# The Tiny Tea Leaves - Darjeeling Tea's pups progress



## Lita

I've decided to post a little progress thread to post the pictures of these oops babies. Their mom is Darjeeling so they will all have Tea related names while we have them. She had an impressive 11 babies! Once they are old enough we will be looking for homes for them, but that is still a little while to go! They were born on Tues, Sept. 9th 2014. So.... Here we go! I'll update periodically, as their colors really come out and as they get fuzzy, open their eyes and so on.














































It goes: Mom day one at home (and likely she was JUST bred based on timeline), babies at 24 hours, babies with mom at 24 hours, babies with mom at just under 48hours, and then babies at just under 48 hours. (they uploaded sideways, not sure if possible to flip them via the post...) Their colors are coming out, least the darker ones. Looks like we have a few who might look like her, and at least one darker hooded. At least one looks light, so he/she might be a lighter color hooded or white. We think we know who the dad was and he was a lighter colored hooded. And dumbo. Can't wait to see if we have any dumbo babies. If you have any suggestions for tea related names, darker ones will likely be named after Black teas and lighter ones after White teas. But there are other varieties so feel free to share if you know of any!

Thanks and hope you enjoy the cuteness!


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## Kelseyrawr

Oh my gosh they are just cute little sausage babies!!! I can't wait to see more pictures of them as they get a little older :3 
Tea themed names sound cute. I don't know about any, but what came to mind was "sugar cube" hahaha maybe more appropriate for a pew XD


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## Chuck

Chai, orange pekoe, Assam, Ceylon earl grey

That's all the tea types I could come up with off the top of my head. The pips are adorable and I love the tea theme


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## Kelseyrawr

Tetley for a name


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## Lita

There is one who is at least light colored. All the others are darkening but one is still very pink. And there is one dark hooded, but the rest look like they'll look like mama. So we may have a sugar cube! XD if my fiancee doesn't claim him/her. I know she wants to name one Chai, I might have to name a boy Earl Grey. It's so regal!


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## Pandorascaisse

Ooh, too bad you weren't near OK uwu My friend would take all the girls in a heartbeat x3

You could name a girl Chamomile, or even a boy to be honest and call him Camo


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## Zabora

What about rose hips? Or Rosey for short.


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## lovemyfurries

Too precious for words. I like Chamomile and Chai as well. Jasmine tea. Honey bush.


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## lovemyfurries

Orange blossom, Peppermint, Ginger, Cranberry, Peach.


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## Lita

We tentitivly have have 5 boys and 6 girls, and they may all be dumbo. I'll try and get pictures when it's light. They change so quick! And they are so big already!


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## lovemyfurries

Can't wait to see them


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## Zabora

Celest for Celestial Seasoning...my favorit tea makers...mmm tention tamer....


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## Lita

I got pictures, just got one of the hooded, the light, and one to show how the rest of them look (various dark/black berks like mom). Mama was being a bit antsy and not super keen on me being in the nest but I think she might have been a little stressed from how big they are getting and the issues our big girls are having. But I gave her a treat and she was more then happy to move to the side.


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## Lita

Exciting development, the pink has developed a light hood and stripe! They are getting much more active, fiancee had a scare when she could only see four! But she found them all again. Will try to get a picture update before work. The dark babies are darkening a lot for the most part. A couple are still a bit light.


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## lovemyfurries

Aw they are so so cute! Please post pics as they grow. It's so exciting


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## Lita

Pictures! Horrible pictures but they are not easy to photograph by lamp light. The group, the newly hooded baby, and the comparison between the lighter and darker babies. Thinking the lighter ones might just have less fur but we'll see!


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## kksrats

Hmm...hard to tell. Any curly whiskers?


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## lovemyfurries

Oh my word they grow so fast. The last one was kind of the color my babies had. I didn't take enough photos and they were all taken on an old phone so I can't even access them anymore. I love the dark ( berk?) babies, so cute. I've never had a Berk.


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## Lita

Oh I ment more I just think their fur is coming in slower then their siblings. They seem a little smaller then the darker ones but they grow and change so quickly it's hard to track. Trying to figure out how to mark them since they are all dark and pretty close with their markings atm. Hopefully it'll be easier to tell them apart as they get bigger. We have 11 berks if you count the pups lol.


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## Lita

A quick update because omg cute. We were cleaning out the tank and so my fiancee was holding the pups while mom got a break in a small cage and suddenly a couple of the babies started trying to groom themselves! I snapped a couple pictures of the hooded (boy?) till his hooded (sister?) crashed the party! Then we were double checking genders and putting them back when the last little one got pretty intent on cleaning (himself?). So I got some pics. All blurry and bad but pretty cute. Also genders still in question so hense the question marks.


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## lovemyfurries

OH MUMEEEEEEEEE....they are precious!!!! If you could see me now you'd see I have the stupidest grin on my face. My husband says I'm too cute, but I think the babies are


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## TatsuKitty

chamomile, sleepytime... go to a tea aisle haha! so cuuute little babies omg.


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## Lamb

Eeeeee, they're so precious! It's so fun to see them grow!


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## Malarz

Where are you from Lita? I've been dying to see baby rats! Although I'm afraid I might want to take one home if I see them.


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## Lita

They are getting so active, they are moving around a lot and mama is starting to put blocks in their wiggly pile. I'm glad you all like the pictures! Here are some more lol. Three have gotten names but we'll have them all named and photographed once their eyes open and then we'll be looking for interested people, though we wont rehome till 5 to 6 wks, when they have to be seperated. In the photos ignore the fact that it looks like we have 12. Accidently put Earl Gray in with his black brother cause I forgot we took his picture seperately. Also if anyone has any idea on what coloring the brownish greyish agoutiish babies are, feel free to suggest! I'll be googling late to see what they are. XD and Malarz, I'm in central Illinois.


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## KrazyKritterz

The black Berks are correct if the have a white belly. Solid blacks are Black selfs and if the have small patches of white instead of a full white belly the could be English or Irish. Also the grey/mink/agouti babies are just Agouti (brown muttled with black ticking on the hair strands) English Breakfast Tea is a agouti Hooded not Grey (Grey in the rat world is Blue see attached photos) and Chai Tea is a Fawn Hooded would be technical term. They are super cute. Hope all goes well. Hoped my info helped.

Russian Blue (Dark Grey)









American Blue (Light grey)


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## Lita

Earl Gray is all black except for his little toes/feet, would he just be a really "bad" berk? He has white so he can't be self right? His black brother is Irish berk i think? Has a patch on chest. The others are various degrees of berk. And English Breakfast is a bit strange, color came out weird in photo but agouti colors can very in shade can't they? He looks almost black in person, though not as dark as his black siblings.


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## lovemyfurries

They are so adorable....I know I sound like a stuck record!


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## KrazyKritterz

Lita said:


> Earl Gray is all black except for his little toes/feet, would he just be a really "bad" berk? He has white so he can't be self right? His black brother is Irish berk i think? Has a patch on chest. The others are various degrees of berk. And English Breakfast is a bit strange, color came out weird in photo but agouti colors can very in shade can't they? He looks almost black in person, though not as dark as his black siblings.


Agouti dhades fo vary. Brown agouti, Blue agouti and many other types. Agouti itself is a pattern its ticking on the hair strainds. I would say they are Brown agouti. Some are darker and some are lighter. There is cinnamon agouti etc too. Each individual hair has ticking on it (black) and the rest of the hair is the "Color" of the rat so if you have a Blue rat and the hair strainds have black rings or specks on it thats ticking so you have a Blue Agouti. Same goes with any of the other colors. Although you cannot have a Black agouti. Ill post pics soon


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## KrazyKritterz

Brown agouti towards top of photo and the Blue agouti is bottom of photo but out front.... under thr top babies you have Russian Blue and I see Black there too....

Ticking example pic


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## Pandorascaisse

Oh no I love the colors. ESPECIALLY the caramel hooded girl. I don't suppose they'll be available in OK? We'd pay an arm and a leg for them 

Babies are so cute. Black berks are one of the prettiest rats imo, especially if they have a lot of white - and those little booties!


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## kksrats

Technically any white on the body (belly, feet and tail) would go into the berk or english/irish categories...if you're going by show standards. There are all kinds of variations of berks, so I typically reserve the "self" classification for my rats that have absolutely no white (includes feet and tail). But really, they're too freakin cute to care too much about silly classifications! I loves me some rats with white feet, too cute


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## Lita

Ah ok. Lol and they are to cute so it doesn't matter really. I've just been refering to Earl Gray as black with white toes. XD Their colors were the only thing I care even a little about so i could list at least close to the right color when we rehome them. XD and Pandora if there was some way to get them to there we'd be ok with it but that would be the hard part lol


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## Lita

Ok ok sorry but I have to. I am seriously in love with this little boy. And I mean I didn't post an up close picture yesterday to show how fuzzy they are now right? XD Depending on cage size we've decided we'd like to keep 2 or 3 boys, partely because I don't know if I could give up little Earl Grey here. He is just so perfectly adorable. I mean they all are super cute buttttt XD so here is some close up of him being cute and representing his siblings development! Oh and Chai looks like her eyes might open soon! They are definitely just starting to come open! Forgot to get a picture.... ^^;


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## kksrats

OOOOH the little black ears and tail! I loooove black rats <3


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## BonkersPo

They are absolutely the cutest things I have ever seen <3 And they grow so fast!


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## lovemyfurries

Aaahhh!!! So cute!! Agreed those ears and tail are too cute and the last pic where he's resting his head on your fingers. Oh man I love it


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## Lita

He is such a charmer! XD I found a little problem today... Honestly not sure how I missed it... But it look like one of his back legs broke or is deformed. The bone felt solid just not straight like the other side, so if it broke it must be healed. He uses the leg and looks just the same crawling about as his siblings. Honestly doesn't seem to bother him, he was kicking around with it, though he didn't like me holding him upside down for pictures. Including a couple shots, the bump is where the bone bows. Is there anything I should do? Or should I just see how he grows around it? We also moved mama and babie to a small wire hamster cage so mama can climb and gave her a small perch not very high up so she can get some alone time if she wishes. She was starting to seem really hassled since the babies are following her and crawling about now. I didn't expect them to be this active till their eyes opened! But we put them in this new cage and they all scattered running about before they piled back up and passed out. One even poked his head up just past the divide between the bars and the bottom of the cage.


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## kksrats

Poor little dude :/ I'm not really sure there is anything you can do especially if its growing solid that way. Hopefully since he's so young he will just adapt to it. I should add that I'm looking at this on my phone, so I can't see it all that well, but it does either look like a deformity or a healed break from what I can see.


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## Lita

Yeah thats what we thought. But he is doing good so far so thats good. Wanders around on his own, climbs your arms. Gives me a great excuse to keep him lol And i think my dream agouti picked me! You can judge for yourselves... (He wouldnt leave, had to pull him out to put him back, even after I stuck my arm in the cage to tempt him out with sibling smells)


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## lovemyfurries

Oh precious!!


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## Lita

Their eyes are opening!!! They are so cute, its insane! Also that little sleeve rat is definitly mine now lol had my hand by them and they started crawling around when suddenly someone was biting me rather intently. Grabbed and pulled out the offender and it was him! Sat there and tried to gnaw my finger for a few minutes before moving back to my sleeve, giving himself a bath and falling asleep.


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## lovemyfurries

Eeeee, that's so cute! Your little sleeve rat.... Your agouti...so what's his name? Is he one that you named already? Sleave ( with an a ) would be cute if you hadn't picked the tea theme already. Want to pics of open eyes


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## Lita

I'm calling him GusGus but his "real name" is Gunpowder, found it on a list of teas. I'll try and get a few pics before work tonight and post them. Hopefully their eyes will be easier to see. Mostly they are barely open.


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## sarah424

Look at the babies! They're so cute! Reminds me of when the stray cat I took in had her litter of kittens, they were precious with closed eyes but I couldn't wait to see them open. I love all of your pictures!


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## lovemyfurries

There's a tea called gunpowder?? It obviously has a blast to it ha ha ha, sorry my corny jokes. I like GusGus reminds me of Cinderella.


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## Lita

Its a kind of pellet tea and the color is suppose to be similar to gunpowder. And he is a bit of a fire cracker sooo lol XD he took off up my brothers shirt like he knew what he was doing. And yeah lol thats a big reason I call him GusGus. Wanted a "wild" colored boy to be GusGus and my fiancee said I had to find a Tea name and GUS is hard to find in the tea world lol. And thanks Sarah! I'll be posting pics here till they are rehoming age. i thought it would be nice to cataloge their growth and it can be a place for people who adopt them to see how they grew.


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## sarah424

I think that's wonderful, Lita, I hope their new owners update too so we can follow them all the way along  I love following things like this!


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## Lita

Ok here are a couple i could snag before work! Almost everyone was asleep except these three. Chai and Grey and one of the agouti girls! Next couple days I should be able to get everyone eyes open photos and we'll "name" the ones we arn't keeping and I'll get started looking for homes to line up.


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## lovemyfurries

Aw they are so beautiful. Little agouti eeeeeee too precious. Thank you!


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## Phantom

Awwww one looks just like my Toast when he was so tiny. They have be tea and toast in the morning. XD


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## CleverRat

Awwwww I wish I could adopt them. I already have 2 and my room stinks as it is.


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## Jessiferatu

Oh gosh, they are so cute!


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## Lita

Counting the babies we're keeping we'll have 7 girls and 3 boys, possibly 8 girls but there is only one girl we really want to keep. I was really thinking they were dumbo but I am starting to think top ear. XP Which kinda stinks cause it'll be that much harder to find homes. >.> also I was love dumbo ears and wanted a few more in our mischief. But seriously they are cute regardless and I love our top ear girls so not super disappointed if they are.

Annnnd I put up a thread in the adoptions with pictures of the 7 we are going to re-home so we can hopefully line up homes early! (we are totally cool with rat trains to if anyone happens to be a little to far and can get together a train to get them from us to you. Or if you happen to be passing through our area when they are ready to go.) I just feel it will be hard in an area that is mostly snake owners and people who keep rats in tanks. XP So craigslist scares me! But you guys should totally check out their pics to cause it's got some super cute ones! XD They are such little divas.


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## kksrats

The pictures in the adoption center are too cute! Definitely all top ear babes and it sucks that people discriminate against them; 3 of my 7 are top eared and I think they're just as adorable as my dumbos. I really hope you are able to find good homes for those cuties


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## Lita

Only their mama is dumbo I think. Gonna have to check our three we're keeping and see, I was more concerned with noting differences between the rehome babies that I didn't check ours. A bit bummed if GusGus isn't dumbo.... cause I really want a dumbo agouti boy, but the little butthead is stuck with me regardless of ears. XD I was so sure their dad was another dumbo in the tank but there might have been a couple more boys in the pile in the corner so who knows. I do love our top ears though. My Cricket is one of the most beautiful rats I have ever seen and she is top ear. But around here its all "special" and "fancy" and "unusual" so dumbos get more attention. XP


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## kksrats

Since 7 of the 11 pups (just looking at the adoption post) are top eared, then I think it's probably safe to say that they all are. If dad was dumbo you'd have all dumbos, if he carried a recessive for dumbo you'd have about half dumbo half top ear. Most of the pups that I end up keeping past their 7 week adoption time are top eared, but they eventually find good homes


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## Akita

Omg so cute


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## Lita

Ah well there goes my dumbo dreams xD we're trying to get them homes asap just due to space and avalible cages. Should be going tomorrow to pick up a cage that will eventually be the boys cage and Chai and mama can live in a smaller temp cage we have till Chai is big enough for us to introduce her to the main group. Could split our DCN but the five there hate not having two floors. Spoiled rotten lol But we'll do what we gotta. Love the babies but not interested in more!


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## kksrats

I understand that all too well. Finding homes for them is tedious, frustrating and sometimes downright depressing. Still never stops me from taking in an accidental litter from a pet store that doesn't breed so that they'll have a chance to go to good homes. Finding space in the meantime is one of the hardest parts since you never know how many will be left in your care and for how long, but it's a labor of love and I'll probably never stop haha


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## lovemyfurries

I looked at the adoption post and it's beautifully done. The pics and explanations are awesome. I like the fine print rules. I hope you find good homes for them


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## Lita

Thanks! We've had interest already so hoping things pan out. We moved them into a bigger cage and oh boy they went nuts! Working on making it safe as possible, they have no fear and climbed over halfway to the top, and it is not a short cage! Xp added some extra levels, padding on the bottom, and a catch hammock. X.x gonna have to see how insistent they are. Its vertical bars to so I assumed they would take time to figure out how to climb them...nope. They climb it better then mama.


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## lovemyfurries

Ha ha ha! You have your hands full!  Glad you've had some interest already.


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## DLTurner

So glad I happened to see this post! I feel like I'm all caught up on the babies lives so far xD 
I'm adopting Ceylon & Millie. I absolutely can't wait until I can get the cage set up, and then get them home to love on and spoil!


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## Lita

I am so sorry but I'll have to get you that pic tomorrow. Came home to Oolong and Rooibos gone. Thankfully we found them still in our room! But we fixed the issue and everyone is safe. But I have work tonight and need to go to bed like two hours ago. Xp so tomorrow for sure!


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## lovemyfurries

Oh my goodness that must have given you such a scare! So glad you found them. I adopted two new babies yesterday ( accidentally  ) they're quite little the guy at the pet store said 6 weeks. I forgot how fast they are at that age. Sleep well


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## DLTurner

It's no problem!! I'll look forward to them tomorrow (= Glad the babes are safe & sound again


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## abratforarat

So cute!!!!!!! Black Cherry for a name if you need more. Glad you got them safely back.


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## Lita

Yeah it was a bit heart stopping. My brother is in love with Rooibos now though. He just sat there while we fixed the cage and held her. We found her first and my brother sat talking to her while looked for Oolong and he asked her where her brother got to. She looked at the wall, or pointed he said, and sure enough he was beside the bed right there. Then after we woke up I went to check again and Ceylon slipped past me without me seeing (she is quiet!) and then Grey slipped out and I had to catch them. (Ceylon was easy, she sat still. Grey kept ducking under things! The brat) they are so fearless right now its kinda terrifying! And so many to keep an eye on. X.x i can't wait till they are bigger. I imagine this is what its like having small kids.


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## Lita

Ok we apparently didnt fix all the issues! But we found the escape artist and I swear if they get out again then they are wizards because there is no way I can see them getting out! v.v gah I feel so horrible to, even though everyone is ok, I feel like I'm failing them. We destroyed their "first" wire cage to make barriers to the only escape routes we can see...so hopefully we got them all this time.


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## kksrats

Oh goodness! They are little boogers once they start really moving around >.< I finally ended up getting a cage with the tiniest bar spacing I could find in order to contain my pups. There's nothing worse than waking up in the morning to find that half of them are hiding somewhere in the room and usually scared because they fell out of the cage and were away from mom all night which makes them not as cooperative when trying to catch them. I'm glad that you've been able to find them all after they escape, doesn't make it any less stressful though!


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## lovemyfurries

Lita said:


> Ok we apparently didnt fix all the issues! But we found the escape artist and I swear if they get out again then they are wizards because there is no way I can see them getting out! v.v gah I feel so horrible to, even though everyone is ok, I feel like I'm failing them. We destroyed their "first" wire cage to make barriers to the only escape routes we can see...so hopefully we got them all this time.


No....you are not failing them!! They're curious little buggers who will always find a way out to explore...it's not like they're trying to escape you. I really believe if that were the case they'd find a way to properly escape, the fact that they were still in the same room and let you catch them must mean something? 

I adopted two new babies two days ago... Couldn't resist after seeing all these babies! Have a look in the meet my rat section, they are too cute. Love em to bits already!


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## Lita

I'm glad ours aren't an exception then. I thought all but three has gotten out till we lifted a blanket on the third highest level and bam there they were! XD I am so terrified they will get out of our room. Our house is old and a bit crooked so there is a gap at least an inch under our door. And 6 cats on the other side. Two kittens, a "feral" barn cat (who has been raised by me since 6mo but still), a very playful black butthead and two declawed fat cats. I am almost certain they would not make it, even if the cats were just playing. X.x but so far all in our room. Though they hide in the cage to! Which gives us little heart attacks xp this is the cage (minor changed since we have been remodeling it to make it safer and such) and their favorite sleeping place.


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## DLTurner

That's a huge cage!! 
I think I'll get a bowl like that & turn it into a bed now just since they like it so much xD


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## kksrats

Haha babies loooooove sleeping in food bowls. I have some hilarious pics of some of mine.


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## lovemyfurries

Love the bowl pic too. So cute!


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## Lita

Omg babies I swear! They are so hyper right now and so small its a pain to hold them! Gonna go through soon and take pics of everyone again, but they all rush the door when taking someone out x.x still havnt had any intrest in the boys, and trying to convice my brother to get a DCN that we can connect to ours and just keep his girls and our girls all together. I mean a Quad should be big enough for ten girls right? XD i'll load pictures in a little while when I take them. Dont want to take them out just yet, dyed my hair and its still drying. But soon!


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## kksrats

Poor little boys. I usually had problems finding all of my boys homes too. Usually because people were grossed out by their testicles -_- I don't see why anyone would let something like that deter them. You get so used to them that they're almost cute lol I used to try to carry my litter of 16 to the bathroom for free range by hand, but it got to the point where it was impossible! Ended up having to move them via carrier just to avoid any jumpers and escape artists lol


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## MOA

It's so frustrating that I'm so far away because I'd take a boy in a heartbeat!


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## lovemyfurries

I love my boys. I started out with girls, but yeah there are always so many boys left because people are freaked out. Can't wait to see the pics, but I remember how fast they are at that age! I used to let them run on my double bed and my daughter would help me watch them. Their momma's cage was in my room and when they'd had a run around I'd put the cage on the bed and then they'd go back to mum or she would go fetch them.


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## Lita

I prefer boy animals in general, have had less issues with them then girls. But we started with girl rats and were just going to keep girls. >.> I really dislike having two genders of rodent in the same house. But obviously we are breaking my rule since we're keeping boys.... XP But I am really happy I get to have my boys now. XD And they'll be in our room, and if I can convince my brother then the girls will be downstairs in the living room. 

We got some interest in the boys on a FB ad, so we'll see how that works. She seemed really interested in them, so fingers crossed it works out. Cause as much as I'd love to keep all five boys I don't think my cage is big enough for five full grown boys. lol

And here are some pictures! They were a bit spazz, playing and such, and Ceylon took off and then seemed really terrified so I had to snuggle her a little before putting her back so she could hide in their blanket. They all sleep on the top level where the fleece blanket is most of the time, its cute. And my clever cheerio pile didn't work to keep them still... XP they are smarter then that apparently. But I got pictures of Camomille, Ceylon and Tazo. Will try and get pics of the boys updated once its daylight out. Or maybe in a little bit since they seem rather sleepy right now. Sleepy babies much easier to deal with.


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## lovemyfurries

Aww they are so precious. Thanks for the pics!


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## moonkissed

Omg they r so adorable!


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## Lita

A few from them inside the cage. Mostly Assam and Chai, with a few of the others running here and there. And mama feeding in the back. They are so big now she doesn't seem to feed them much and usually they are complaining a lot when she does, and she'll just take off when she wants even if they are in the middle of eating. Took them out one at a time to give them some squish and snuggles and I think I terrified my poor Gusgus. He is acting more like his twin, Matcha, and Matcha seems to be the largest of the boys right now. Early bloomer I'm guessing. But I had Gusgus out and he was looking at my bed so I set him down, with my hands beside him incase he bolted, and he stood still then did a total freak out and jumped/ran backwards into my arm. No idea what scared him so bad, other then maybe just a big open space. But he calmed down after a little while and when I put him back in he was running and climbing like everyone else. And Matcha is being more pushy. I am seriously wondering if I messed up and got them confused, but Matcha still has the darker feet.... so I'm not sure... And neither know their names yet so that doesn't help XP Oh and they are officially 4 weeks old today! Only two more weeks before they can go home! Gonna have to jump on my brother to get his cage this week so we can move mama and the girls to a separate cage by the time they hit that 6 weeks! Was thinking about how we could just add another add on and make it a Triple CN but then my fiancee pointed out our ceiling downstairs is so low a TCN would never fit! XP Anyway here are some horrible and blurrry pictures of 4wk old buttheads. XD


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## Lita

Guys my brother said ok for him buying a DCN to connect to our current DCN! The girls are gonna have so much room omg. But it wont show up till their 6wk birthday. Due to the cost he wants to buy it next paycheck. But that should work out just perfect, since thats the age they need to be separated. The boys are gonna be jealous.


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## moonkissed

I thoughts rats needed to be seperated at 5 weeks?


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## Lita

Everything I've seen says 6weeks is when you need to have them separated by gender, 5wks is the earliest you can. We have a temp cage we can move them into if we need to, but we figure he'll order it Thurs next week from Amazon and with prime it should be here that monday. And we'd put it together and put the girls in it as soon as we have it. I'm gonna feel so bad for the boys though... I imagine they will be a little upset for the first few days without mom.


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## nanashi7

Rats should be separated on or slightly before the five week mark or the boys can impregnate the girls. That's not factoring in poor mama could snap if she doesn't get a week vacation soon lol.


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## Lita

Oh she spends a lot of time away from them now. Normally they sleep on top and she sleeps down at the bottom. She's caring for them but otherwise she doesn't seem overly concerned. They've gotten out or gotten stuck and she doesn't seem to care. XP She is a good mama but at the same time she isn't overbearing. XD Honestly I think the only time she is with them right now is if she is feeding them or she is trying to steal food from them...

But we can pull them at 5 weeks if we absolutely have to. Of course I do not want more babies, from mama especially. And I don't want to risk the girls. The cage they'd have to go in wouldn't be super big. Unless I can convince my brother to buy a bigger smaller cage as a temp. But it would hold them well enough. Or I'd put the boys in the smaller since there is less of them. And then mama would have more room to escape her daughters. XD Then they'd be a little inconvenienced for a week but that would be better then more babies! I'll have to look into it more because I swear I've heard 6 weeks was the for sure they had to be separated. 

Just thinking, intros are going to suck.... I have no idea how we'll wrangle the intros between the 5 "resident" girls and the 5 "new" girls. Introducing two to three was hard enough! XD


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## nanashi7

Don't introduce babies to adult females until twelve weeks. They are liable to reject the kits violently. The boys to any resident boys will be fine. 

And I promise, it's 5. I had a litter too. A small cage for a week will work fine for the boys since boys are lazier.


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## Lita

Pah you tell our boys that. XD And yeah we won't, mama and her daughters will stay together until the girls are 12 weeks then we'll do intros to the resident girls and they'll have a nice big quad CN for the ten of them to have run of. Maybe even a little longer, the youngest of our resident girls got a bit beat up and I think part of it was her size and part of it was how hyper she was when she was that age.


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## lovemyfurries

When I recently got Brian and Stewie from the pet store their were 5 babies together and one lone female in the enclosure next to them. I thought they'd responsibly separated the babies. That is until i took my two boys and I picked one up and realized it was a girl. Picked up another and it was also a girl. So I said to the guy working there that theses babies should have been separated already. He said they were 6 weeks and already been there for two weeks. I doubted that as they were still so tiny, but I told him those girls were probably already pregnant...so he said" no they don't fall pregnant so quickly" I told him I begged to differ and that I had previously gotten a pregnant baby this way. Sadly he didn't seem to care. He just wanted to make the sale.

I can't stand that. I wish I could have rescued them all.

Lita, separate them at 5 weeks, even if just to be safe. When I got my preggies girl from the store years ago she was only 6 weeks and already pregnant. She had 7 healthy babies, we homed them all and she was an excellent momma rat but she never got bigger. We had to put her down at about 6 months old as her poor heart was so weak she hadn't grown at all. It puts tremendous pressure on their little bodies when they fall pregnant so young.

Okay that's my say.


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## Lita

As I said if its best for them to seperate at 5 we can. I want them to be with mom as long as they need to be so mentally they develop properly. Of course mosty I am talking about the boys since they will be the ones left alone. The girls will have mom to bother for a while yet. But again i don't want to risk their health or mama's sanity. I am sorry you had such a bad experience with your girl, that was how we ended up with our litter though she was much older then we thought. But I am sure there were other factors with her that made her so ill as well. I've had a few heart animals and they were always smaller and had issues growing and putting on weight. Thank you for the concern but really I do understand it is a fine line with these guys.


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## lovemyfurries

Lita, of course I understand what you're saying and please don't think I meant any offense. I know 5 weeks seems so young to separate. It's just some of them develop faster than others and there is a chance of one of the girls being impregnated. 

The pet store guy was being irresponsible as he didn't care. But you do, and there's a difference. Please don't think I was putting you in that same category. I know you'll do what's right for your babies, you had already said you don't want more pregnancies especially not the mama. I had read all that so I wasn't just jumping in having read only one or two entries.

It was very late and I was also rambling...just related the story


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## Lita

Oh no no I know you weren't trying to compare! And that does make sense, people come in at diffrent rates so they should to. I was just going by the knowledge 6weeks is age of maturity so give or take a couple days there. I'm not rehoming them till they hit 6weeks regardless, partly due to my schedual, and if I seperate at 5weeks it'll give the boys a week to settle down again without mom.


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## lovemyfurries

Ok cool


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