Please can I introduce...

Paris and Milan...

Aw they are absoutely stunning!! I love their colour.

Nice colour, but I'm not into rats, sorry

Aww they're lovely Are they going to Lincoln with you?

OMG they are GORGEOUS!!!! Are they off to become educated ratties?

They are soooooo beautiful! They haven't come out of hiding though and I picked them up this morning at 9am They are 6 weeks old and are blue dumbo rats!

They are living with me in Lincoln now in my house The estate agents have allowed me to keep them! Charlotte, you NEED to see them!

Oh wow - they are a wonderful colour.

Have you kept rats before? They're great pets.

Oh they are lovely!!

These are my first rats I have had! Do you own rats at all? Is it pretty normal for them to be this shy when first moving them in? I guess I am being impatient, I just want to play with them

ETA - thank's Rach!!

They are lovely I'm not really a rodent person, but they look adoreable and are such intelligent animals.

Thank you Nickie! I never thought I was a rodent person either, until I plunged in and fell in love with some at Pets at Home. They are so witty and adorable. These girls were from someone near me in Lincoln and he was so caring about them. These were the first to be taken away from mummy (litter of 9! All the same colour) so I bet they are sad at the moment

Ahhh they look so cute!

Hmm rats are really wierd in thsi respect - its best *not* to let them settle in without intervention or they'll start to prefer not having you at all! Its best just to dive in, handle them, give them much attention.

Also read somewhere rats have a wierd fear response, if something persists for 20m or more, they lose thier fear of it, so if you hold them for 20m+ they soon forget that they're scared of you

Ahh they are pretty , they have lovely eyes ^_^...Me likey

coco wrote:These are my first rats I have had! Do you own rats at all? Is it pretty normal for them to be this shy when first moving them in? I guess I am being impatient, I just want to play with them

ETA - thank's Rach!!

Where are you and I will pop in X Likewise you must come for a bunny fix. Dawn has 19 fosters up at hers as well as her 4! x

Vivi wrote:Hmm rats are really wierd in thsi respect - its best *not* to let them settle in without intervention or they'll start to prefer not having you at all! Its best just to dive in, handle them, give them much attention.

Also read somewhere rats have a wierd fear response, if something persists for 20m or more, they lose thier fear of it, so if you hold them for 20m+ they soon forget that they're scared of you

yes, I read about that too! I did that today this morning and this evening, but it's likely I shall have to persist. I did give them some chicken and they went MAD for it, they loved it! They were clambering everywhere and digging their faces in!

LilyGrace wrote:Ahh they are pretty , they have lovely eyes ^_^...Me likey

thank you so much, they are so stunning, I love them!

Catswhiskas wrote:
Where are you and I will pop in X Likewise you must come for a bunny fix. Dawn has 19 fosters up at hers as well as her 4! x

I'm on Portland Street if you know where that is? and Dawn has an awful lot of bunnies in!

I sure know Portland Street, off High Street! Great late shop on corner!

I give mine chicken if I have scraps but also I give mine tinned catfood.. They like that, too. And cheerios, which I suppose Im not really meant to give them.. But a few won't hurt!

Catswhiskas wrote:I sure know Portland Street, off High Street! Great late shop on corner!

yeah that's the one! I have used their midnight service many times already I shall have to give Bella a big fat hug when I come and see her!

Vivi wrote:I give mine chicken if I have scraps but also I give mine tinned catfood.. They like that, too. And cheerios, which I suppose Im not really meant to give them.. But a few won't hurt!

Ohh, I bought them some Applaws dog food, its 100% chicken! Expensive for a little tin, but it should last a while. Especially as they are young and growing, I want to give them the extra protein, but once they hit adult age then I think I will feed them less meat. I'm feeding mine on the Shunamite Diet and all I can hear at night is them rummaging through their bowl for the good bits

I am going to rename them because I don't like their names Really bad I know, but just rebranding them

Ah yes - mine are fed very similarly, the shunamite diet thing is awesome, I love making it for them & trying to find different things to put in each time I make a new batch to make it more interesting for them.

Because mine were rescue rats, I had some milk mix stuff for them also to gain weight as they were too small, as well as the cat food. I know then can be fed dogfood, but all the dogfood locally is low quality meat compared to the catfood, so they don't really have much choice.

What are you thinking of naming them?

Good choice od pet! I love rats, I once had a group of 8 living together! They are much easier to bond than rabbits and you can get some stunning colours, google 'husky rat', they are stunning. Rex rats are funny looking things too, totally different from rex rabbits. Your blue dumbos are lovely too. I could chat about rats all evening! A good way to get them used to you is just to tuck them in your clothing and wear them around. They might pee and poo on you for a bit but once they are used to you they won't do it anymore.
They are food motivated too as you found out! I used to let mine out to run around the living room then before bed I used to shake their food tin and they'd leg it back into their cage, well all except one who'd playme up blind!
They do make fab pets and they love those fleecy hammocks to lounge around in!

I chose their names as I didn't have a clue what to call them and would name them with the first things that came into my head I've had a good think about it and I really like Cécile and Columbia for them! I won't name them that yet until I am fully comfortable with it though. I like unusual names!

What is that milk stuff? Mine are absolutely tiny and at 6 weeks I can fit both of them in my hands! They are getting much more used to me already and I have already had a groom from both of them They have also fallen asleep on me while ironically I watched Ratatouille!

Vince (sorry I don't know your name!) I really wanted two russian blues but as soon as I saw the photo of these two girls (they are mink blue I believe?) I fell in love with them!! Mine have had free time in my room and have had a ball running around this pop up tunnel I bought them! And mine don't like the fleecy hammock, they much more prefer sleeping in the rope hammock!

It is official though, I am a converted rat lover

[quote="coco"]

Catswhiskas wrote:I sure know Portland Street, off High Street! Great late shop on corner!

yeah that's the one! I have used their midnight service many times already I shall have to give Bella a big fat hug when I come and see her!

Trust me you won't want to do that when you see the amount of wee Chance has her covered in.

I forget the name of the milk stuff, its like a power mix, for weaning baby ratties, I don't suppose its important for your two but as I said mine were underweight at 6 weeks since they'd had a rough start (Not that you'd tell now!)