Trinket's Litter - May 2006
Trinket is one of my pet rats. She's a rescued feeder rat, rescued from the local feed store out of a 10 gallon aquarium that had nearly 50 rats in it. No real surprise she was pregnant I suppose, but she didn't look it when I got her a week ago. The last three days she blew up like a balloon, and no wonder, 12 good sized pups! While not planned, I'm very thrilled about this litter, and since it's the first litter of baby rats I've had since I've been old enough to be responsible for them I thought I'd post pictures on here to document it, and show the cuties off to all my friends.
Day 1 - May 29th, 2006
Memorial Day Babies!
What a surprise Trinket had for me. There are 12 pups. First look I could see at least three boys, but she won't let me pick them up and look at them yet to get a better gender count. Most look like they're going to be hooded. There's one really light one that looked like it didn't have eyes, maybe it's a pink-eyed rattie. There's also one that looks like it's going to be a solid dark color. I can't wait to see what interesting patterns they turn out to have!
As you can see, Trinket's very protective of the litter at the moment. I've only had her a week or so, and she wasn't quite used to me, and as a feeder rat I'm sure she has little reason to trust humans. So I'm taking it slow and hoping to get her used to me and trusting me enough to let me handle the pups soon.
Day 2 - May 30, 2006
Trinket's starting to look exhausted already. And she moved the litter back to the original corner she had it in, closest to where I sit. She had moved them out of there when I messed with them yesterday, moving them to the other side. Glad she moved them back so I can watch them better without moving to disturb them. :) I gave her a bit of scrambled eggs this morning and she gobbled it up like I've never seen her eat anything before. Devoured the first piece I gave her then ran to the food bowl to get the rest, dragging five pups out of the nest with her. Poor pups, I managed to pick them up and put them back when she was eating. Once she realized what I was doing though she got defensive/nippy again so I left them alone. I 'think' there were three girls, the other two I didn't get a good enough look at. In these pictures you can kind of see the light colored pup at the very bottom. The poor lighting makes it look like it has darker areas but it doesn't.
I can't help laughing at the one laying upside down. Yes, they're all fine and healthy and noisy! And very active...already throwing themselves around trying to escape the nest. Hopefully I can get them out one by one and get pictures of them soon, but for now I'm leaving them alone with mommy so Trinket can settle.
Day 3 - May 31, 2006
Trinket seemed very calm/relaxed today, and when I gave her some egg she seemed to be totally ignoring the babies. So I thought I'd see if she'd let me pick her up and eat happily in a box while I picked up the babies for pictures. Well..she wasn't very happy to be out of her cage, so I tried to get pictures as quickly as I could of the little rascals. Gender count isn't for sure yet, since they wouldn't stay still and let me compare lol. Ever since I put her back in (was very careful not to get my scent on the babies because she seemed to freak out the last time and attacked it), she's been throwing litter (and babies) around trying to build a new nest...so I won't be bothering them for a few days to let her settle down again. I highly doubt there's exactly 6 boys and 6 girls, so I'm probably off somewhere..but here's the best guesses at this point:
Boys
Girls
I thought when I was doing pictures that I'd miscounted and there were actually fourteen babies, but when I had to move them a little later I only counted 12, and judging by the photos there seems to only be 12 after all. Which is good. :)
Day 4 - June 1st
I can't believe how much darker they're getting, just in one day! You can definitely see distinct patterns now. They're starting to move around like rats, clawing and climbing all over instead of just rolling around and pawing. Their ears are starting to stick out too.
Trinket is still really jumpy. She's been building the nest higher to keep the babies inside. They definitely look like baby rats now and not just pink blobs.
Day 5 - June 2, 2006
They're getting big! And moving around so much I have to use the sport setting on the camera to get the pictures not to be a total blur. Wish I'd waited to get pictures of them when they'd darkened like this. Hopefully in a few days I can get them out again. As good of a mommy as Trinket is, she's been taking longer breaks away from them.
Today one of the little leeches got dragged out of the nest with her and it took her nearly 2 minutes to pull it off and stick it back in the nest.
The poor girl has to stretch into all sorts of weird positions to feed them now. She's not that big of a rat herself, probably got pregnant right when she was first able to.
Poor mommy, so exhausted after feeding that bunch of leeches.
Day 6 - June 3rd, 2006
As you can see, definitely more pronounced markings now. They're moving all over, climbing out of the nest looking for momma, almost constantly on the move. And want they sense momma nearby they go crazy trying to get to her.
As you can see the one with the hood/large white spot on its head is quite the little ham. The one I wanted to get pics of the most, the one I'm calling badger marked for lack of knowing the correct terms (top right corner in the first picture) always manages to bury its head when I try to get a picture now.
Poor Trinket, when she's not in there feeding them she's normally in the corner laying upside down, her nipples are really sore it seems, and no wonder with all these little things latched onto them most of the day. Don't want to say I have any 'favorites' yet, but I definitely like the black hooded one with the large marking on its back that has odd edges like Trinket's does, and the badger faced on I find interesting because I've never seen a rat marked like that. But I like the looks of all of them, I'm very happy and excited. Can't wait for them to grow some fuzz!
Day 7 - June 4th, 2006
Poor Trinket, this is how she normally sleeps now. First time she did it..it scared me, thought something was wrong with her. Nope, just sore I'd imagine after the babies pulling on her all the time.
They're definitely on the move a LOT now. Climbing out of the nest looking for momma seems to be a favorite pass time now. One even sat out there alone for a while playing with a piece of paper towel until momma found him and dumped him back into the nest. Officially a week old!
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