December

At Last night, for the first time in ages, Kali tried to break out of her house. I noticed a few bits of wire on one of her shelves this morning and, sure enough, there was a small hole in the wire just below the water bottle. I was going to replace all the wire with a stronger guage but because Kali hadn't been trying to get out I have not got round to it.

I'm surprised that she had the energy to attack her house last night because she'd had a very active playtime yesterday evening. She was racing up and down the stairs, playing in her cloth and really beating up her fluffy ball. She plays just like a kittem and she gets more and more excited the longer she's out. I love the way she jumps up before dashing off at full speed.

Its turned colder here so I've given her more newspaper. I know when she needs more bedding because she pulls up all the newspaper from the floor of her house up.
 

Over the last few days Kali's become really vocal. I'd read accounts from other Giant Pouched Rat owners that their rats squeaked and 'churbled' but Kali has hardly ever made a noise. She's most vocal at breakfast time. She comes to her door and takes (snatched) monkey nuts from my fingers. She seems really pleased with herself for having 'caught' them and runs back to her nest squeaking in pleasure. She also squeaks with annoyance if we're making too much noise while she's trying to sleep in her house. It really sounds as if she's telling us to shut-up. She also makes a little barking sound when she's scrabbling in corners or at the gap under doors. She's always made this sound but its louder now.

The lounge, where she usually is, is still being decorated so Kali is in the dinning room. She's often up in the mornings when we're having our breakfast so we get to see more of her than we did before. She continued to throw her potty about every night for a week or so but the last few nights have been incident free so perhaps she's got bored with it, or else she's worked out that it makes everything very wet. This welcome change in behaviour coincided with Kali re-siteing her nest. She's now nesting directly beneath the potty again.

I'm trying to find a good exotic vet in our area because I want to talk to someone about her strange crouching behaviour. I've no idea what's causing it but she looks very uncomfortable when she has an 'attack'. It never lasts long and she's fine again once its past. I don't really know what a vet could do but I really should have got one lined up just in case anything does happen.