oh, and the stuff outside of the cage came with it and won't be used, in case anyone worries... and i will need to give it a good clean.

 

Move to hamster cage was successful. We basically set it up, then 'stole' the cube out of the cage when mama was not on the nest, then transported mama in her 'spaceship' to the new cage. She ran around for a bit, ate some more egg, ran some more and then - went straight back into the nest. And we can still hear them making their tiny squeaky noises

 

we decided that the move might be upsetting/stressful enough so won't check on them for now. i'm going to say that the squeaking and the fact that mum went straight back in is good enough for me!

 

Super, it sounds as if everything is going really well. They'll be all fuzzy now and when you do check on them next you'll see what colours they are, and this time next week their eyes will be starting to open. Exciting times!

 

Very exciting, fingers crossed 😊

 

Update - little ones are more noisy than ever, and mama rat ate an entire egg for breakfast, but - she actually took it all into the nest with her. I'm taking that as a good sign, and guess i'd better start planning for rat baby food

 

Unflattering photo of one of the babies 😂

 

The third is blue and white, like mum.

We will handle them later today, but here are some photos. Not that you can see much 😂

 

 

Look at the little blondie!! So cute. I think mum ran out of ink - dark, slightly lighter - out of ink!!

 

Oh how exciting - and right on time at 14 days! They are beautiful!

 

aren't they just gorgeous? i'm waiting for my daughter to come home before we handle them properly... We also urgently need to let the others run free, i felt so bad, but i didn't want to move mama, and if they ran free, they'd climb all over that cage... but today, we will risk it all and sort it all out. The perspex has also arrived

So i'll send photos later, but also, I think i might have mentioned, we have a guy called Ian, who also breeds rats, living virtually next door, and he's coming over on the weekend to help us identify the genders...

 

 

Is owning rats always this hard? so the babies are fine, but now Caramel (Oreo's friend, not mum) has a very large growth on her cheek. And of course she's not handled, and i'm not keen on leaving Oreo on her own so i can take Caramel to the vet (and i'm dreading that she'll say that nothing can be done, and besides that being really sad, then we have the same rat situation as before!! Seriously... what is going on )

 

Oh dear, sorry to hear that. I hope it is not too serious. Yes, rats can be surprisingly high maintenance - when I first got rats I never imagined I would be having so many vet visits!

Personally I would just take Oreo along as well to keep Caramel company - I always take mine in pairs or sometime threesomes as although that involves a bit of stress for more of them it is much less stress for the rat who's sick than being alone would be. Also I reason that it is giving them all experience of new places and unfamiliar situations not actually being too bad (they get a treat after seeing the vet), which might help build confidence.

I'm glad mum and babies are doing so well.

 

ok, i'll figure that out... we've just had a family bereavement, i am not sure what is going to happen in the next few days

In the mean time, here is one of the kittens i picked up yesterday (currently i only pick them up if they venture out, i've not disturbed them in the nest...) Looks like a boy to me.

 

Very sorry to hear about your bereavement.

I agree the baby looks like a boy.
Best wishes, Keith

 

Thank you ❤

well,it looks like we have at least two boys, and all of them are dumbos and I think all Berkshire

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And the answer is: 3 boys!! GREAT NEWS!! Mocha, Cortado and Latte i think. Latte is champagne with dark ruby eyes, the other two are berkshires, all three are dumbos.

 

Hurray! All three being the same gender will simplify things a lot. What cute little dumbo boys.

 

definitely! and isn't the champagne boy lovely - we've renamed him, his name is cliquot. Like the rose champagne (because of the ruby eyes).

And the dark one is quito - short for barraquito, since he's dark with a light tummy. And the third one - is chai, because he has the colour of a nice chai tea.

 

ah, quito and chai are good with their names - but cliquot not, my daughter can't remember/pronounce it 🤣. His name will come...