They look like wild Rats!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I call them "proper" rats Dawn You've seen my agouti boys surely

Thanks guys, they are a lot better today and come up for a little stroke if I put my hand in the cage and not nearly as nervous now, and still no squealing! Perhaps they were just being handled too roughly, I don't know. They come out to say hi when you speak to them, they are very sweet.

LOL Dawn, that's just what I said when I first saw them.

Oh great glad they are settling in

They are indeed, beginning to get cheeky! Off out to get some toys and such now, and to go look at another couple of younger boys.

I don't need a huge cage as I only want 4 and if I got one space enough for 16 i'd be far too tempted to expand, my bf would rather cut off his right arm than come in a house with 16 rats I'm sure the one they have is fine, I don't know the exact measurements, it's got 3 plastic shelves and ladders and such but i'd prefer a bit more space for them, especially for 4 anyway.

Kel, I'm with your bf on this 16 is a bit OTT don't you think, he's probably worried if one escaped

But I must say that when I challenged Zoundz on the disease thing she replied that there are many varieties of rat. The ones most people are worried about are the Brown rats, these are the ones which inhabit the sewers and carry Veils disease.

Zoundz alleges that the White rats are a different breed and are known to be safe. Who am I to disagree, she is after all a spokesperson for the national society. I just hope she is right

Wild rats are Rattus norvegicus, the Norway (or Brown) rat. [There is also the Black rat Rattus rattus, which carried the plague, but that is virtually extinct in this country now.]

Pet (fancy) rats are the domesticated version of Rattus norvegicus, so no real difference except over 100 years of domestication & breeding for tameness. It is possible for pet rats to get Weil's disease, but only if they have been in contact with wild rats carrying it.

I'm also a member of the National Fancy Rat Society and first joined in 1982... one-time committee member too.

When I was in hospital with a chest infection a couple of friends were muttering about the rats so I asked the consultant if I could have caught anything from them. His answer was only if you went down a sewer and caught them

Aww....Agouti cuties!

Hope they are settling well

Yes I have, and Orey said he'd like to see them too!

I think thats why they arent tame, they fobbed you off with some wild ones caught in the garden!











Just kidding.