# Ayano the lucky Lab Rat.



## mink (Jun 24, 2007)

Hello everyone, its been a while since I got a new rat, I had 4 old ladies and my 2 hairless boys for a long time. My old ladies passed away by and by, so Its just been me and the boys for many months. 

I got a phone call one day about a month ago (people with a pet crisis always find me!) - a girl I kinda know was taking a class that had been using animals loaned to them from a laboratory. The class was ending and she learned all the animals that got returned to the lab were going to be put down because they were no longer of any use to the lab. The few rabbits and guinea pigs were taken home by students right away. The girl called me since she really liked the rat she had worked on and wanted to see about saving it. She has a fair dozen or so cats (meeting my rats gave her a more open mind about them - a cat person fell for a rat lol.) and she has work / school a lot so her home was out of the question. She was begging me to take the rat, essentially. 

So, I really couldn't say "no let her die". >_< Lol
Sadly, she was one of just a few rats that were rescued. 

Ayano arrived as a big chicken-butt and I've been working with her a lot, she's learning people do not equal needles and such owies.
She LOVED the wheel right away!
She's a Ruby-eyed white of course. ^_^

Caught one quick picture that wasn't of her butt when I first got her:










Recently, she has started coming up to the door of her cage and today she didn't bolt when I opened it. 
So today I dared to try taking some more pictures and hoped I didn't scare the heck outta her, she was okay with it. ;D 

She played in a cargo pocket a while (donated by my fiance' from his torn shorts lol)
























She came out of the pocket and hung out cautiously for a bit

















She started to warm up a little...

















She got cozy with my arm and even started to fall asleep! 

















So there you have it ^_^


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## RattieLover1331 (May 21, 2013)

aww!
she is a cutttie!
good luck with her


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## tanya (May 4, 2013)

Cute! Love the snuggle pics. She is lucky to have found her way to you!


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## Cstaar (Mar 7, 2012)

Aw she is beautiful. It sounds like she has found a wonderful home


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## ratclaws (Nov 11, 2012)

Awwww she's really nice, what a great thing you did there! If you want her to progress even further with her socialisation, you should get her a young cagemate and this will bring out her natural rattie side.


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## 3 ratties (Apr 6, 2013)

She is very cute 


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## PurpleGirl (Oct 12, 2012)

Awesome, it's great she now has a nice needle-free life to look forward to, she looks so comfy and chilled in that last photo!


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## mink (Jun 24, 2007)

Thanks all ^_^
Oh yes, 
I have submitted an application to try and adopt a neutered male, people-savvy friend for her. ^_^

I got a picture of her *dirty* tail. She still has her mark of freedom, the initials mean she was claimed by someone and free to go, instead of being sent for euth.









Here she is, showing off her healthier more-full figure lol.


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## pipsqueak (Sep 5, 2011)

she is beautiful! And I love her name.


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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

I have lab rescues too, they can be very scared and anti-social, but come around eventually. Just takes lots of immersion and patience. She looks like a pink-eyed white (PEW), not a ruby eye as you said in the first post? A ruby-eyed white is almost unheard of for a lab research animal.


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## Famous Amos (May 23, 2013)

Very cool I have several labbies myself and love them! They are full of prune juice but so cute!


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## mink (Jun 24, 2007)

dr.zapp said:


> I have lab rescues too, they can be very scared and anti-social, but come around eventually. Just takes lots of immersion and patience. She looks like a pink-eyed white (PEW), not a ruby eye as you said in the first post? A ruby-eyed white is almost unheard of for a lab research animal.


I'm pretty sure she does not have pink eyes, pink eyed whites have the lack of pigment (albino) and all you see as far as color is the red blood cells, and the eyes have some washed-out pink almost white to them I believe. Ayano's eyes are Red, solid even red with no lack of pigment. She might be Light Ruby, Unless there is such a thing as solid colored, dark dark pink?









Here I tried to take a picture without flash, this is her eye color in direct light which looks lighter than normal. Sorry its a little blurry she was interested to see if the camera was edible.


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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

That is an albino, ruby eyes are much darker red. The red you see is not pigment, but oxygen saturated blood of a healthy rat.

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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

In fact, after looking closely at the pictures, I'd say she is a Fischer 344 from Charles River... They always have stained tails like hers. Harlan rats don't.

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## rinny11 (Jun 3, 2013)

I have heard rats eye colors can vary even within a designation like "ruby" or "pink". She's a PEW. But that doesn't mean she's not as special! She seems like she has a lot of love to give. I think she's awesome! One of my 5 baby girls is a pew, and she's just as amazing as my other babies. Good luck with her!


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