My Lovely Rats

All the rats have been to the vet again (sigh) with sneezing and porphyrin around their eyes and noses. He prescribed 10 days of Baytril again, and hopefully that will be long enough to get rid of the Myco for good.

Today my three children all had a go at feeding the rats with a spoon. I put a blanket across each of the girls’ legs and encouraged their rats (each has her favourite) onto their laps. This resulted in lots of food spilt everywhere, giggles and squeals of delight from the girls, and four well-fed, but not too fazed ratties! In fact, the rats were so keen to explore my daughters that they tended to do it three at a time, which was a little too much for my eldest, because she thought they were going to nibble her feet!

Rocky finds a friend

For some reason Rocky especially has a fascination with my feet and whenever he gets the chance he has a little nibble! All of my rats tend to put their teeth around my fingers now and again, but do not bite. I’m not sure why they do this and I hope it doesn’t mean they are going to bite. Pip (the shyest rat) bit me once (just a tiny nip) when I tried to pick him up out of his bed. I think he was just being defensive, so since then I coax him out with food and then pick him up. The others sit still for me to lift them now, and will stay in my hands for a little while, before struggling to get free and explore.

Stripe looking for someone to play with

There is a rule in my house regarding the rats: to never put fingers through the cage bars, as a rat’s sense of smell is very good, and they might mistake your finger for a strip of pizza, or stick of carrot!

Today my rats have been mostly eating cooked pasta with garlic and herbs.

Tags: Handling and Taming //