Last week Saturday we lost our second rat (Goodbye Sweet Logan), leaving Savannah on her own. Rats don’t like to be alone. We spent extra time with her, letting her hang out on our shoulders, nestled in our hair, most of the day. Tess noticed that her heart rate and breathing would go down whenever she was picked up. Poor Savannah seemed to be very stressed on her own. I wasn’t ready to get new babies. I needed more time to be sad and miss Logan. But it wasn’t about me, it was about what was best for Savannah. So rat shopping we went.
Germany is not big on rats-as-pets. We weren’t having much luck finding breeders, the closest we found was in Holland, and most pet stores only carried rats-for-food. Luckily our local “Zoo” had three 10-week-old sisters. They were perfect for us. Two of the rats, the future Shay & Chii, were very sleepy but the third hopped around like a crazy woman endearing her to me and Tess.
A wonderful young saleswoman helped catched and sell us our new babies. She made sure we knew what we were doing, especially when it came to introducing the new babies to our old lady. I loved her for caring so much about our babies and they were going to a good home. After we bought them, they went right to the on-site vet. They needed a check-up and clean bill of health before going home. I loved that too.
Once home Dane & Cole stormed the carrier. They were beyond excited at new babies. I wish I had recorded Cole giggling for an hour with pure joy. At 19, the size of a linebacker, Cole is a big, gentle moose. His heart broke when Willow died (A Jumbled Mess), and he couldn’t be there with Logan. His heart couldn’t take any more. To see his whole body light up, the weight visibly lift off his shoulders, made getting new babies so soon, so worth it.
I am ecstatically happy to introduce the new Westbabies! Toffee is our curious, excitable, hoppity-hip, two-tone hooded rat. Shay is the lighter berkshire rat. And Chii (short for Chīsai, meaning small in Japanese) is our darker berkshire rat.
Toffee is our excitable one. And very busy exploring. She does not sit still for photos.
Chii is our calmest new baby. I can get her on camera.
The only photo of all three new babies: Chii, Shay & Toffee in the lead!
Chii and Shay sunbathing in my hat ❤
Our old lady Savannah
Ohhh.. so glad you were able to get some cute new babies to bring joy to you all! Just look at those tiny little “fingers!”
Such adorable photos! Ratties make such good pets. So sorry about Logan. 🙁
Oh, they are so cute! Such wonderful and curious pets. Our daughters had rats when growing up. Such a fun pet.
Oh, they are just precious!! I adore rats as pets!!
Thanks for sharing your enjoyable experience of turning sad into glad! I have never had rat pets but can see many advantages – like size!
They are so cute! Likewise, I have never had rats as pets, but it nearly broke my heart when I had to rid my house of a mouse. You could tell it was terrified of having been caught; I still remember it like it was yesterday, not years ago. Fortunately I have not had any mice in my house since then!! My late husband always told others that if I saw a stray pig walking down the highway I would bring it home for a pet. LOL Yep, he was most likely correct in that assumption! 😀 I am definitely an animal lover.
[…] have ratbabies. We love our ratbabies! We love our ratbabies so much we are on our second batch (The New Westbabies!). But we have pet store ratbabies. There aren’t a lot of ratteries in Germany and the ones in […]