BABIES!!!!! 14 Beautiful Jelly Beans

[shaunavalon]

My rat, Io, has successfully birthed 14 little kittens on Friday Afternoon. They're all amazing. One little runt - he was definitely very runty - he eventually didn't make it. However, there are 13 very healthy little squeakers in my house now <3

Moved her from the rat hospital basket into her cage with her littlies and put them inside a yellow plastic box when she was done.

The dad looks very much like her as well, so hoping to have himalayans all - will post updates as it goes along.

Io's 1st Litter of Jellybeans

 

[shaunavalon]

THEY HAVE TINY WHISKERS NOW!!!

 

[shaunavalon]

1 more didn't make it - down to 12. The 12 are getting bigger fast - they are all looking good. Since mom has 12 nipples I am okay with 12 - they don't have to fight for nipples and get runted.

 

[Big Schpog]

1 more didn't make it - down to 12. The 12 are getting bigger fast - they are all looking good. Since mom has 12 nipples I am okay with 12 - they don't have to fight for nipples and get runted.

They are beautiful little pink beans. What's a himalayan? Can you describe it?

 

[shaunavalon]

"Himalayans" are cream with darker noses/butts and some have a stripe down their back - also dark. I think that the term is not used entirely correctly, and lately is more used to refer to a specific fur pattern rather than the true rat variety. Himalayans have ruby / dark red eyes and the specific fur patterning.

Really pure Himalayans have only got a little bit of darkening at the nose and tail and ruby eyes - they do not have fur markings, but here by me it's almost impossible to get the ones with no fur markings.

So, it is probably wrong of me to call them "Himalayan" as a true Himalayan looks like this:

This is dad (has almost black eyes - the ruby colour is noticeable in bright light):

This is mom (she is a better "Himalayan" variety):

Mom is unhappy with me now as I disturbed her feeding the babies lol - she is a very pernickety rat mom right now and doesn't like it when I fidget with her as she is away from her babies and gets an immediate freak out.

 

[shaunavalon]

Right now, the kids are about to start growing their fur - their skin is changing and becoming "fuzzy" - not the smooth babyskin, so in a few days I'll be able to tell if there are black ones and brown ones and not just tan ones in the mix - I like the tan ones - like mom and dad.

 

[Kye]

Did you.. Breed these babies on purpose..?

 

[shaunavalon]

Yes, I have an 8 year old child, and this is a learning experience for him. He helps to take care of the rats.

It is a good way to learn about the proper care of animals and how to respect animals. When I grew up, we were doing this with cows and chickens and rabbits out in a small rural town on a smallholding. Now I am in a city, so I can hardly keep livestock in an apartment.

He does not take care of the babies (yet). Rat mom does that.

I wish to point out that these rats are pets, not food, and they will live their happy lives running around my house / bed / cage / etc and live happily together in their respective male and female colonies. They are not for sale, I am not a breeder, I'm addicted to having rats.

forum rules state that no one may post about breeding feeders, and no breeders, aka, people who breed rats for sale, may advertise, etc.

I've had +/-6-10 rats for the last 8 years at any given point. This is, however, the first time that I have had babies.

The mom and dad were also declared healthy and fit by their vet before this was attempted (I bought the dad at their store - they supply pets, pet accesories, grooming, and full vet services in one place. They have been my main supplier of cages, foods, rats and vet services for about 4 years now). They have a vet that specialises in 'exotic' and 'small' animals.

 

[Kye]

Ahh alright. I had to make sure- and I'm glad those babies will have a good forever home.!

 

[Big Schpog]

Right now, the kids are about to start growing their fur - their skin is changing and becoming "fuzzy" - not the smooth babyskin, so in a few days I'll be able to tell if there are black ones and brown ones and not just tan ones in the mix - I like the tan ones - like mom and dad.

I think the patterning on their faces is the most beautiful. I really love the Mom's colouring of that cream fur and that beautiful cinnamon on her back that gets darker towards her tail. Dad has a gorgeous facial colouring. Those babies are going to be so beautiful. I bet it's really cool waiting for them to show their markings. Keep posting images as they grow. I can't wait to see them.

 

[Big Schpog]

Yes, I have an 8 year old child, and this is a learning experience for him. He helps to take care of the rats.

It is a good way to learn about the proper care of animals and how to respect animals. When I grew up, we were doing this with cows and chickens and rabbits out in a small rural town on a smallholding. Now I am in a city, so I can hardly keep livestock in an apartment.

He does not take care of the babies (yet). Rat mom does that.

I wish to point out that these rats are pets, not food, and they will live their happy lives running around my house / bed / cage / etc and live happily together in their respective male and female colonies. They are not for sale, I am not a breeder, I'm addicted to having rats.

forum rules state that no one may post about breeding feeders, and no breeders, aka, people who breed rats for sale, may advertise, etc.

I've had +/-6-10 rats for the last 8 years at any given point. This is, however, the first time that I have had babies.

The mom and dad were also declared healthy and fit by their vet before this was attempted (I bought the dad at their store - they supply pets, pet accesories, grooming, and full vet services in one place. They have been my main supplier of cages, foods, rats and vet services for about 4 years now). They have a vet that specialises in 'exotic' and 'small' animals.

I really wish I could've bred my girl Big Schpog because of her genetics and her temperament. She is a marvelous rat and super healthy. I knew both her parents and they were very healthy rats. She was properly weaned from her Mom and I got her at 8 weeks. She is Agouti. I just don't have the room for it and I wouldn't want to have babies that I couldn't place in homes I would trust. Lots of people in this area have rats but they don't care for them properly. It's really horrible. I saw one lady who had two really young rats in her purse and she carried them around everywhere. They had no proper home and were constantly woken and jumbled all day and night. One got injured from this horrible treatment. I meet these rats and want to grab them and take them home to care for them properly.

The local rat rescue found over 100 rats or so in a hoarding situation in this area. They rescued all of them and they are up for adoption now. I get very depressed thinking about t
his fact. I live in a very poor, drug addled area. The reason for this is disability and the fact that the monies I get aren't enough to live a better area. I feel like a fish out of water here even though I've lived in this area for almost 20 years. The one good thing about this area is it's close to everything.

Most people here have rats because they're everywhere and people assume they don't cost much and treat them as disposable pets. In the last 2 weeks I've heard of TWO people who 'lost' their rats, IOW, not cared for them. I also heard a story where a rat was stolen from a person. These poor rats down here are exposed to drugs, which they sometimes eat, owners who DO drugs and carry them around in purses and they get exposed to drug smoke etc. Then of course, they don't get proper nutrition and if they are injured or sick they won't get taken to the vet. It's a real horrible situation.

I'm thinking of doing some volunteer work educating people down here about HOW to care for rats. I sometimes wonder if these folks are ignorant or just don't care.

I feel very blessed that I am not in that situation and that my rats are well cared for. I had a little nest egg of money before I got my rats and I'm lucky that the first two rats I got are incredibly healthy.

 

[shaunavalon]

Their fur is starting. You can see their darker skin where they'll be darker. Lots of them have really dark skin patterns, so I don't know how they'll turn out. It's not guaranteed.

Currently, they're an average of 12g each, and much bigger than they were when they were born. They grow really fast.

 

[shaunavalon]

They're getting fuzzy and whiskery.

 

[Kye]

You sure got a lot of hooded babies out of that batch- I can tell you that much !

 

[shaunavalon]

I know - it is kinda weird, and I think that with their markings being so dark that they are going to have darker fur than I had hoped, and yeah, 12/12 hooded - 100% of them are hooded.

the little particles are their skin - dead skin due to them getting fur.

 

[Kye]

Well I know that when rats age some get lighter as they age, maybe you'll get lucky.!

 

[shaunavalon]

Yeah, it doesn't matter - they'll still be loved and adored all the same.

 

[Big Schpog]

They are so pudgy and I love the fine whiskers. Little pudge muffins. They're all going to be lovely rats since you know the parents and they'll be properly weaned. That's the start of a healthy bunch of rats. Congrats my friend. You've got some really exciting days ahead with these pudges.

 

[shaunavalon]

<3

 

[shaunavalon]

More photos and some videos added of the babies.

Io's 1st Litter of Jellybeans

They're starting to eat solids, like mushed peas, noodles with fish oil and probiotics (I crush the noodles into short pieces, cook them in boiling water, then cool them and add the probiotics and omega-3 and amino acid supplement and keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days worth of yummy snacks, usually mix this with steamed veggies) and some low GI whole-wheat seeded loaf.

Not given them any protein yet (tonight is steamed broccoli and ham - the ham is their first protein item).

Tomorrow they'll be getting some scrambled egg (my rats literally fight over eggs, its the only thing I've seen them literally tackle and bite each other and forcibly steal from each other is scrambled eggs).