Species: Brown Rat Rattus norvegicus

Expected lifespan: 2-3 years

Domino	Hidey	Silver

DOB: Domino - May 09, Hidey and Silver - December 09

Although many people have a dislike of rats they make fantastic pets and can entertain for hours with their antics. The more time you spend with them the more they'll come to accept you as one of their rat pack.

Domino

Domino has been a fantastic little show rat and was briefly our rat pack alpha after Scrabble became to old to fight for the title. Unfortunately for Domino Jigsaw grew up and followed in the footsteps of her foster mum and knocked Domino from the top spot.

Hidey

Little Hidey is one of our sweetest rats, she is outgoing and very affectionate and will often lick peoples hands. She is a Russian blue coloured rat and has dumbo ears. Wild rats have ears that sit on top of their heads but dumbo rats ears tend to sit further down the side of their heads. People breed them this way as they think the ears make them more appealing.

Hidey is beginning to attempt to move up in the pack and we have seen her getting into fights with Domino and Marble.

Silver

Silver is one of our three dumbo eared rats though she is "husky" coloured. She started off looking like a small badger but her black colour changed to grey. Like Hidey she will also lick hands and fingers when she wants to show affection and has especially soft fur. Neither Silver or Hidey are really big or brave enough to challenge our top rats for their positions though they might still decide to do so.

We have noticed that Silver attempts to dominate a few of our friends rats when they all get together but we have never seen her fight with any of our pack.

Our rats live together in a Furet Tower cage filled with hammocks, toys, hiding places and tubes. They have fresh water and food available at all times.

	Jigsaw in a hammock

All the rats are allowed free range time in the hallway and stairs of the flat although used to be allowed this time in the lounge. Unfortunately Scrabble kept finding her way inside the recliner sofas so a new plan had to be thought of. The rats enjoy running up and down the stairs and bouncing around in the hallway. They get at least an hour free range time though as you can see they have a fantastic cage with plenty of toys and places to snooze.

Rats at the vet

When Marble and Domino first came to live here they both had snuffles and had to be put on a course of antibiotics. Hidey and Silver and have never had to see a vet.

Domino
Hidey
Silver