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New Rat

Velvet

Velvet

Totally corn crazy!!!!
Hi Everyone,

Just got my first pet rat...totally clueless about rats...but anyway, to make a long story short, he looked at me in a certain way and I just couldn't toss him to my snake...I was going to get rats to breed food with anyway.

I would very much like to know what type of rat he is (common rat I am guessing) what the proper name for his colour and pattern would be, he's sort of a common brown all over but all four of his feet are white and he has a white tummy and a white tip on the end of his tail.

I would also like to know more or less how old he is, he's about the size of a fully grown adult mouse. Kind of small. I hope he is old enough to be weaned.

Here he is, his name is Graeme. :santa:
 

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He is an agouti Berkshire (agouti is the colour, Berkshire is the pattern). He looks around 3-4 weeks old from that face, technically old enough to be weaned but if he needs a friend .. .rats need company, especially at that age.
 
I have no idea how you identifgied anything from that dark blob in the picture =)

Anyway, I agree, he needs a friend. Best to get one of his littermates right away and then you won't have to worry about quarantine.

Caring for 2 rats isn't really any harder than one. In fact it's easier, they are happier and healthier when they are in a group of 2 or more.
 
Flagg said:
I have no idea how you identifgied anything from that dark blob in the picture =)
Click to expand...

Years of practice! ;-) On rat forums that's a pretty standard quality photo to identify a rat from...

But ... at that age, not many varieties are that brown colour - look at the pale "ruff" behind the neck and leg, that's where the fur is parted and you can see the ticking, so it has to be agouti really. And the OP described a Berkshire perfectly.
 
As another long time snake and pet rat owner, I agree with toyah. It appears to be an agouti berkshire. The berkshire refers to the white markings.

I also agree that he needs a buddy.
 
I'd also agree that your rat needs a buddy. Solitary rats can be emotionally unstable, and tend to have behavior problems.
 
Jrgh17 said:
I'd also agree that your rat needs a buddy. Solitary rats can be emotionally unstable, and tend to have behavior problems.
Click to expand...
I'd been wanting a pet rat for a couple of years, but the PetCo near me has only had rather large juveniles, at least four to six months old, and I wanted a youngster. They happened to have one very sweet tempered black hooded female two weeks ago, so I bought her. A friend from whom I bought my snake rack reminded me that she breeds rat feeders, and offered to handle a baby for me so it would be nice and tame when weaned. Missa, the black hooded, will be getting a roommate in about two weeks, another girl. I wouldn't mind breeding, save that I live in an apartment and won't have a male rat in the house. I can't deal with male rat stink :shrugs:
 
Thanks everyone!!! :santa:

You'll be pleased to hear that he was not alone for very long. I got a girlfriend for him last night. Unfortunately I couldn't get a litter mate as a friend for him (they were feeder rats afterall) but I did get a very lovely lady for him from a friend. She is slightly bigger than he is but they are getting along just fine.

Thanks for identifying him as an Agouti Berkshire, I did do some research and I thought that he was most likely an agouti but didn't know for sure so thought I would ask. :) I had no idea if there was a name for his pattern. lol

The girl's name is Cleo, she is very lovely. She is a lovely golden pinkish colour (fawn? Amber?) and has lovely red eyes. I am not sure if fawns have red eyes and she looks amberish too...lol I haven't really had a chance to get pics of her or to have a good look at her yet so I am not sure if she has any white markings. :santa: She is a very pretty rat though! lol
 
Sounds like the female might be a red eye dilute, also called "buff".

Good to see he has a friend witth him.
 
I'm glad you got your rat a friend. I'm sure you'll find out that two rats are *way more* than double the fun. :)
 
They are super cute and doing very well together. They play and groom one another. (As a rat newb I really didn't know they would do that!)

I bought them some treats yesterday and even the little girl took from my hand! lol She really like raisins. :santa:

I also played the "nesting" game with them. Offered a small piece of newspaper, the little male grabbed it and put it in the nest and then came back for another piece! So sweet!

I'm really enjoying my ratties! :santa:
 
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