Without knowing, I got albinos! I hadn't realized that Bear and Athena were both albino carriers, so we have one standard albino and one teddy fur (single velveteen/teddy rex for some) albino.
The one girl we had as a runt is doing perfectly now. I fed her some soy baby formula a few days ago to get some calories in her and since then she's been able to get enough food and now she's just as big as her siblings. Her name is Solace, and she's a sweetie-pie.
As of right now they are eleven days old and thriving.
Rattery Update:
Ben and I talked it over and we came to the decision that for right now, until we have established lines that we know are healthy, we're going to be a primarily private rattery meaning that we will not adopt to the public, but we will still be breeding. We're moving down to two litters per year to make it easier as far as size and because selective breeding for traits like health is far easier to do when you're working with a smaller group at more infrequent breeding cycles. So May and October will be breeding months and everything between those months will be focused on rat loving and observation of out babies.
We're really excited and the main reason for the change was the fact that we are slightly over-crowded and we need to cut down on that for the sake of the ratties first and foremost and for the fact that being a new rattery my lines are not established so I can't tell someone what the traits would be and I certainly cannot put a guarantee on health yet. So, until I can, the rattery is private and will be slowing down the breeding pace.
G'mornin, g'night and g'day
Afterthought: What is that one thing that sets rats apart from other pets?
