Ok I'm freaking hooked!!!

I was the same way. I was scared to death handling these things and I had 2 females that I held back from a litter and held each everyday and thought dang these things are pretty cool. Those 2 are still in my future breeder tub

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Originally Posted by rabernet

I've been very lucky in that all my females are very good about letting me check their babies, and none seem threatened or particularly disturbed by me doing so. I do speak to them each day and hand offer them treats and scratches, so I do think it pays to interact with your rats so that they learn to trust you. Moms often get off of their litters to come and say hello to me.

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Yea she does this too.. She knows what time I feed in the morning and so everyone is out and waiting for their morning feed.. Very cool little critters.

Yep and you'll quickly get to know their personalities and little social structures and so forth. Male rats are very good with their offspring so feel free to use the fathers to babysit the recently weaned males (not the females, they have no problem mating their own female offspring). Our oldster, Casanova, often hangs out with those very young males and keeps them in line. If they scuffle about too much he'll box them or simply sit on them until they settle down again. As long as they recognize he's King of the Food Bowl, peace usually reigns. :)

Since I have been raising them I have a new found respect for the little fuzz balls.