TokenBlinkie
Currently being tamed by 4 rats. ☺🐀🐀🐀🐀
Hi everyone.
As the title says, I became the accidental carer to 4 baby wild rats on 18th April.
Parents were killed, I grabbed these babies before they could meet the same fate - I have no idea if I got them all, I feel bad if I missed some as I don't know if they would have survived without their parents.
The babies eyes were closed and they were not yet walking on their feet.
Thanks to the excellent posts on this forum (hence why I have now registered) it seems that they were approximately 2 weeks old when I acquired them.
All eyes are now open, all babies are walking properly (wow, they sure are fast!) and taking their milk well and toileting well.
To my surprise they started eating apple slices yesterday and are very nibbly.
I'm hoping they start to get the hang of their drinking bottle, and I am going to put a small water bowl in their cage tomorrow as I am worried about them becoming dehydrated as their urine seems a deeper colour.
They lost a few grams of weight in the first few days, and my 3rd day with them was the worst....I was exhausted, due to waking up every 3 hours to feed them, alongside going to work (yep, I took them to work with me to keep to the 3 hourly feed schedule!) and juggling human family day to day life, plus I was full of self-doubt and convinced that I was doing it all wrong.
They are gaining weight, very vocal, and have discovered their Playwheel.
I am still waiting for the wildlife sanctuary to contact me about collecting them. The last contact I had from them was on Wednesday, saying that they would hope to collect them the next day.
I have no clue whether wild handreared babies can be kept as pets, whether I have spoilt their chances of "raise to release", or even if they have any diseases that could be passed on to other rats, animals or humans. We are keeping good hygiene at all times.
I don't think my household would be a suitable permanent home for them, as we already have 2 dogs and 2 cats. They wouldn't be able to have any decent free roaming out of cage time.
At the moment my concern is keeping them alive then sexing them this week, to see if separation needs to be done. Which brings another worry...if we end up with one of one sex and 3 of the other, I understand that rats should not be kept alone?
Thankyou to all forum members for your informative posts that have helped me so much, and thankyou for reading this very long post.
As the title says, I became the accidental carer to 4 baby wild rats on 18th April.
Parents were killed, I grabbed these babies before they could meet the same fate - I have no idea if I got them all, I feel bad if I missed some as I don't know if they would have survived without their parents.
The babies eyes were closed and they were not yet walking on their feet.
Thanks to the excellent posts on this forum (hence why I have now registered) it seems that they were approximately 2 weeks old when I acquired them.
All eyes are now open, all babies are walking properly (wow, they sure are fast!) and taking their milk well and toileting well.
To my surprise they started eating apple slices yesterday and are very nibbly.
I'm hoping they start to get the hang of their drinking bottle, and I am going to put a small water bowl in their cage tomorrow as I am worried about them becoming dehydrated as their urine seems a deeper colour.
They lost a few grams of weight in the first few days, and my 3rd day with them was the worst....I was exhausted, due to waking up every 3 hours to feed them, alongside going to work (yep, I took them to work with me to keep to the 3 hourly feed schedule!) and juggling human family day to day life, plus I was full of self-doubt and convinced that I was doing it all wrong.
They are gaining weight, very vocal, and have discovered their Playwheel.
I am still waiting for the wildlife sanctuary to contact me about collecting them. The last contact I had from them was on Wednesday, saying that they would hope to collect them the next day.
I have no clue whether wild handreared babies can be kept as pets, whether I have spoilt their chances of "raise to release", or even if they have any diseases that could be passed on to other rats, animals or humans. We are keeping good hygiene at all times.
I don't think my household would be a suitable permanent home for them, as we already have 2 dogs and 2 cats. They wouldn't be able to have any decent free roaming out of cage time.
At the moment my concern is keeping them alive then sexing them this week, to see if separation needs to be done. Which brings another worry...if we end up with one of one sex and 3 of the other, I understand that rats should not be kept alone?
Thankyou to all forum members for your informative posts that have helped me so much, and thankyou for reading this very long post.