Well, before we could foster the mice, they all got adopted! Fantastic! So the rescue said, “how about a couple of rats? We are having a cage shortage!” We were happy to oblige.
Built them a new cage, here it is next to Yeti (our hamster)’s palace, with the fella for size comparison (he is six feet tall):
And here are the ratties! Just arrived this morning.
Sorry the photo is total crap, but they’re scared witless so I didn’t want to stress them any further. They are having a sleep right now. They’ve not yet braved an exploration of the bottom half of the cage, though they’ve sniffed dubiously at the hole.
I can see why the rescue was so glad to have another foster. When they said they’re having a very bad cage shortage, they weren’t even kidding! The cage I built is about the bare minimum size I would say you need for a pair of rats, and it is about quadruple the size of the cage they came over in. While they’re not at all in the habit of keeping anybody in cages that dinky to the best of my knowledge (and it was obviously a travel cage), it’s clear from the mess in there that they were in it for probably at least a day, my guess being in prep to come here because they didn’t have a cage free that wasn’t the travel cage. I’ll have to see if I can do something about that, there may be a way to solicit some cage donations.
Poor dudes, made them stink like anything too, I hope they give themselves a groom– I know that rats aren’t odorless, but I am pretty sure they’re not meant to reek. We did let them have a wee bit of the shredded paper they were on for the sake of their comfort in having something that smells like them, but I am going to take it out as soon as I think they can handle that. We’ll have to give them a scoop out tonight anyway so if they seem comfortable I’ll do it then.
I don’t think they’ll be too hard to socialize. Treguard, which is what we have dubbed the larger of the two (that’s the creamy colored one in the back, he’s got red eyes), comes up for a sniff and accepts being stroked gently with a finger without fuss, and he even gave the tip of my finger a very gentle exploratory nibble. Lord Darbyshire (the dinky hooded one with his face in the dish) is a bit of a nervous sort from what I gather. He will need to be plied with lots of tasty things.
They’re very cute. I think Treguard is my favorite, which isn’t much of a surprise because I have such a thing for burly hulks. Once he’s happy with people he’s going to be great for squishy cuddles! Darby’s a cutiepants though.
I’ll keep you updated on their exploits! 😀
(xposted)
Barding Kennel 