| Phlip |
Here's the write-up on our two new girls:
- Devil is a meek little hoodie, probably a runt. I asked
the guy in the pet store to wake everyone up. He upended
their sleeping tube, and the girls ran everywhere. Devil
was the only one who ran directly towards him, stuck her
head out of the cage door, and sniffed.
- Heidi is a large, sleek black rat, picked because she
was the healthiest specimen of a crowded little aquarium
at the mall.
I have explained to my 11yo daughter, Ashley, not to play with Heidi because
"she thinks she's a real, wild, rat." She likes to hide from us when we
access their cage. Devil, by contrast, go straight up to the hatch and just
begs us to take her out and play with her like a ragdoll. If Heidi gets
loose, she becomes convinced we want to eat her, and she promptly thinks
she's outsmarting us by hiding. Hence the name.
There's a theory why dogs have many different coat colors. Their ancestral
wolves have many hormones for aggression. As you breed a mammal for
tameness, those hormones reduce, causing a cascade of related change. The
animal gets less tense and alert, and their coat gets less cryptic.
So maybe our girls illustrate this effect.
--
Phlip
http://www.greencheese.org/ZeekLand <-- NOT a blog!!!
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| Joanne |
Phlip wrote:
> Here's the write-up on our two new girls:
>
> - Devil is a meek little hoodie, probably a runt. I asked
> the guy in the pet store to wake everyone up. He upended
> their sleeping tube, and the girls ran everywhere. Devil
> was the only one who ran directly towards him, stuck her
> head out of the cage door, and sniffed.
>
> - Heidi is a large, sleek black rat, picked because she
> was the healthiest specimen of a crowded little aquarium
> at the mall.
>
> I have explained to my 11yo daughter, Ashley, not to play with Heidi because
> "she thinks she's a real, wild, rat." She likes to hide from us when we
> access their cage. Devil, by contrast, go straight up to the hatch and just
> begs us to take her out and play with her like a ragdoll. If Heidi gets
> loose, she becomes convinced we want to eat her, and she promptly thinks
> she's outsmarting us by hiding. Hence the name.
>
> There's a theory why dogs have many different coat colors. Their ancestral
> wolves have many hormones for aggression. As you breed a mammal for
> tameness, those hormones reduce, causing a cascade of related change. The
> animal gets less tense and alert, and their coat gets less cryptic.
>
> So maybe our girls illustrate this effect.
>
Rats have been domesticated for far too long for them to be considered
at all wild like. Also, the real "wild" color is agouti and not black.
I would suggest that she needs lots more socialization. She'll come
around if you force her to bond with you.
--
Joanne
Owned by 14 rats
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