Nine New Pets

 

“Two females would be great…”

 

“OK…. nine would be even greater, as long as none of them are pregnant.”

 

To be clear: In the beginning, I wasn’t planning on getting more than two rats of the same gender, male or female.

 

I have a friend named Steve who’s getting out of the rat breeding business.

 

(Not that he probably intended to get into the rat breeding business, knowing that most pet stores take them so buyers can feed them live to their snakes and other reptiles, but when you get male and female rats, they do what rats do, and before long there are a lot of little rats!)

 

So, I told Steve I’d take two or three of either sex, but not both, as long as the females weren’t pregnant.

 

When the babies were old enough to be separated from their moms  (two days ago), he called. Lisa and I drove down to Olympia to get them, and were surprised to see a very large plastic container teeming with rats coming in our direction.

 

Ben, bearer of the container (Steve was lagging a bit behind), said, “These are all females. Choose the ones you want…”

 

Well, I looked in and there were the two moms and all their kids. The idea of separating them didn’t appeal to me, and when I learned that whoever I didn’t take would be taken to a pet store (where I knew, without being told, what their inevitable fate would be),  I said, “I’ll take them all.”   That made Steve very happy because he didn’t want them going for snake food, either.

 

So, now Steve has all males (and I presume he’s happy with that–no more babies!) and I have all females.

 

Steve gave me the rats. Lisa and I slogged home through crash-laden traffic, stopped at Wilco for hardware wire (to wrap my huge habitat in so the rats couldn’t get out of it), rat food and water bottles, and then returned home.

 

Over $100 later, and at least seven hours of work cutting and wrapping hardware cloth around the habitat cage, the rats are safely ensconced there.

 

At first, they were in there without any hiding places, but I realized they needed a hiding space to feel secure (especially in new surroundings), so I took a large square tube box, opened both ends, and placed it into the habitat. As soon as they saw it they all squeezed in, and there they stayed overnight and into this morning (except for a few forays out by the mama rats to check things out).

 

I had cut two holes in both ends of the tube so they could enter and exit, but all seven babies were literally jammed right into the middle of the tube. So, this morning I cut additional holes along the top 1.) so I could look in and be sure I still had nine rats; my cage-making skills aren’t 100% and 2.) so I could be sure they were all okay in there, jammed in like sardines. I was worried that they hadn’t come out at all last night (I checked several times during the night) and wondered if they were sick, scared or depressed.  (Happy rats are active when not sacked out. These were statues!)

 

As soon as I cut the holes into the top, little noses and heads came sticking out, sniffing and scoping out the joint.  I relocated both water bottles to the middle shelf, where the tube is, and they all came out and took turns drinking water as if they hadn’t had any in a long time.

 

Since then, I’ve held and petted most of them, hand fed them little treats and goodies, and checked out their general condition. They’re all alert, curious and active now.  I just needed to reduce the amount of “hiding space” so they had to more or less deal with their new world.  It has worked wonders. They’re all over the habitat now.

 

I love rats. I hope to acclimate the cats to some of them so I can get pix of them playing together. Years ago (before the Internet and affordable video cams) I had a cat that I raised with a rat. They were best buds. They took turns chasing each other. I always thought if I’d had a camera back then I could’ve taken videos that would have gone viral in the Information Age.  I hope I can do something similar with these.

 

Rats only live a couple of years, so I need to enjoy them while I can.

 

Jackie’s reaction

 

Jackie walked in and found out about them this morning.  I was looking in on them when she walked into my office to tell me something prior to heading out for pickleball . She spotted the cage and asked, “What do you have now?”

 

I said, “You don’t really want to know!  I’m sure!”  (Rats and mice are on her least-liked list of critters.)

 

She waited and I said, “Rats. All girls. I was going to get two from a friend who’s getting out of rat breeding, but I decided to take all the girls because they would have gone for snake food if I hadn’t.”

 

She wasn’t even upset. Or much surprised. (I’ve had rats since we bought this property together 15 years ago.)

 

I assured her that none of them are pregnant and that Steve said if the moms are (he’s sure they aren’t), he will take the babies.  I added, “They only live about two to three years, but that’s years longer than they’d have lived had I left any of them behind.”

 

I was amazed at how easily she accepted them.  Her reaction to baby ducks was far more robust!

 

I just hope she doesn’t have nightmares about rats.  That’s my only concern.