January

I've put Kali on a new bedding called Ideal Bedding. She had been on wood based cat litter but I've read so much about how harmful pine-based products are to rats that I wanted to change it. Ideal Bedding is simply chopped up cardboard. It has hardly any odour, is lightweight and seems to suit Kali well. She's been on it since Saturday. Her reaction to any sort of change is a bit over-the-top and Saturday night was no different. She seemed OK with the new bedding at first and was charging about her house, pushing it around and digging in it. Then she moved all her newspapers upstairs and made a nest on the middle self of her house. She stayed like this for an hour or so but soon moved everything back downstairs and remade her nest in one of her usual places. She's accepted the change now and plays and digs in it far more than she did with the wood pellets.

One of the thing's I'd read about pine products was that they suppress and depress rodents. I think this could be true because Kali has been far more active this week. She's much more assertive and much more vocal than she had been. It's not been easy dealing with her at times. She jumps up into her doorway when I open it to give her breakfast. Each day she gets bolder and soon she'll be jumping down into the room. She's also proving difficult to pick up and she is fighting me much more than before. She's been even more active at night and she's woken me up every night since Saturday. I'm hoping she's going to calm down a bit

She's still letting me stroke her and last night I was scratching her right up between her ears.
 

Kali continues to let me stroke and scratch her back. She's most amenable to it when she's sitting in her favourite washing place on the landing. I'm gradually working my way up her back and last night I was scratching just behind her ears. She seems to enjoy it. Play time last night was a bit strange. For half an hour Kali sat quietly in the corner washing, and being stroked. Then she suddenly took off at speed and raced about collecting treats and playing with her toys.

I patched her house again on Monday night and already she's bitten through the new wire. Once she's made a fair sized hole she stops attacking the wire but the hole can be dangerously large so I have to patch it. Perhaps she thinks its some sort of game.
 

Dispite a very exhasting playtime last night Kali was very active this morning for breakfast. After coming to the door or her house to take (snatch) her monkey nuts she decided she wanted to come right out and jumped up to the door. She does this occasionally and I use my arm to block her way and she usually jumps down again. Today she decided to bite my arm - twice! Luckily I had a thick sweatshirt on and she only grazed my arm but she's left two little bruses. It was nothing serious but a good reminder that she's a wild animal at heart.

The past four weeks have seen some real developments with Kali. I still haven't got round to replacing the wire and Kali hasn't stopped trying to break out. Just below her waterbottle is where she breaks the wire and I must have patched it three or four times over Christmas.

Evening playtimes are now nearly always after nine o'clock. She is so much more active at this time of day and much more ready to come out. She still has a go at the glove when I first pick her up but she's stopped fighting to get down and I can cradle her in my arms without having to hang on tightly to her. She's also much more relaxed and she doen't spend time hiding in a corner before going off to explore.

She's playing more and when she's out and realy enjoys fighting her towel. She likes having the towel thrown over her as she's running along and she then fights her way out from under it. As soon as she's free she'll rush off into a corner then turn round and rush back to me again and I throw the towel over her again.

Every so often when shes out playing she'll stop for a good wash. Her favourite place for this is upstairs in one of the corners of the landing. Last night I decided to help groom her and gingerly started to scratch and tickle her back. She didn't seem to mind and she might have even enjoyed it.

Kali's become much more vocal in the past few weeks. She makes a whole range of squeeking and whinning noises. Most of the time they seem like happy noises, especially the squeeks she makes when she grabs monkey nuts from me at breakfast time, however she does have a really good moan at me if I wake her up. It's really quite an angry sound and I feel as if she's telling me off.