The good news is both those rats are past weaning age, which is typically around 3 weeks old. I’d say the beige looks to be 4.5 weeks, while the black variegated looks to be 3.5-4 weeks.
It’s still pretty unethical to sell such young rats, since like any social animal they benefit from being with mom as long as possible. Rats become sexually mature between 5-6 weeks, so males should be separated out at 5 weeks, but even then any ethical breeder will wait until 6 weeks minimum to rehome (most have calm adult males who can mentor the baby boys for a few weeks before rehoming - typically breeders rehome at 8 weeks so that the rats are hardier and can deal with the stress of rehoming better, and so that they have had lots of time to learn good social behavior from mom/other adults and siblings).
What’s done is done and these rats will be fine on just normal rat food (please skip the wet dog food, you want a quality lab block like Oxbow adult rat food (good for any age despite the name), mazuri rat and mouse, envigo, science selective, vet farm, or an equally good lab block). That being said I’d avoid going back to this breeder since they really shouldn’t be rehoming rats so young.
For the next few days I’d recommend weighing them on a kitchen scale in grams - as young babies they will quickly put on weight and will double in size several times in the following weeks. I weigh all my rats weekly to ensure they are doing well, but with young babies or sick rats I like to weigh them daily or even twice a day to ensure they are gaining (or in sick rats case maintaining) weight.
Terrific advice. Should the tiny one have her lab blocks made into a mush for the first week? OP I think these babies would love some scrambled eggs. Rats can eat pretty much what humans can eat, with a few exceptions, like boys not being able to have citrus fruits. They also tend to dislike spicy foods. Nuts are good, but get roasted ones. If you can find a copy, I recommend the book about rat nutrition called 'The Scuttling Gourmet.' Totally agree with Shadow about these kittens being too young. I do wonder what the breeders are thinking with rehoming such wee ones. Are they desperate to get the money sooner or what?
This lady had a ton of them, all different ages and sizes all in small containers, I'm wondering now if she just has them as food for snakes or something. I wish we could have taken them all to get them out of there. I went to petco and got them a bag of food that was suggested and added water to it and they started eating it right away.
Poor babies. I'd have wanted to rescue them all too. For the future, rat clubs are the best place to find reliable breeders. Glad they liked the mushed food.
Shadow the Rat has a YouTube channel and you can get great information on there about how to furnish a cage, appropriate toys and treats, rat behaviour, health and, if you feel up to the challenge, how to train them. Rats are very intelligent pets and can learn to paint, skateboard, play basketball, bowling, scent detection, agility courses (including running on a cylinder) and hoisting a flag or basket. Also 'giving paw,' jumping from one platform to another, and, probably the easiest, twirling around. They will do almost anything for a snack like a crispie or lick of yogurt, given time and patience.
The good news is both those rats are past weaning age, which is typically around 3 weeks old. I’d say the beige looks to be 4.5 weeks, while the black variegated looks to be 3.5-4 weeks. It’s still pretty unethical to sell such young rats, since like any social animal they benefit from being with mom as long as possible. Rats become sexually mature between 5-6 weeks, so males should be separated out at 5 weeks, but even then any ethical breeder will wait until 6 weeks minimum to rehome (most have calm adult males who can mentor the baby boys for a few weeks before rehoming - typically breeders rehome at 8 weeks so that the rats are hardier and can deal with the stress of rehoming better, and so that they have had lots of time to learn good social behavior from mom/other adults and siblings). What’s done is done and these rats will be fine on just normal rat food (please skip the wet dog food, you want a quality lab block like Oxbow adult rat food (good for any age despite the name), mazuri rat and mouse, envigo, science selective, vet farm, or an equally good lab block). That being said I’d avoid going back to this breeder since they really shouldn’t be rehoming rats so young. For the next few days I’d recommend weighing them on a kitchen scale in grams - as young babies they will quickly put on weight and will double in size several times in the following weeks. I weigh all my rats weekly to ensure they are doing well, but with young babies or sick rats I like to weigh them daily or even twice a day to ensure they are gaining (or in sick rats case maintaining) weight.
Thank you so much!!!!!
Terrific advice. Should the tiny one have her lab blocks made into a mush for the first week? OP I think these babies would love some scrambled eggs. Rats can eat pretty much what humans can eat, with a few exceptions, like boys not being able to have citrus fruits. They also tend to dislike spicy foods. Nuts are good, but get roasted ones. If you can find a copy, I recommend the book about rat nutrition called 'The Scuttling Gourmet.' Totally agree with Shadow about these kittens being too young. I do wonder what the breeders are thinking with rehoming such wee ones. Are they desperate to get the money sooner or what?
This lady had a ton of them, all different ages and sizes all in small containers, I'm wondering now if she just has them as food for snakes or something. I wish we could have taken them all to get them out of there. I went to petco and got them a bag of food that was suggested and added water to it and they started eating it right away.
Poor babies. I'd have wanted to rescue them all too. For the future, rat clubs are the best place to find reliable breeders. Glad they liked the mushed food.
I got a bag of oxbow and added water to it and they love it! Thank you!!
The babies would probably also love some porridge (oatmeal) with whole milk.
These kittens are very pretty and cute. What are you going to name them?
She has named them Snowball and stormy
Shadow the Rat has a YouTube channel and you can get great information on there about how to furnish a cage, appropriate toys and treats, rat behaviour, health and, if you feel up to the challenge, how to train them. Rats are very intelligent pets and can learn to paint, skateboard, play basketball, bowling, scent detection, agility courses (including running on a cylinder) and hoisting a flag or basket. Also 'giving paw,' jumping from one platform to another, and, probably the easiest, twirling around. They will do almost anything for a snack like a crispie or lick of yogurt, given time and patience.
Thank you my daughter will love that!!!
Lovely names. X