Baby Rats!
Feb. 13th, 2003 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulroThe mommy rat[1] gave birth some time while we were at work yesterday. Which is good, as she was looking seriously huge and miserable on Tuesday night. She came out of the nest long enough for us to establish that she is OK. Eventually curiosity got the better of us and we lifted up the house to get a ballpark idea of how many babies there are.
Lots. As in more than 10. Eek! They all looked fine so we decided that not disturbing them would be best. Rats in general are very good parents so we'll probably leave them to it for a few days (by day 5 their hair is starting to come in and they start moving).
In a couple weeks when they start getting lively I'll be having a nervous breakdown. I suspect very much that I won't have any problems giving them back when they're ready to find homes.
I think I prefer gerbils - if a gerbil has 7 babies it's a huge litter. If a rat has 7 babies it's the minimum size.
[1] Incidentally, she needs a name. I'm inclining towards Molly but any suggestions would be appreciated.
I'm going to attempt to go to work now. Yes, I realize it's 10:00. If I make it as far as the office, I will probably come home about 2:00. I've talked to my supervisors about the fact that I'm too sick to work at the moment but nobody else can complete the funding-critical project, so they're letting me come and go as I can and only work on that project.
Lots. As in more than 10. Eek! They all looked fine so we decided that not disturbing them would be best. Rats in general are very good parents so we'll probably leave them to it for a few days (by day 5 their hair is starting to come in and they start moving).
In a couple weeks when they start getting lively I'll be having a nervous breakdown. I suspect very much that I won't have any problems giving them back when they're ready to find homes.
I think I prefer gerbils - if a gerbil has 7 babies it's a huge litter. If a rat has 7 babies it's the minimum size.
[1] Incidentally, she needs a name. I'm inclining towards Molly but any suggestions would be appreciated.
I'm going to attempt to go to work now. Yes, I realize it's 10:00. If I make it as far as the office, I will probably come home about 2:00. I've talked to my supervisors about the fact that I'm too sick to work at the moment but nobody else can complete the funding-critical project, so they're letting me come and go as I can and only work on that project.
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Date: 2003-02-13 01:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-02-13 02:16 am (UTC)(No ! Not as a _name_)
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Date: 2003-02-13 05:51 am (UTC)Lundy rat cull
Date: 2003-02-13 02:20 am (UTC)Speaking of rats (which I don't, generally), do you have any thoughts on the forthcoming Lundy island rat cull ?
Lundy is noted for all sorts of rare wildlife, in this case the puffins and the black rats. As puffin numbers have declined enormously, there's now concern that rat predation is involved. So there's to be a cull of rats, both black and brown. The black rat is much rarer than the puffin in the UK (there being two island colonies, Lundy and Shiant, and possibly stragglers in some ports). Another view is that it's sand eel fishery that has removed the puffin's food source, hence the decline.