Rats.....I couldn't do it..

[Sunny1]

The other day my kids and I went on a hunt for a feeder rat for my BP. Up until now she has been eating mice, but is now big enough to go for weanling rats. So far she has only ever eaten live for me, which has not been a problem for me until now. Well, after going to a number of petstores, I was starting to realize that it is so much harder for me to find the correct size live rat because a lot of the family owned type petstores breed their own rats in the stores so if I go looking at the wrong time I could be out of luck. Well, after much searching, I remembered a small petstore very near my house, so on a whim, we went. They had the correct size rat their, I asked to look at them before I bought one so I could check out health, quality, etc. Well, it was getting late at that point, my son was hungry and tired, and anyone with a two year old knows what that can mean...LOL. So I asked for one, didn't check the box, paid and left. When we get home... there were two in the box...somehow they must have misunderstood me or something. Anyway, so my daughter wanted to hold one, and me being a softy, let her. So of course I held them too, and I think ya'll get the picture...

I am guessing, from doing research here and on other sites, that they are about 4 weeks old.... eyes are still all squinty. I am almost 100% sure that they are both females.





The one is a beige hooded I believe, but am not sure of the other girl. She is all black with white feet and tip of tail, plus white on her belly. Here is a belly shot of her. Sorry it is a little blurry, my camera is not great for close ups, but ya'll still get the idea.


Here is another that shows the white tips on the black female...sorry about the linty apron as a background...LOL.


So know they are keepers, I just couldn't feed them off after having played with them. Haven't yet named them, but they are now a few days older than in the pics. Eyes are fully open now and they have been running around and exploring, grooming themselves and each other, overall just too darn cute and doing well. They are both living in a 10 gal aquarium together that I had used as a mouse tank to help fatten up mice before feeding them to my BP. Plan on going to a much bigger cage once I find one and they are slightly older. Man, feeding live has never bothered me with mice, but these guys are too cute. Arrrgh!!

[SarahMB]

I'm the same way, rats are just too cute for me to feed. All of mine will be mice eaters for life.

Very cute babies!

[juddb]

There is always one i try to hold back from the litters, only females though. They are adorable though.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I am guessing, from doing research here and on other sites, that they are about 4 weeks old.... eyes are still all squinty.

Cute however they are younger than 4 weeks old I would say close to 2+ weeks from the pics.

[ADEE]

hey, imo those babys look to be about 2-3wks old. and they still need mommys milk, if not at least puppy milk. i have a litter that will be 3wks old tomorrow and still nurse ALOT. the babys started eating blocks around 16days and their eyes opened at 15dys.. those rats look like their eyes just opened not long ago. the brown one is what they call a berkshire and the other is a creme hooded by the looks of it. 10gal is alright for now but as you said to keep them as pets they need a much larger cage long term. google rat message boards, you can learn lots. i have. just watch out for those crazy rat people, just as there are crazy snake people good luck with them!

[Jay_Bunny]

Too cute for words! I love the light colored one. Simply adorable.

[rabernet]

I agree, they are likely just 15 or 16 days old at the most. You'll need to bottle feed them every few hours for another 2 or 3 weeks. They are cute!

[Sunny1]

I haven't been on any of the rat forums, I have been staying away from those because of the whole snake keeping factor. I have been looking through alot of the threads on here and looking up links for info on them, as well as reading through a bunch of threads on here for rat info, and googling looking for any and all info that I can find. Is it too terrible to keep them? I have been giving them puppy milk, as well as some softer foods. They have been eating some canned cat food as well as some human baby food, I have seen them nibbling on some crumbled up peices of Mazuri block, and have also been giving them some peices of bread soaked in a little puppy milk. They have some little cloth pieces to curl up in in their tank which is in a warmer place in the house so they won't be cold. They have also been using the hides that I had in there for the mice that used to be in there off and on. Those pics were taken in Tues morning and so far they seem to be doing great. Their eyes no longer have their squinty look, and they seem to have lots of energy, they wander all over their tank and are very squirmy when we take them out for feeding or handling.
Is there anything else that maybe I missed that I should be doing for them? Has anyone else raised babies from this age then and had them do really well?
I spent most of tues. either researching info or running out to get stuff that I need for them, and really want to do the best for them as my daughter and I both think that they are absolutely adorable, and they have been really sweet .

[ADEE]

good luck with them!

[PythonWallace]

I'm glad I don't get like that, being the animal collector I am. When my 8 year old niece got tired of her pet mouse, my sister told her she had to give it away. Instead she came over and fed it to my Macklotts python, no sweat. I guess neither of us got that cuddly compassion for rodents gene.