Sabine is one of those rats who loves food. She loves it so much that I have to count my fingers after giving her a treat. Ok, that's an exaggeration, but I have had to lecture her more than once on the topic of "Please take the food, not the hand!"
A couple evenings ago I fed the rats in the evening, as usual. Of course Sabine went straight for the food, stuffing her mouth with more than it should really be able to hold, so she could hide it in some corner of her cage.
While she was doing this I found a snack for myself, which I figured I may as well share with Sabine. When I held it up to the wires of her cage she came running, as usual...but didn't take it from me.
I began to get really worried. It was obvious that she wanted the treat, but wasn't taking it. She's already getting old, her hind legs are really weak, and she's even gone blind in one eye. Considering all this, I thought something might be seriously wrong with her. When an old rat suddenly changes their behavior drastically it's probably for bad reasons, and she's never been the type to turn down any kind of food.
But when I got down on her level, trying to figure out what was wrong, what did I find? She had her mouth stuffed full of her regular food that she'd been hiding, and she wasn't willing to put it down to take the treat.
Greedy glutton.
Greedy glutton who wanted both her usual food and her treat at the same time, and couldn't accept that she could only manage one at a time.
Greedy glutton scaring me like that.
I dropped the treat in her cage, which seemed to be an acceptable solution for her.
Note to self: Don't give Sabine treats immediately after feeding her, that just doesn't work.
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