Janus, Vodrum, Ralph Waldo, Henry David

[rasputin]

FilmNoir and I have brought home four baby rats, heartbreakers all. We've got a lot of basic care knowledge, but having not actually had rats before, any special warnings or neat tricks would be appreciated.

Also, any especially popular rat toys or games to play would also be much appreciated.

Janus and Vodrum are more FilmNoir's, Henry David and Ralph Waldo are mine. These boys all live in FilmNoir's part of the apartment for the moment.

[calvinator1]

Congrats! We saw a guy in France who had trained his rat to stay on his shoulder while he was out and about. Maybe you could get Henry or Ralph to do the same.

[jeannie]

Congrats! Will you post pictures soon? hint, hint...

[Die Fledermaus]

Very nice!

I will be most interested in seeing how they bond with people; if they chew and gnaw stuff outside the cage; how long they are out of the cage; and if they poop and pee around the house. I had a lot of concerns about Poppy the bunny gnawing up the house, and dwarfs biting me like crazy, but now with the bun and three dwarfs here, none of those concerns proved to be accurate.

Good luck, and yes, we want photos.

[rasputin]

AAAAACH!

I was sure we had checked, double-checked, and triple-checked -- but it seems that two of the rats are does!

We decided to check after one of the (apparent) does was the subject of an attempted (unsuccessful) sexual advance by one of the (definite) bucks, harking back to William Kennedy Smith.

Also, the two (definite) bucks have been squabbling a little more every day.

We anticipate having to separate them by more than just cages -- the bucks will move in with me as soon as we have got positive sexing on the two (apparent) does.

AARGH!

They had been sexed by their breeder (who may or may not have known anything about rats), the pet shop staff (who apparently did), and us (apparently our preliminary nut-count was in error).

Gotta be sure of their sex before we separate them between rooms -- don't want trouble regrouping them if we were wrong again. Then again, maybe it is best to split the group anyway?

[Die Fledermaus]

I just realized he looks like Steve Case, the AOL founder who ran the company into the ground after the infamous merger.




If I can sex a tiny dwarf pup with a Q-Tip. wouldn't sexing a rat be easy?

Good luck, regardless. I have no idea what is best for rats.

[rasputin]

It's not a matter of ease of sexing -- we just thought we had definitely seen nuts on all four -- the nuts are very obvious. Seemed that they were tucking them up sometimes and letting them hang out others.

I suppose it couldn't have been that simple.

With a sexing guide, it does seem that we have two boys and two girls. They are separate by sex and the girls just got a big new cage.

[Die Fledermaus]

Police departments have a simpler solution when "sexing" transvestitite/transgender/transsexual prostitutes: "Do you have a penis?".

It's yes or no!

[rasputin]

Would that they had answered me the first time I asked. This incident could have been bypassed.

[Die Fledermaus]

The question remains: don't these rats have penises if males?? I could find the little weinies on dwarfs. (?).

[rasputin]

I didn't have any rat pornography to get them aroused -- like many mammals they are less than obvious sometimes -- it's moot now, they are living in two same-sex pairs, separated so the males don't fight over the females they'll never get.

[calvinator1]

Do they have new names as well?

[rasputin]

Indeed they do -- partly.

The girls are Vodara (named for my gerb "Vodra") and Athena (has a gray laurel on her crown, very Grecian), and the boys are Janus (two-faced) and Orson (bear).

Pics are imminent, but as seems to be a frequent complaint, I have my camera but no batteries.