Moth Moth was my last pet store rat, I will never buy another one. I had found the local HS at this point, but didn’t know about the rescue situations, rehomes and oops litters and especially the all-important Rat Forum. :lol:
I had adopted a lovely girl from my local HS of about 3 months old and had tried to intro her to my other 2 older girls (yearish) but sadly Frigg took a hate to Luna. Luna was sickly and a PEW with extra bad vision, so Frigg really terrified my timid little girl. So I thought, a baby would be perfect. She would be able to dominate it for awhile and would gain some confidence. So I tripped off to the petstore and found the cutest little pearl merle girl (didn’t know the colour at the time). She and Luna hit it off.
Well they hit it off for a little while. Soon little Moth began to terrorize my sweet Luna, so I ordered another cage and went back and got Luna’s 2 sisters languishing at the shelter (Selene and Soma for people who remember them) and they were happy again.
Moth on the other hand was tossed in with my older girls and they kept her “down” somewhat but her real personality was coming out at around 5 months old…TROUBLE.
Moth would harass other rats until they finally turned to defend themselves and then she would attack. She hated Frigg and my sweet neutered boy Sebastian and would hunt them in the RUUD whenever she could. When all the rats including my very calm alpha Lucky were getting diarrhea from the stress I removed Moth for the first time. She lived on her own for awhile and would run around all night long and not cause a problem. Eventually I intro’d her (water intro too) to another group with Lucky as alpha and some new members. This worked out the best. She was a good girl mostly except the odd breaks where she would harass the subbie rat. Lucky passed from PT and Maya took over. Then Maya contracted PT and left us leaving only Tikal and Moth…I prayed Moth would be kind to Tikal…not a chance. So Moth was on her own again. At about 2 years old Moth finally noticed me. Then she became a sweet loving rat with me only. Soon after I tried different intro’s and Moth had changed her style. Now she went straight for the attack at just the smell of another rat, as my poor fingers found out…*chomp*
She caused so many vet bills and such trauma to my other innocent rats.
And this is how the status quo has been for the balance of her life, but as much as I agonize over single rats she was happiest alone, she would be off balance and anxious even in her happiest group.
I loved my little beast, she was a special, feisty character, there was no compromise in her soul, it was all her way. I am a lucky person I was allowed to love her and be loved in return as I don’t think it was a totally natural thing for her. I would open the cage door and she would launch herself out of her fav scary skelly hammie at me. Up to the last day of her life she had such a zest for living.
Many people, not just me will miss my Moth.
Typical Moth Dunny Brush…poor innocent water bottle, it smelt like a rat
Our love affair begins (Moth at 25 months)
Ahh Moth you and your teeth will not be forgotten.
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