Rats!

[hawkida]

After Batty died we went hunting for companions for Willow as rats don't do so great as solitary creatures. It didn't take too long. A thirteen year old in Plumstead (less than five miles from here) had a couple of baby females still available having, so far as we can tell, bred her show rats without telling mum and dad. Introductions went extraordinarily well, and after some initial insistance from Willow that the hammock was for her use only, she relented and the new girls are settling in nicely. They are TINY, at seven weeks old, and very fast. Mouse is a dark brown, known as "mink", and looks very much like a mouse at the moment. Her sister is a rex, possibly, Hayley thinks, a double rex. I am clueless. Apparantly it's all about being bred for a wiry curly coat, but if you breed two together then they can end up with bald patches. The owners talked about how rexes moult, but Hayley says that isn't normally the case, but this little one has some very thin fur around her shoulders and rump. So she might go bald, it might grow back, or she might have varied bald spots throughout her life, we'll just wait and see. Hayley thinks she looks like a frog. Personally, as she scales the cage sides I see Gollum but Hayley says we can't call her that. At the moment she's Frog, or as the auto-correct decided, Froggle. Pictures under the cut.

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Comments

[replyhazy.livejournal.com]

soffffffft

congrats on the new babies!

[seawasp]

Interesting. We had white rats for many years as our pets (ten rats, one after the other) and they never seemed to have problems as singletons. Of course they were taken out to romp every night.

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

Received wisdom these days says that unless they're free to roam permanently, they shouldn't be kept alone. It probably depends a lot on the particular animal's temperament and how early they're separated from siblings. Willow was already seeming stressed as Batty got less able to look after herself.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

They are very cute!

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Oh, cute!

If Gollum is unacceptable, I knew a husky called Smeagol...

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

So small!