Two new little rats

Tula

I admit we weren’t planning any new additions to our family, if anything we were thinking of taking a break from keeping rats. We have adopted a lot of rats over the past 12 months, many of them old or with health problems, and devoted a lot of time and energy caring for them. With so many of them passing away, we have been feeling a bit heart broken and exhausted. It seemed like taking a break and recharging was the best thing to do. But when I saw a gorgeous little black hooded rat bouncing around her tank yesterday - while on a quick trip to the pet store to pick up supplies - I could not resist.

As we weren’t heading straight home after the pet shop, we weren’t able to take any little rats home with us. That gave us time to think and talk about getting some new additions - or rather for me to talk Derek into it. Not that he needed much persuading, but it is always best to be sure. So once we were sure it was what we wanted we headed back to the pet store to find out who would be joining our family.

Tilly

There were four girls in the tank, one black hooded, one beige/light ginger hooded and two beige berkshire (all one colour with a white tummy) rats. The two berkshire rats reminded us too much of our little girls Peach and Apricot, who recently passed away, so we decided to choose the two cute hooded girls.

As they were so small and wriggly the shop assistant was having trouble catching the girls and rather than see them get to stressed, Derek reached in and caught Tula. He tucked her inside his jacket while he got hold of Tilly, only to get peed on! Not that Derek minded, Tula is a timid little thing, we can’t blame her for being scared and we had just woken them up.

The girls have only been with us a short time and already we can see that Tilly is going to be a handful. She was extremely quick to start exploring her nice big cage, and even came to see us when we were watching. If we reach into the cage she wants to sniff us and doesn’t seem to mind if we hold her. Tula is a little bit more timid and is happy to hide in her igloo, but we have plenty of time to get to know our new girls. We are just very happy to have two healthy little additions to the family.