# Katt's Rats!



## SaberKatt (Mar 14, 2016)

Anafenza (black) and Narset (agouti) are rescues from a shelter a few hours away. The shelter wasn't sure what to do with them, and couldn't really tell us anything about them. They're incredibly healthy, though they grew oddly slow - for a while there we thought they may be dwarf rats, but then they suddenly started growing again and now they're pretty big. It was weird. 0_o They were not friendly rats. Ana spent her time avoiding people as much as she possibly could, and refused taking food from a person's hand. Or even from a spoon. In fact, she wouldn't eat at all if there was a human nearby. Human meant hide. Narset was a little more courageous. She would just straight up bite you. Especially if you're wearing gloves! Narset was the most aggressive rat I've ever had.

I went through all the steps to socialize them and I wasn't getting very far at all. Narset did stop attacking me, but only grudgingly. It wasn't until I put Saber, who I will introduce below, into a cage with them that they started to open up. Narset no longer bites. Both rats will come to greet me, and both are happy to take things out of my hands. They are doing so much better and I am absolutely thrilled! I was a little worried that Narset might bully the babies or fight with Saber, but she didn't. The introduction process was one of the smoothest I've ever had, and within a week both rats were doing much better socially. ^_^















Saber Toothed Tiger is a retired breeder I got from a friend. My friend was no longer in a stable living condition and could no longer care for her small rattery, so I inherited her favorite breeder. Unfortunately, a week before I was supposed to pick her up my friend's roommate broke one of her cages...So my friend was forced to put all of her rats in the same cage for the night before she could fix things (she was in the process of moving and didn't immediately have an empty cage available). Only one rat got pregnant, and of course it was Saber. The sire, Tyrannosaurus Rex, is a blue rex and my friend's best male. 

Saber has one of the best personalities of any rat I've ever had. She's a great mom, and has no problem letting people handle her babies. She's a great rat ambassador! I love her face. She is highly curious and loves to explore, but is also very people oriented and affectionate. She's also a mischievous brat, and will happily play tricks on you in order to steal your food. Here's a picture of her stealing some of my egg. Look at that face!









I adopted Autumn Willow with Saber, just in case I couldn't house her with Ana and Narset. Rex is Willow's dad, and she was already Saber's cagemate. She's sweet and laid back, just like her father! It's really hard to get good picture of her, though. 0_o She always seems to be underneath another rat. 









Malfegor (Mal), Damia (Mia), and Tom Liddle are the babies I kept from Saber's litter. Mia is the black berkshire, Tom is the agouti. Mia was the friendliest and most outgoing rat in the litter, so it wasn't hard to fall in love with her. The fact that she was the only black berkshire in the group (tuxedo-style fur is my favorite on ANY animal) didn't hurt! She was the first of the babies to climb up my arm, and the first to decide that humans were awesome. She's perfect! Mal is super relaxed and difficult to startle. He is GROWING. And he looks great! I'll need to get some updated pictures of him soon! Tom was the runt of the litter, and he's still pretty little compared to his brother but he's not dwarf level or anything. He's also super sweet! He was definitely the friendliest of the boys. I was afraid something might be wrong with him at first, because he had a HUGE head, but he grew into it. Saber ended up having 11 babies. One didn't make it (but he was born gray while the others were a healthy pink, and didn't look very healthy from the start - he died within the first hour). The other 10 were super healthy! They all have new homes (minus the three I kept), and a lifetime guarantee (I'll take them back if their new homes can't keep them for whatever reason, so they don't clog up our rescues/shelters). ^_^ These pictures were taken at two weeks.


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

Your rats are adorable! 



SaberKatt said:


> ..She's a great rat ambassador!


OMG! That's what I call my rat, Anga! Well, close anyway. I call her 'The Ambassador for Pet Rats' 

She's a shoulder rat. I take her places so people can see that rats make good pets too! Last week she was playing with a little girl at the park. I think her mom was considering a rat after seeing her daughter play with Anga. 

We were out several weeks ago when Anga posed for a picture. I'm not kidding, _she posed for it._ I should have asked them to send me a copy of the picture.

Anga and Pebbles are both food thieves as well. Anga stole a slice of cheese right out of my cats mouth and ran off with it! She's not afraid of anything!


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## SaberKatt (Mar 14, 2016)

Yes! Haha, it's so fun showing her off to people who think rats are bad pets. The surprise on their faces when you show them that rats are affectionate and smart is priceless. <3 

Saber will also steal from the cats. The rescues aren't quite as brave, though Narset is getting there, and the youngsters aren't sure how they feel about the cats yet. My first rat, Jhoira, loved cats.

Here's a video of Saber and her babies! 

[video]https://www.facebook.com/216699628714060/videos/218627711854585/[/video]


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

This is Anga cleaning the dogs teeth. And Anga spooning with Ben




And Anga spooning with Ben


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## SaberKatt (Mar 14, 2016)

Oh my gosh that is so cute! I don't think I would ever trust my rats with my large dog. Even trained, she IS an Akita. I could tell her to "Leave It" but I know she'll secretly want to eat them...The other day she brought my roommate a dead opossum as a gift. >_> And kept nudging it at her, hoping for some positive attention. My other dog saved her. He got between them and grabbed the opossum, then took it back outside. He's my good dog. xD

I can trust my cats with them, though. My medium dog wouldn't hurt them on purpose, but he is VERY energetic and may hurt them on accident. So they only get to play with the cats for now.


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## catty-ratty (Feb 21, 2016)

I was surprised that letting the dogs and cats play with the rats hasn't been a problem. I read about other people with pet rats that got along fine with the other pets. I introduced them slowly and carefully. 

I wasn't worried that Reese would want to hurt the rats because of my experience with him and the kittens. (From the pregnant cat Layla, that moved in last year one and pretty much immediately had kittens!) I have actually had two different cats move in pregnant. Reese LOVES cats! He _protects_ them. Layla however didn't see it that way. She couldn't have been more than 5 lbs when she beat him up. He wouldn't come out of the back room unless we were home after that and to this day, he is still leary of her.

Anga actually prefers to play with the dogs and cats. She harasses Reese. She really does! She'll get his attention and then run under something and sit just out of his reach. He usually bumps his head trying to follow her. I really think she is laughing at him every time he does that! 

And with the cats....

I realized one day that in the 30 years I've had cats, a LOT OF CATS, I only once got a rat as a gift. And a tiny baby at that. They actually like Anga. One is even afraid of her and the other rats. A couple of weeks ago, Kenshen hissed at Pebbles when she got too close. Anga stopped, gave the cat the look of death and then stamped her paws at her. Kenshen nearly fell off of the night stand. Anga stamped again, Kenshen took off running with Anga close behind! Anga enjoys intimidating Kenshen, probably even more than harassing the dog. It's really hysterical to see a rat chasing a cat around the house!


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

The pictures are great and the vids with the rodentists is awesome


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