# Finn the baby rat!



## ratazana (Jan 26, 2013)

Today I adopted a new baby  

His name is Finn (Adventure Time is my favourite TV show hehe)

Here's a picture of him:









...Just kidding... Here he is:















He is around two months old... or so I was told... The rescuers found a cage full of babies in a vacant apartment, so they're not quite sure on their exact age... I know my photos aren't the greatest but what do you guys think? Two months old? 

Right now he's in his quarantine cage, & is very afraid of me, so I'm don't want to handle him too much today since he was just separated from his litter mates... but I will update you on his progress & let you know how introductions go. 

This is the first time I've ever had to introduce a new rat to my adult rats, so I'm a bit nervous!


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## Gannyaan (Dec 7, 2012)

Try to handle him and spend a lot of time with him before intros so that he gets to know you and feels secure  without the one on one time. I will be hard to bond wit him later


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## georgiaae (Mar 3, 2013)

Awwww hes so cute 

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## Jenzie (Dec 26, 2012)

Eee! He's adorable!! His age sounds about right too but I'm not great at estimating ages.

I love Adventure Time too! I named my cat Hambo after Marceline's teddy bear. 


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## RosesRufflesandRats (Apr 25, 2013)

Awwwww!!!!!!!! he's so cute!!!! Nice to meet you, Finn!

Lol, somehow I missed the real picture of him and was like, is she serious?! Did she get a new boy or not? Confused!!! ??? 

And then I read it again and saw the REAL picture (again, not totally sure on how I missed it) and I was like, Oh. OHHHHH, he's CUTE!!!!!!!!


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## PandaBruja (Feb 10, 2013)

He looks younger than 2 whole months in my opinion. He looks more like 4-6 weeks in the pic to me. Hes still got that mousey look lol. He sure is cute though and I love the name! 
He probably would be much more comfortable and confident with intros with a littermate. But I would spend lots of time with him until he gets a decent size and loses all of that initial fear. You can try doing short out of cage intro sessions until you do it full on.
Good luck! Im considering the name Gunter for my new blue boy xD


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## PaigeRose (Apr 12, 2013)

Ohmygosh so cute  The baby on the right in my signature is my Adventure Time ratty- Marceline!


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## ratazana (Jan 26, 2013)

I love all these Adventure Time names people are giving their babies! So cute!

*@PandaBruja:* I am also starting to think he's younger than two months, now that I've spent more time looking at him. He does look bigger in real life than in the pictures, but I believe he's a bit younger.

He's definitely a rat though, at first I had a moment of panic & thought he was a mouse since I'm not used to seeing rats this young!

The couple I adopted him from are very unexperienced with rats, they did say they read through this forum to try & learn about rats though... They also said they handled all of the babies regularly, but maybe not as much as most rat owners do. So I completely understand why he's so afraid, considering he's no longer with his litter mates. He was the only male left, so I couldn't adopt another one of his litter mates with him.

He's also so FAST! haha... It's hard to pick him up, and after a few tries I just leave him alone because I don't want him to get stressed out. He does let me pet him a little bit though. So my plan is to just spent time with him, sitting by his cage, speaking to him, giving him treats, and occasionally give him a little pet on the head... I have to refrain from yelling "LET ME LOVE YOU!!!!" >_<

My older rats have noticed him, and they seem very excited about him. He once started squeaking when he saw my bigger rat Wheatley checking him out through their cage bars. I assume the baby was letting Wheatley know that he was afraid of him? But this morning, I noticed they were both staring at each other through the bars again, and the baby looked like he was trying to get a closer look, and wasn't as afraid.

I made the very stupid mistake of putting the new baby rat in the same airspace as my resident rats before properly assessing his health. He is in his own cage, but yesterday I put him in the same room as my boys (a small guest room), so I pretty much have blown the whole quarantine thing. The baby looks really healthy, but of course there are those illnesses that aren't very obvious. 

That being said, I want Finn to get accustomed to me more, & then I will start allowing short intro sessions with my older boys in a neutral space.


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

Awww squeeeee look at the little agouti boy! TOO TOO CUTE!!!


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## PandaBruja (Feb 10, 2013)

Well if he was the only male, then i think he landed in the bet home possible!!! 
I got the last of the last generation of my rats and his brother off CL when they were about 4-5 weeks old and they were still so mousey too!


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## 3 ratties (Apr 6, 2013)

I would say he looks around 5 weeks old, congrats on a new addition he is very cute 


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## ratazana (Jan 26, 2013)

*Update:
*
I felt like it was safe enough to introduce the rats to each other in a neutral zone... 

It went FANTASTIC! 

My older boys were so gentle & playful with baby Finn... Finn would squeak a little bit when they came up to him, but eventually he warmed up to them. I'm so proud of my big boys for accepting the baby so quickly. I decided to go ahead & put all the rats together in their permanent cage for a couple minutes to see how it went... My alpha showed some dominant behaviour, typical pinning & power grooming. I heard a couple of squeaks, but it all went great! Today the baby is already feeling at home, & the my older boys are treating him as if he has always been part of the family. 

Now my only problem is trying to get the baby to accept _me, _he still thinks I'm Godzilla so I'll have to stay patient with that.


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## ratazana (Jan 26, 2013)

Now that I have better pictures... anyone have more age estimates? My big boys are 7 months old for reference....


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

i am guessing this is your new baby you mentioned on my thread I thought id find out what he looked like and he is soooo cute


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## ratazana (Jan 26, 2013)

Thank you  

Here's a couple more photos:


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## Mitsy (Apr 8, 2013)

Awe he has a cute little face  I love rat noses 


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