Rat Growth – One to Two Weeks Old

This post tracks the growth Blink and Otter’s 13 babies during their second week (you can read about their first week here).

The babies have grown quite a bit more hair in just 24 hours and now have super shiny, velvety coats. They also have fingernails! I’m pretty confident there are 4 boys (2 hoods, a black berkshire, and a dilute) and 9 girls (5 black berkshires, 2 hoods, and 2 dilutes) in the litter.

It’s getting easy to tell the babies apart. The berkshires have slightly different amounts of white on the tips of their tails and their ‘socks’ reach different points on their legs. The dilutes are changing colour, one is a hood one of the others is a darker berksire (possibly mink?) and the other is quite light (dove?). The hods of course are easy as they all have different patches down their backs. One little boy even has a teeny tiny head spot!

The babies have been getting more and more mobile throughout their second week. They don’t pull themselves around on their tummies now, instead they ‘walk’ slowly and haltingly like little zombies. They have also started claening themselves which is super cute to see.

Some of the little ones have started venturing out of the next in their cage but are very quickly put back by their mother. They are starting to look much more like little rats now, their eyes are less bulgy, their ears are not so stuck down to their heads, and they have lots of fur.

Today is the day the babies ear canals drained allowing them to hear. They are moving around a lot when I get them out and will crawl to wherever I put my hands and squish themselves up against them. Their mother no longer frets when I get them out and sometimes comes out with the other girls when they are out of their cage. She’s excited, and a little bit pushy with them, but I think when the babies are grown there will be no problem moving her back in with her friends.

One of the babies has one eye open! They are all getting quite quick at crawling around and are starting to hop and jump a bit too. They wear themselves out quickly though and after scurrying round for a few minutes they quickly find some friends to pile up and sleep with.

All the babies now have their eyes open. Their fur is less like velvet and more like normal rat fur, although they don’t have guard hairs yet. It’s easy to see the different markings on the berkshires tummies and I’m confident that there are 4 boys and 9 girls in the litter.