Here's a two-fer.

Video screen grab:

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Daniel's wrapping helper... totally asleep on the job.

cuuute!

Awwww. Tha's so cute.

She was ass out, sound asleep the whole time. She would kick her feet a bit against the bag every know and again. lol

My rat boys:

Duncan as a baby.
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Ditto Otis, in the little cage.
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Having a bit of Duncan-time.
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I could steal Duncan off you - he's so adorable. Otis is also a cutie-pie - but Duncan looks like I imagine Carrot would look if he was a rat .... kind of....my mind works in very strange ways sometimes.

Otis as a baby again.
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The little cage is aquarium style. Never intended to keep even one fully grown rat in, but good for tiny ones, due to the bar spacing on the big cage.

They're two grown up boys, and are only "banished" to the little cage for the weekly deep clean.

They have a little wicker house at the top of the cage (which is the size of a small wardrobe). I expected them to use it as a hideaway from eachother, but one or both use it to sleep in. That and the "tunnel" hung from the cage roof.

In the basement there is a large moving box, which they have chewed exit holes into and out of, and in there is a proper plastic rat pod, easily large enough to sleep in. I put the box in there to protect their feet - they can get a condition called bumblefoot if they spend time on wire - and to prevent escape attempts when it was touch and go whether their bodies were wider than the bars. I've kept it because they like it, and they've never soiled it, except their dry scat, which I clean up obviously. Rat urine smells horribly, but they use a litter tray for that.

Critters rarely use the things you buy as you expected to. I have to empty the pod of hidden food in my daily clean, and it's always in a different place, or turned turtle. It's the site of their nightly scuffles.

Still, as you can see they do get on peaceably.
I only intended to get Duncan, but the rat expert in my local petshop (and internet reading) made me understand that rats should not live alone. They will scuffle, squeal and try to be Top Rat, but if no blood is drawn (and it never has been) then it's just playing.

So, two rats squeezed in a little space.
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And two rats woken by the sound of the camera, sleepy but expecting a mealworm each and wondering if it's time for strokes and a run around my shoulders.
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Love that bottom pic! They look all dozy from just waking.

Nah, dozy from the Bubonic plague. http://cellar.org/2012/bwekk.gif

They are rarely active in the full daylight, and I won't use a flash because of their sensitive eyes. But they're better value than truly nocturnal creatures - if I happen to disturb then they'll wake up right fine for a sniff of a mealworm or a raisin!

Duncan is probably more reliant on me as I had him first and couldn't put the two together immediately as Otis was younger (smaller) and a veritable Houdini.

They have proper balanced rat food (and gnawing blocks for their teeth), but I do feed them treats of fresh fruit and veg, esp small amounts of babyfood. I love the little organic pouches which I can reseal and refrigerate. Pureed pears tonight.

The most fun is a few tinned peas in a large water dish (they always have a big dish of fresh water as well as a water bottle) which they fish out with their little ratty hands. Although Duncan will sit him-whole-self in the bowl to get the last, probably sitting on what he's trying to find!

I wish they didn't like the banana/ porridge so much. It smells of... bananas. But it was on sale and they loved it, so I still get it now and then. Trouble is, they want to pick it up, not lap at it, so the morning after I have to take the whole shelf out to spray it down. No kinder of mine, then.

Rhatty bhoys! You could always not buy them the banana stuff. They'd not hold it against you, figuratively speaking, nor literally ever again!

I know, it's not like they can go and buy their own.
But it's a small price to pay for their little noses going up in the air and the expression of "Banana?!" on their whiskery faces. Anthropomorphising of course.

Oh, the automated feeder worked perfectly btw.
Except they used one as a litter tray. Presumably after they emptied it of food...
I suppose it does look similar. Anyway, the inner trays are designed to be removed, so a good scrubbing sorted it out.

Otis & Duncan...I would have thought something more along the lines of Ben & Willard.