In the middle of moving to my new place and the rat room is not yet set up; rattos are in a temporary cage that they have been in dozens of times without issue.

Until last night.

Woke up this morning and came to check on them to discover that they chose day 1 of the new place to learn how to unlatch the cage. One perfect little angel baby was politely sitting inside the open cage waiting for me. The other? Missing.

Well she luckily couldnt have gone far since they were closed in the room. I proceeded to check the cords... all intact except for one nibble. Guess they tasted bad. No poop anywhere except an empty cardboard box. Polite little ladies.

But then... I noticed some chewed up fabric littering one corner of the ground. Followed the trail to a not yet unpacked moving box.

And discovered the criminal herself, caught red-handed chewing the last frayed bit of fabric holding one of the ties on my $200 Shureido gi. My competition gi for karate. The most expensive piece of clothing I own.

SHAME HER 😭😭😭

This is Hans. He’s a professional couch pisser, full time chaos gremlin and biggest criminal of our group.

I love how Dash (unintentionally) uses the slide 😅

Or better yet her support carrot?

Pebble and Koike—2 of my 5 boys. Koike likes to pull on his older brothers' tails (I'm waiting for them to finally scold him) and Pebble is my premier escape artist.

There is very little I would not do for all of them.

I’ve had two brothers since mid-May. They’re ex-lab rats from a university, born mid-February, so they’re around 5 months old now.

Bonding seemed to be going alright. Both climb on me, take food from my hand, and let me pet them and handle them just fine. This post is about the slightly busier of the two.

I’ve handled him plenty these past months and have never had issues. Sometimes he nibbled on my finger with his teeth, but never hard. When I stroke him he often closes his eyes and sometimes starts “bruxing” so I always assumed he enjoys it.

The first bite (about an hour ago) came completely out of nowhere while I was petting him, and it was hard enough to pierce part of my fingernail and draw blood. It hurt a lot and freaked me out.

Feeling a bit sad, I decide to return to test the waters. During petting I noticed him actively searching for my finger, turning his head toward it. I pulled my hand away twice, and on the third attempt he got me. Drew blood again. Both bites felt deliberate and had some real venom behind them. Not gentle nibbles or “mistaken snack” type stuff.

Both times he’d had his eyes closed and was bruxing beforehand, seeming to fully enjoy the petting, and then out of nowhere the bite. He never did this before.

One thing that might be relevant: they just moved into a big new cage yesterday. It’s a massive upgrade: completely new layout, new bedding, way more space and levels. So a lot has changed in their environment in the last 24 hours.

I feel a bit scared of this happening again, and I’m not sure what to do.

Is this overstimulation? Hormonal aggression? Could it be medical?

How do I stop this becoming a habit?

He’s eating, moving, and getting along with his brother totally normally as far as I can tell. Any advice appreciated!

I really need to know, are my three male rats just lazy or are they bored? They're 9 months old at the moment. They don't chew bars nor destroy their hammocks. I've had girls before and if I have to compare the two genders it's a huge difference, these girls would run all day, do crime and use their wheel non-stop.

Now these boys only like to lay or cuddle, rarely use the wheel and when It's free roam time they just follow me around or hide behind sofa pillows. I do give them toys to chew and explore. But as I say, maybe 80% of time they just chill.

These are brothers.

Nagel is the black one, Kolak the RB one.

Stanley sitting pretty enjoying a treat. (2 years 9 months) He is still moving well for his age and keeping on weight but is a crotchety old man.

Wanted to share my old lady having a nice munch. She's turning 3 in 2 weeks and she's still doing so well

I just picked up two dumbo rats and specifically picked from his males from photos. This is clearly not a boy and I just wanna know, is she full of soup?! 😭

Cuddle puddle time

The second one cracks me up

Today I, being the loving and caring father that I am, bent down to say MWAH MWAH MWAH ! To my beautiful daughter Fig during free roaming time. Because she is very cute! ✨
BAD IDEA.
GRABBED MY NOSE RING with her evil little hands. UNHOOKED IT! I had to spend 5 minutes in the bathroom re-clasping it because I haven’t swapped this ring since I put it in and I forgot how it worked. I felt like a fool.
Moral of the story: do NOT be kind to your rats, they will try to take away your swag…. They’re jealous of my drip perhaps….

(It didn’t hurt at all and nothing bad actually happened)

The first rat will be named Kruimel (crumb in Dutch) and the second rat will be named Pesto if she's feisty girl and Spruitje (brussel sprout in Dutch) if she's a calm, cuddly rat

Ps they'll be at the breeder for a few more weeks, even though Spruitje/Pesto is old enough, Kruimel is 3.5 weeks old