Baby Rats

I got two little baby girls. I wasn't really planning on getting more rats until after New Year's at least, but I was in Petsmart and these girls called me out on being a sucker. They're still a little shy, but curious.

Here are pictures of the night they came home (11/11/10):


This is Epi (Eppie?). She's named for epifluorescence, a microscopy technique. Also, Eppie is an old lady name, so it works two ways. She was at Petsmart for a couple weeks in the back (the story is that she was a little sick, but nothing to be concerned about in the long term), so she played with the employees a little, so she's a little older and a little bolder than Rosie.


This is Rosie, hiding on the left. She was being really shy at this point, so this was the best picture I could get of her. She likes food more than Epi, I think. She was smaller than my palm when she came home. Pico was just MASSIVE in comparison, which is pretty funny since Pico was always one of the smaller boys.

She's named after Rosalind Franklin, who took the X-ray diffraction pattern of DNA, which Watson and Crick used to figure out the structure of DNA. She died of cancer before the DNA Nobel Prize was awarded, but many think she would have gotten the Nobel if she was still alive.

They're getting bolder as they get more used to me. Here they are playing on my bed:

It's hard to take good pictures of fast-moving, small animals.

They also (I have no idea why) love my keyboard. They just loooove prying off keys and running off with them. Perhaps it is an attention-seeking behavior? Fortunately, the keys pop back on easily. Here's Epi, trying to hold on to my tab key.

I am working on training them to not eat my computer.

Now (12/2), they're much bigger, maybe 6 inches from tip of nose to base of tail for Rosie and 7 inches for Epi. They eat about maybe 3 or 4 times as much as Pico does in a given day. They are growing like little weeds.

They came home to my parents' for Thanksgiving, and I think all the noise, chaos, and attention helped bring them out of their shells a little. They run around and play with me now, sit on my shoulders, and beg for attention. Now, they seem to look forward to coming out of their cage to play and run around. They also recognize their names and will come when they're called. Maybe I'll let them play on the floor soon, now that I can call them back. Also, it's time to start learning tricks!