baby rats!

[ratcreature]

I'm just back from picking up four adorable baby rats. Unfortunately the two mink ones which when I selected them appeared dark and light mink now have quite a similar shade, so currently I still have trouble telling the two apart. I hope that will get easier once I get to know them and learn more subtle details. From above I can't tell apart the black ones either, but with them one has a white stripe on his belly. I still need to decide on the names.

Comments

[madripoor_rose]

Aw, cute!

[ratcreature]

They are so soft and fluffy.

[rosaw]

Very sweet. Looking forward to more pictures and the names you choose.

[ratcreature]

I anticipate many more pictures as soon as they have gotten used to their new surroundings and to me.

[krait]

Now I am dead of The Cute. *iz ded*

[ratcreature]

They are even cuter when they look at you and lick your fingers.

[cereta]

So cuuuuute!

[ratcreature]

All adorable fluffiness. I can't wait for them to become comfortable with me so that I can properly pet and cuddle them. :D

[lilacsigil]

OMG they look so soft and lovely! Do they all get along with each other okay?

[ratcreature]

Yeah, they are siblings. And baby rats, even male ones, aren't aggressive beyond play scuffles. Potential problems only happen once they are out of adolescence and more fully grown with a few months, and want to figure out their pecking order. But even so, because laboratory and domestic rats mostly got selected to tolerate each other without aggression on small room. So they are mostly only aggressive towards foreign rats when they defend their territory, and only then you have to introduce carefully. Otherwise they just scuffle and box a little, usually without bites getting bloody. Sometimes adult males kill small foreign babies, because when they hope the female might rather get pregnant with their young sooner if they off the previous litter that doesn't smell like their group (as happened with my poor Gonzo when Ben killed him, though Gonzo was weaned of course, and old enough that the breeder didn't think this likely or I wouldn't have introduced them, but it was apparently still borderline).

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They really do look much alike, those two.

[ratcreature]

They are extremely cute, only five weeks old. Minks change color further with their adult fur, and I hope they'll become more distinguishable as they get older. Right now I'm still trying to spot special features. But clearly this can be done, because the breeder could tell these two apart, and in the litter were two other male minks and two other solid blacks. Clearly I just have to develop the eye. (I mean, people do it with their dogs all the time after all, so it can't be that difficult. I mean, for me one black lab looks like the next one, but the owners don't seem to have any trouble.)

[nrrrdy-grrrl.livejournal.com]

I bet anything you'll totally be able to tell them apart from getting to know them and their little personalities developing! Adorable!!!

[janice-lester.livejournal.com]

awww. ♥

[ratcreature]

Yeah, pretty much my constant state atm.