Last updated Thursday, June 22, 2006
The babies of Trinket's litter are now 4 and a half weeks, so they've been separated. There's officially 8 bucks (males) and 4 does (females).
Since these pages will be graphic intensive because my babies love to get their pictures taken, I'll try to make a new page every time I update and link it to this one.
All my rats are common (feeder) rats, rescued from being fed to snakes. While I applaud people trying to breed to improve rats, and wish I could support them, I only 'save' feeder rats, I don't purchase from breeders. I don't think the 'bad' of 'supporting' a feeder rat breeder outweighs the good of rescuing one or two from being fed to reptiles. Of course this can and has led to getting rats with health problems and 'non-show' quality rats, but I don't think any rat deserves to be fed to a snake. All my feeder rats have been excellent pets, and while they've had their share of health problems (my agouti female developed tumors as she got older, my black female had respiratory problems I couldn't get rid of and they eventually killed her) overall they haven't been bad enough to make me stop saving feeders.
The four babies are from Trinket's litter, Trinket is a rescued feeder rat that was pregnant when I rescued her and gave me 12 babies a week later. Rattie is the oldest and first one I rescued this time around. Shadow was the second one and Rattie's companion.
The Does
Please note: I'm not sure all the correct terms for the colors, and I wasn't able to find a really good reference for this.
All my brown rats from Trinket's litter are not reddish brown, they're blueish brown.
Rattie Tat aka Rattie
Black Variegated Hooded with lightning marking
Rattie is the first I got once we lived here in CA. It'd been a few years since I'd had rats, and I missed them. Normally I try to get males, because I've had good luck with them, but I loved the marking on Rattie's face. I attempted to name her Muse..but she never really came to that and she came to Rattie, so that stuck. She's a black hooded, with a lightning marking up the right side of her face right above her eye. She was a tiny little thing, still with her mother, when I got her, now she's a huge doe. About 5-6 inches not including the tail, and round. Very spoiled. :)
She's a rescued feeder rat. She's always been very timid around people, and doesn't much like to be held/picked up, but of the three she seems the most curious. Always getting into something. She's also the dominate one, always making sure the other two know their place in the pecking order.
Shadow
Black Self
Remember, I'll never leave you
If you will only
Remember me
Remember me...
Remember, I will still be here
As long as you hold me
In your memory
-Josh Groban, Remember
Rest in Peace - June 21, 2006
Shadow was my second rat that I got here. Rattie was lonely and depressed, so I thought I'd get another doe to keep her company. I'd always wanted a pure black rat, and the one baby I'd had that was had to be sold. She was always very active when I got her out. She was a black with a silvery tint to her hair, and a white stripe down her belly that was barely visible.
Ever since I got her she'd always sneezed. I changed everything I could to try to get rid of her sneezing, I thought it was allergies. Apparently it wasn't. I don't know what it was, maybe she was born with some sort of respiratory defect, it never passed to Rattie or Trinket, which is why I thought it was allergies. The last couple of days she'd had more trouble than normal breathing, a bloody nose, and was lethargic. Last night it finally got too much for her, and she died. I did everything I could to try to save her, but in the end it wasn't enough.
She was my buddy, the friendliest of the larger rats, and towards the end she loved to spend hours just sitting on my shoulder. She was young, far too young to die. She was the only one actually purchased from a 'pet' store that sold 'pet' rats instead of feeder rats, though I'm pretty sure she was of feeder rat breeding.
Trinket
Coco Brown/Cinnamon? Hooded with teardrop marking on forehead.
Trinket is the third rat. I'd already had Shadow and Rattie for several months. The feed store we buy our dog and horse food at sometimes has an aquarium full of feeder rats. Normally I look at them, feel sorry for them, and go on my way. But this time...I looked..and there was an adorable brown hooded rat laying off by itself away from the others. My favorite rat of all time, Nugget, had been a tan hooded. But this rat at the store wasn't just a brown hooded, it had a spot on her forehead, sort of a half moon/teardrop marking. I'd never seen one like it before. I couldn't tell if it was even a male and a female, and if it had been a male that would've required buying a new cage..and there was really no way to tell without buying it. Since I was in there with someone else's money I went ahead and left without it. But something about it just stuck with me, a feeling that I should've gotten it. Something horrible would be lost by that particular rat being fed to a snake. Turns out I needed dog food, so I convinced my father to take me back to that same store, and the rat was still there, so I bought it.
Picked up in a most unpleasant way by the clerk at the store and shoved into a paper bag, the poor rat had a rough start to our relationship. When I got it home I was relieved to find out it was indeed a female rat, therefore she could live with Rattie and Shadow and there'd be no problems. I kept her separated for a day, but my cages weren't really designed to be split apart, so after a day with no signs of sickness or problems I went ahead and stuck her in with Rattie and Shadow. Shadow pretty much took one sniff then ignored her, going back to sleep. Rattie took to her, following her around, grooming her constantly, and sleeping with her protectively..all motherly like. It was wonderful, and everyone was happy. Especially Shadow now that Rattie had someone else to pick on. ;)
I decided to name her Trinket, which was one of the names I considered for Aspen, my puppy, but it wouldn't have fit Aspen with her being so large of a dog. Trinket was perfect for a rat though! She seemed to take to it, and after a few days she fit right in with the others, clamoring for treats and coming when I called her.
She gave me quite a surprise a week later, she gave me a litter of 12 babies! You can see the rest of their story here.
The baby girls:
Vixen
Coco Brown/Cinnamon? Berkshire (white belly)
Vixen is one of the larger babies, and her personality just screamed mischief.
Splash
Black High White Berkshire with pink tailtip
The larger of the two black berkshire females, and she also has the higher white markings.
Pixie
Black High White Berkshire with pink tailtip
It's really hard to tell Splash and Pixie apart at times. Pixie is tinier, one of the smallest in the litter, and timid.
Dart
Coco Brown/Cinnamon Capped w/tiny forehead spot
Dart is by far the female with the most personality. She's also a speed demon, hence the name. Slippery little thing and faster than you would expect. She's nearly an exact twin to her brother who you can see on the boy's page, thank goodness they weren't both the same gender or I'd have never been able to tell them apart!
Go here to see the first three weeks of Trinket's litter
This site was created by Samantha Kroese on June 22, 2006. All information and photos contained on this page are copyright to Samantha Kroese, with all rights reserved. They may NOT be used in any manner besides on this page without express written permission from copyright holder, doing so without permission is breaking the law. Please email Samantha Kroese with any questions or comments about this site.