Oops we did it again! More rats join the family

A couple of weeks ago we adopted a young mum rat, Daisy, and her two daughters form the RSPCA. There were also three boy rats waiting to be rehomed, who were from Daisy’s litter. We didn’t really have room for them at the time we adopted the girls, but with our old rat Pickle moving out of his big cage and into what we call his retirement home, we had a spare cage. It had been our hope that someone else would come along and give the boys a new home, but that hadn’t happened and we couldn’t resist.

Lime (front), Bramble (behind) and Apple (right)

I was amazed how much they’d grown since we last saw them, they must be as big as Daisy now. When we first saw them they were only a bit bigger than their sisters. Here’s hoping they grow into huge big cuddly boys :-).

We were told that the boys were a bit skitty and had been given extra handling. All I can say is it must have worked, because they’ve been extremely affectionate with us and have got no problems being handled. In fact we were trying to leave them alone to settle in they just wanted to play. So, Derek stuck his hand in and was ambushed by three friendly boys who all wanted to tussle with him. Even though they were really excited they had no objections to being picked up. They were so excited their first night we let them out to explore our dinning room. I think we managed to wear them out a bit.

As they are Peach and Apricot’s brothers, we decided to go with more fruit names for them :-). So Taupe, Beige and Thorn are now Apple, Bramble and Lime.

The RSPCA very cleverly shaved bits of the rats so they could tell them apart. So, while we know Bramble is slightly darker than his brothers we can’t tell Apple or Lime apart, without their shaved patches. I’m hoping that their personalities will be more apparent before their bald bits grow back or we’ll have no clue which ones which.

Apple and Lime making themselves at home

I know Derek was a little unsure about more rats, but those guys have done a brilliant job of winning him over.