A rogue rat!!

[Ginevive]

Oh my.. I got home from work a few minutes ago, dead tired.. I am lucky that I did not have to pull over and take a nap, and the bags under my eyes.. bt I digress. I went into the bathroom.. came out, and what on earth is eating my cat's food but a Wild Rat!??! I first thought it was maybe an escapee that got out and grew a little bit.. come to think of it, I did have an escapee months back that hypothetically could be adult-sized now.. but no. It is a brown, tawny-colored, wild farm rat.
Here's where it gets good. Last night, I was showing Mark the wild-looking Rexes that I had bred recently.. I told him to just grab one to feed to Ginger. Well, instead of the normal fearful response of our captive rats, this one leapt up onto Mark's hand and chomped him! I have literally never had any rat in my colony be aggressive before.. not like this. So Mark euthanized the rat and we fed it to Ginger. It was brown but had Rex whiskers and fur so I know it was not wild.. not to mention one of my old reliable Hoodeds reared it..
But; her cage has a grill-type top. So hypothetically, a wild female could have walked by with a baby in her mouth and dropped one in.. but that does not explain why that baby was rex. I have not bred using Rex studs for that long.. maybe since March-April.. would that be enough time for a baby from a breeding in those months, to escape, impregnate a wild rat and then have her drop a baby into my domestics' cage?
I put the foundling wild rat in a cage outside; I don't have the heart to kill it for some reason. I know that I can't keep it in my colony, and would not want to.. but oh geez why do these things happen only when I worked all day and am literally falling asleep at the computer??

[Flagg]

I would say it is more likely that a rex female had been impregnated by a wild male, but you obviously know if you have a rex female breeder. If the bars are wide enough to drop in a pinky, they are wide enough to mate through.

I would imagine rex could be present in a wild rat, it had to come from somewhere originally. Or maybe a rex escapee in the past mated with a wild rat and there are now wild rexes in your area =)

[JLC]

Could you just take the captured rat out into the woods and release it?

[Ginevive]

It is nuts.. I don't have any rex females or even any that are het for rex!
I am going to release the found rat. I just wanted to confine it for Mark to see; here's a pic.

[littleindiangirl]

That is the wild rat? Its a rex just like your last litter? OR that was one from your litter.... ugh, its early and I'm confused.

If the rat you found was a rex, I would think that it was an escapee.

[SatanicIntention]

That's not a rex, notice the whiskers. That IS a wild rat and really shouldn't be anywhere near your colony. You never know what kinds of diseases and parasites they are carrying. I don't know if I would feel safe feeding them to my snakes, maybe after a quarantine and a deworming/mite/live treatment.

[Holbeird]

I know it's a wild rat, but it's so cute!

[SatanicIntention]

Ugh, can't edit. I meant "LICE treatment" not LIVE treatment..

[Ginevive]

I know.. the one that was Rex was one of the small ones that I fed off. This story did not end happily though; I noticed that the rat started to shake and was wobbling from side to side, so I euthanized it. I only handled it wearing rubber gloves and did not let it get near my colony.. anymore than it already was, in my kitchen (only one room away from my rat cages..) Grr.. it is this stupid house's inadequate basement that pretty-much any small creature can squeeze into.. then it is a small matter of getting from the mudroom to the house..
I am going to treat Inky for worms just to be safe; as it was near his food bowl. I already cleaned that area.. Mark was aghast that we had rats but I let him know that yes, in this rural setting, there will be wild rats.

[SatanicIntention]

In the picture, it did look sick. Thin and just poofed out. Don't know if the stress did it in or it was sick to begin with. Good thinking with the kitty though. You never know if that rat pooped anywhere where Inky could get into it.