she stares daggers at me for not giving her a turn! I’m giving her yummy treats to compensate though, and she’s enjoying several hours of free-range & foraging daily ❤
As for this clip, I took this back in February when I was teaching Pickle and Egg to wave - this was a clip from Pickles very first time training the wave trick, and she got it so quickly!
How to train a rat to wave: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQFSrjemIug
So I’ve stopped training new tricks with Pickle because I don’t want to add any stress to her life right now, however I have some trick clips of her that I have yet to post from before, so I’m going to post those alongside updates.
As far as today’s update, its mainly good news - Pickle has responded really well to the metacam (although she HATES the taste lol), and is back to being 100% active and playful! Very happy to see her act this way, she really seems to be comfortable and doesn’t seem bugged by the tumor.
Another good thing is that Pickles ear infection has cleared up - the ear drops + antibiotics have done an amazing job, and while she’ll continue to be on them, I’m glad to see one issue resolved.
Then unfortunately we have some bad news, which is that the tumor is continuing to grow pretty quickly. In addition to that, it seems that she has an abscess on top of the tumor (common with these types of tumors :/ ), and I can see a scab forming on the lump. Once it opens up, we can flush it and treat it like a usual abscess, but in all likelihood it will never heal back up, because the growing tumor behind it will make that impossible.
Right now I’m just happy that Pickle is comfortable and active, and while I hate seeing this progress I’m glad to know that at least Pickle is continuing to do well and enjoy life <3
Olive (black self) and Egg (pink eyed white) practicing their vs basketball trick! Its been a bit since they worked this, but both girls did great!
Trick tutorial on training rats to play basketball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMf3wUl89nE
Trick tutorial on training rats vs basketball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHBaOt2K1hg
Pickle working on some scent work - here she has to find and fetch me the cinnamon scented ball!
Trick tutorial on training a rat scent work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os7rOc7EOWI
Trick tutorial for training fetch (the indicator cue Olive is using here): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNsALU4xbzo
