Pet Forum / Mammals / Rats / September 2006

my rat mini-beast has babies that are a couple days short of three weeks
old. part of the socialization process that i practice with them is putting
my hand through the bottom level door to the cage and letting them climb and
play on it. in this litter there is a red eyed albino baby. today the albino
girl was playing on top of my downturned hand. one of her siblings joined
her and as she absentmindedly began to climb down, the sibling playfully
grabbed her foot in it's mouth and interfered. it surprised her and she spun
around super fast and stared at my hand for a second. i'm sure that i sensed
annoyance at my hand for doing such a thing. but a second later she looked
up, saw the sibling, climbed back onto my hand, walked over to the sibling,
and bit it's little foot way harder. the sibling squeaked in surprise and
jumped off of my hand. the albino girl then proudly took up her lone
position on top of my hand and stayed there.

so this little 2 1/2 week old baby rat displayed vindictiveness. amazing
even for an adult but one so young? keep in mind that most 2 1/2 weekers'
eyes have only been open for a few days and they can't do anything other
than run around and play. i might have to keep her.

p.s. she was also the first one to figure out the cage door and has a funny
habbit of getting mad at the tendons on the top of my hand if i move them
while she is sitting there trying to groom herself. she bites at them (not
hard) until i stop moving them.