More fun with baby animals!
Not quite as nuts as the last story, however.
We approach the three-day mark with the ratlet; she's settling in well. Curiosity has tied with trepidation, and she'll now watch you go about your business in the bathroom so long as you don't look directly at her. Or speak to her. Do that and she'll freeze.
Assuming she's a girl is a convenience, because I haven't seen any balls. This doesn't mean much, as roof rats tuck them up when they're scared and she's so tiny she could well be a he whose balls just haven't dropped yet.
Babything is on solids! She's eating lab blocks and cheerios and cherries quite happily, even if she's also eating the cherries slowly. I stuck a carrot and a broken-up snow pea in there, too, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that as long as there's a cherry available, the veggies are gonna sit there.
I got her a little bitty mouse-wheel, since... well, she's tiny yet. (There's a wheel attached to the emergency cage, but it's a slat wheel, not a mesh wheel-- not safe for the running, as rodents can get a foot caught between the bars and break a leg.) Getting THAT in there was a big production that involved me saying "Why do you climb the walls when I don't want you to but not when it would be useful?" to the babything. She has mastered the wheel, however, and enjoys running at breakneck speeds and then stopping dead, so momentum carries her around and around a few times. The most I've seen her get tonight is five rotations; last night her top was three.
She wore herself out on it last night. I didn't see or hear hide nor hair of her until about eight tonight, aside from some sleepy repositioning while in her Crystal Light box.
I do feel bad about her not having any playmates her own age, but unless Dad decides to live-trap the rest of her family, there's not much I can do about that for a while... Gotta give her three weeks, move her to the bedroom so she can smell Badger and Jojo and they can smell her, and then get a whole new cage if I want more babies, because, hey, I've got the big cage and the emergency cage.
I've been wanting a new emergency cage, though, so I can have a decent-sized hospital-or-quarantine cage and just use the emergency cage as a travel cage. So maybe a trip to the cheap pet warehouse store is in order, as is finding out if any of the local rodent retailers (I'd be a good girl and go to a breeder, but what responsible breeder would fork over babies when I said "My wild-caught roof rat pup needs some playmates"?) have any baby girls who'll be ready to adopt in three or four weeks' time.
Always girls. Female roof rats aren't territorial, and male roof rats can't interbreed with domestic rats, so even if the babything turns out to be a boything, I'm good.
She'll need playmates, too. Jojo is starting to show her age, slowing down, and Badger, while in rude good health, is blind and deaf. If she could see, I'd lay money she could keep up with a roof rat, but it just seems better to me to have a slew of babies (three plus the roof ratlet, tops) so that they can all play together and not bother Badge and Jo unless they want to be bothered. They're two and a quarter years old, that's pretty darned old for Petco rats.
I will be taking photos soon, if I can figure out how to swing it. She's FAST like a jet-propelled spider-monkey and having an alien object shoved up close might make her decide hiding is good. Meantime, look up at Hello. Same shape, but she's a cooler agouti, not so greeny. Also, her ears are darker and she doesn't have Hello's wealth of blemishes.
And her tail's all in one piece. And her feet are dark while Hello's were pink.
She's just plain adorable, so long as you like A) rats or B) babythings.
We approach the three-day mark with the ratlet; she's settling in well. Curiosity has tied with trepidation, and she'll now watch you go about your business in the bathroom so long as you don't look directly at her. Or speak to her. Do that and she'll freeze.
Assuming she's a girl is a convenience, because I haven't seen any balls. This doesn't mean much, as roof rats tuck them up when they're scared and she's so tiny she could well be a he whose balls just haven't dropped yet.
Babything is on solids! She's eating lab blocks and cheerios and cherries quite happily, even if she's also eating the cherries slowly. I stuck a carrot and a broken-up snow pea in there, too, but I've got a sneaking suspicion that as long as there's a cherry available, the veggies are gonna sit there.
I got her a little bitty mouse-wheel, since... well, she's tiny yet. (There's a wheel attached to the emergency cage, but it's a slat wheel, not a mesh wheel-- not safe for the running, as rodents can get a foot caught between the bars and break a leg.) Getting THAT in there was a big production that involved me saying "Why do you climb the walls when I don't want you to but not when it would be useful?" to the babything. She has mastered the wheel, however, and enjoys running at breakneck speeds and then stopping dead, so momentum carries her around and around a few times. The most I've seen her get tonight is five rotations; last night her top was three.
She wore herself out on it last night. I didn't see or hear hide nor hair of her until about eight tonight, aside from some sleepy repositioning while in her Crystal Light box.
I do feel bad about her not having any playmates her own age, but unless Dad decides to live-trap the rest of her family, there's not much I can do about that for a while... Gotta give her three weeks, move her to the bedroom so she can smell Badger and Jojo and they can smell her, and then get a whole new cage if I want more babies, because, hey, I've got the big cage and the emergency cage.
I've been wanting a new emergency cage, though, so I can have a decent-sized hospital-or-quarantine cage and just use the emergency cage as a travel cage. So maybe a trip to the cheap pet warehouse store is in order, as is finding out if any of the local rodent retailers (I'd be a good girl and go to a breeder, but what responsible breeder would fork over babies when I said "My wild-caught roof rat pup needs some playmates"?) have any baby girls who'll be ready to adopt in three or four weeks' time.
Always girls. Female roof rats aren't territorial, and male roof rats can't interbreed with domestic rats, so even if the babything turns out to be a boything, I'm good.
She'll need playmates, too. Jojo is starting to show her age, slowing down, and Badger, while in rude good health, is blind and deaf. If she could see, I'd lay money she could keep up with a roof rat, but it just seems better to me to have a slew of babies (three plus the roof ratlet, tops) so that they can all play together and not bother Badge and Jo unless they want to be bothered. They're two and a quarter years old, that's pretty darned old for Petco rats.
I will be taking photos soon, if I can figure out how to swing it. She's FAST like a jet-propelled spider-monkey and having an alien object shoved up close might make her decide hiding is good. Meantime, look up at Hello. Same shape, but she's a cooler agouti, not so greeny. Also, her ears are darker and she doesn't have Hello's wealth of blemishes.
And her tail's all in one piece. And her feet are dark while Hello's were pink.
She's just plain adorable, so long as you like A) rats or B) babythings.