Kim if the rat's eyes are not yet open and it's ears are still flat to it's skull and it has a sort of tight, satin looking coat (like a seal pup basically) then it's a rat fuzzy and is about 9 to 15 days of age. At that age it still needs to be nursing and cannot survive without either a lactating female rat or someone hand feeding it.
Basically it goes like this:
Birth to 8 or 9 days of age - rat pinky, born hairless, eyes closed, ears flat to the skull, fully dependent on their mother's milk
8 or 9 days of age to about 15 days of age - rat fuzzy, first coat comes in, eyes are still closed, ears are still flat to the skull, fuzzies will start to blindly wiggle from the nest to follow their mother or explore but are still fully dependent on her
15 days of age until weaning at around 4 or 5 weeks of age - rat pups, their eyes open, their ears become upright, their coat comes in fully, at around 18 to 20 days they start trying their mother's food and her water bottle but will continue to nurse until they are weaned from her
There is a lot of growth in each life stage but especially in the pups. A rat pup of 16 days of age is a lot smaller than say one that is 3 or 4 weeks old.
Rat pinks shortly after birth - you can see the visible milkbands...
Rat pinks - 4 days of age, they've lost that bright red birthing color and you can see the eventual coat colors they will have.....
Just turned into fuzzies....
A older fuzzies/becoming pups - see their ears starting to perk up a bit more than the other litter pictured, eyes are opening...
Little bitty pup/older fuzzie with the eyes just opening (from the above litter)...
Big pups (they were actually weaned that day) piling on top of their poor mother.....
Just weaned rat (this is Q with his funny question mark pattern).....
Hope this helped to identify what life stage your rat is actually at.
Reply With Quote