Ratlings for real!

[oyceter]

I have baby ratlings OMG they are so tiny and small and cute and tiny and cute!!!!

Flickr set (including last photos of Al, as well as Ed getting to know the ratlings)

I warn you all that my photography is absolutely terrible, and that my comments are mostly limited to: "OMG SO SMALL AND CUTE EEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!"

But yes! I have baby ratlings!!!!!

They are seriously as big as mice! They can crawl through the toilet paper roll without even getting stuck! I can barely get that paper roll over Ed's head!

So far, they look nearly identical, except one has a spot on his tummy on the left and the other has a spot on the right. One of them also has a small spot on his back next to his stripe, and he's also missing some of one finger. Poor baby. That one is so far the more adventurous one, who ran all over the play area and tried to jump off the couch. He has also been very enthusiastic about Ed-rat. The other one so far is more shy, and he has spent most of his time hanging around in the back of my cowl neck. It is so cute! He is this teeny warm lump around the nap of my neck! Maybe I will finally have one rat who will sit on my shoulder! (All my other rats would just try and climb down my shirt after a while.)

I am currently thinking of Syaoran and Watanuki as names, or maybe Momiji for the shy guy? I am not sure! They are also so young that their personalities are still revealing themselves!

Also, Ed was extremely excited when I let him crawl around their cage, although I swear, despite sniffing at their smells for forever, he sniffed at them through the bars of the cage, and then... ran off.

Oh Ed. They are tiny baby rats who are only five weeks old, and each one of them is about as big as your head.

But yes, at least he didn't lunge at them and try to bite them and end up biting me (Ren, I love you, but...). Since the ratlings and Ed seemed curious but not aggressive, I briefly let them play together in the bathtub, in which the braver ratling climbed all over Ed and tried to groom him as Ed attempted to sniff at the strange new babies and then tried to escape their energetic baby attention. Ahahaha Ed. Outmaneuvered by baby rats who together probably weigh half as much as you!

But I am glad, because I think he was really lonely after Al died, and he seems to be taking a much greater interest in things now. I don't know how to get them into the same cage, since the big cage has bars so spaced out that the babies can crawl right through, and while Ed seems to be okay with the ratlings, I am not sure he wants to live in the smaller cage and have two babies clambering over him all the time.

Any name suggestions highly welcome! I was thinking... twins? Anime or manga characters missing a finger?

In conclusion: OMG SO SMALL AND CUTE AND TEENY WEENY AND SOFT AND FURRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comments

[starlady]

Not a finger, but…Fai and Kurogane! I think Syaoran and Watanuki would be cute too.

Ratlings! They sound adorable.

[oyceter]

I was thinking that too! Also, I can't think of a good nickname for "Watanuki," since I tend to abbreviate all my rats' names.

They are SO CUTE!!!!!

[ginny_t]

Hee! So cute. ^_^

Mokona calls him Wata sometimes; you could shorten it to that.

[jinian]

See, totally Fai and Kurogane! Maybe "Nuki" but then that is a little confusing with Ruki.

OMG SO CUTE!!! The one little eye peeping out of the hammock!

[oyceter]

Oooo, what's a good nickname for Kurogane? "Kuro" I guess? Hahaha, it would kind of match "Bya."

[troisroyaumes]

So adooooorable.

The only anime/manga characters I can think of that are missing fingers are the yakuza characters from Gokusen...

[rydra_wong]

Awww, ratlings!

[torachan]

Awwww, babies! I love the ones all snuggled up in your sweater! XD

XD

[(Anonymous)]

I love how their hind feet are about as big as their heads! So cute!!!

[kate_nepveu]

So cute!

[m_pig]

I love their sweet little faces plus am charmed by the Tampax box in their cage :)

[oyceter]

Hahaha, I always forget I throw those in until other people comment on it! One of my guy friends rat-sat for me once and was like, "Uh... interesting boxes you give them." And I couldn't figure out why for the longest time!

[umadoshi]

SO CUTE! Rats on your shoulders!

The only (boy) anime twins coming to mind are Hikaru and Kaoru.

[littlebutfierce]

Yeah, that was my suggestion too! The only other twins I can think of, period, right now are the twin sisters from Otome Youkai Zakuro.

Hee, they are so cute & tiny!

[umadoshi]

The other pair that comes to my mind is the Sumeragi twins from Tokyo Babylon, but Hokuto is so very much a girl. *g*

[oyceter]

I know, I was thinking that too! I am trying to think of good nicknames too... Hika and...? Ka? Kao?

[umadoshi]

Oh! And Kamui and Subaru are twins in TRC!

[genarti]

Awwwww!

[laurashapiro]

They are so dear!

I'm reading HP now, so the only twins that come to mind are Fred and George Weasley. Not sure you are looking for such pedestrian western names, though...

[oyceter]

I am not a stickler re: source! Most of the names have just come from manga because that's what I read, though the first rats were Fitz and Fool from Robin Hobb.

Although I think Fred and George are probably too tricksy for these guys, ahahaha.

[laurashapiro]

Although I think Fred and George are probably too tricksy for these guys, ahahaha.

That's probably a good thing! (:

[glass_icarus]

\o/!!! Hahaha, I was going to say Appa and Momo but that doesn't quite fit what you're looking for, does it! xD

[oyceter]

OMG that would be so cute!!!

OMG I feel Appa is a perfect guinea pig name!

[cyphomandra]

They are soooo cute! And the one of Ed looking through the bars at them with his paws up is particularly "awww" inducing.

[rachelmanija]

AWWWW! Cowl neck ratty babies!!!!

Remus and Romulus? Momiji and Hatsuharu (black and white!)? Cesare and Alfonso?

[oyceter]

Ooooo what's a good nickname for Momiji?

[rachelmanija]

Momi?

[mme_hardy]

Lonely Ed looking through the bars: SO CUTE!

[mme_hardy]

What about the brothers from Full Metal Alchemist? I admit a toe isn't the same as an arm and a leg, but still...

[mme_hardy]

I am SO STUPID NEVER MIND THIS.

::is ashamed and ignorant::

[oyceter]

Hee, yeah, I was thinking that would have been perfect had I not already used it.

[srevans]

I had no idea baby rats were so adorable! TINY AND WEE AND B'AWWW.

[tempested_bird]

I am not at all a fan of rats, but they are pretty adorable!

[daedala]

I have three cats, so rats really are not advised. But they are so cute!

[chomiji]

I don't think a missing finger is melodramatic enough for manga/anime! (In fantasy, there's Frodo, of course.)

They are indeed adorable! But I think maybe supervised play sessions with all three together are best for now.

[rachelmanija]

FRODO AND SAM.

[arboretum]

SO CUTE

[vito_excalibur]

They are so tiny and cute OMG! :D

[nightowl]

Oh my lord they are adorable. XD XD XD Are they Long-Evans rats? They kind of have that coloring!

Alas I am completely blanking on twins in anime and manga...but for Dynamic Duo types, there's Ban and Ginji from Getbackers.^^;; Those names are also nice and short. Man, there's gotta be someone missing a finger in all the stuff I've read over the years....

[oyceter]

I have no idea? What are Long-Evans rats?

I am completely blanking on twins too! And also trying to think of names that shorten well, since I almost never call my rats by their full names.

[nightowl]

Oh, sorry, Long-Evans are an outbred strain of lab rat, and they're rather smart so they're often used in cognition research (but they're a popular model organism so they're used in a lot of other types of research as well). They are white with black/brown hoods and a stripe down the back, like this. I've known former labmates to take some unwanted rats home as pets, so I thought maybe that was what happened here.^^;

Good luck on picking names! I am failing at this.0_0

[oyceter]

Oh, interesting! I actually have no idea... I think these guys are the litter from someone else's pet rats, so if they are, it is a generation removed? Ahaha, we will see how smart they are. I love all my rats to pieces, and some of them have been very tricksy, but I think most of them are so spoiled and lazy that they don't bother! (I've come home several times to find the cage door open... and the rats still inside.)

[lady_ganesh]

They are SO CUTE.