The newest additions to our household have arrived from the
breeder. They are about six weeks old
and Son has named them Silver and Storm.
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| Silver and Storm in the nursery cage |
They have a cage to themselves until the older rats get used
to them. The cages are placed beside
each other and there is a lot of nose twitching and general excitement between
the two.
A couple of days eating the same foods and they will smell
alike and the older ones will accept their presence and adopt them into their
Mischief.
 |
| Silver investigating a snooze site |
Son will still supervise them the first few times he puts
the young ones into the main cage. Rats are
very communal and quite loving towards each other, so older ones seldom offer
harm to young ones in the same group.
They are more like to get upset because the very active young
ones are zooming around the cage and the older ones find it tiring just
watching them (not so very different to grandparents!).
 |
| Son introduces Storm to me (as close as I got!) |
Hope everyone is having a great weekend 😊
Margaret.
Long live Silver and Storm
ReplyDeleteWhat cute 'babies' Margaret - at least to look at!! Hopefully all will work out smoothly with the integration process. I can identify with your 'grandparent' comment :)
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Maxine
I suspect that many who think having rats as pets is curious, and even a little sinister, would express no such sentiments when it comes to white mice, guinea pigs and hamsters. I can imagine that rats would be quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteThey are quite intelligent and each one displays a unique personality, so I find them rather fascinating. I just don't like handling them! :)
DeleteThe rat adults do sound like us humans when it comes to younger ones!
ReplyDeleteAawwww. Very pretty colour. F says she might even stroke one if someone else was holding it like that.
ReplyDeleteWe did the same thing when introducing a new horse to the herd. Better safe than sorry!
ReplyDeleteCute little faces and fun names! That's how we introduce new chicks to the older ones...side by side so they can "meet" but no direct contact. Hope the weekend is going well...we "enjoy" daylight savings time here (still not sure I'm supporting it) and have lost an hour of sleep, so today is groggy. Does New Zealand do the same?
ReplyDeleteYes, we do have daylight saving. It is due to end early next month, but I am hanging out for it now I am getting up in the dark every morning.
DeleteRats are definitely not my thing but my daughter has 3 in a huge cage in her room, they are cute but I'm still not going to touch them.
ReplyDeleteI like the names your son chose for the new babies. GM
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the new family members! They are cute and I like their names. Growing up on a farm, we did everything to get rid of rats and I've never considered them as pets. One of our cats 'gifted' me a dead rat yesterday morning, I said 'no thank you' and got it in the bin after he lost interest. No daylight saving here. It was tried for one year, but it didn't work out as they thought, I think, never heard more about it and why.
ReplyDeleteI grew up the same way - which is probably why I still won't handle them (I will stroke them now, so that is a lot more than I used to do). Son keeps reminding me that domestic rats are completely different to wild rats, as a lot of the "wildness" has been bred out of them.
DeleteI hope the introductions work out well. I know how the older ones feel when there are youngsters zooming around the place. That takes a fair bit of adjustment.
ReplyDeleteOhhhh, what a cute post! Count Aunties in, too, when my Nieces were young, boy were they exhausting!
ReplyDelete