RATZILLA: New wild rat babies from Milan and Gaston, December 11

New wild rat babies from Milan and Gaston, December 11

This is a series of posts regarding Milan's special litter. An upcoming video documentation will follow after the rats have already been placed at their new homes. Click on the links below to see the other stories in this series:

Milan and Gaston's new babies from December 11

Day 4 and Day 6: Bits of hair growing on pink skin

Day 13 and Day 14: Open eyes!

Day 20: Already eating solid food

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One of the happiest moment in your hobby is when you see new life being birthed to this world, waiting for all the love you could give. It's been 8 months since Milan last gave birth, and December 11 is when the new litter came. Both parents of this special litter are of wild descent, and from the breeding point of view, they shouldn't have any bad genetic history.

Gaston the father is a rescued wild rat back in May. He has a stocky body and up to now is still a little shy, but can be handled. Milan the mother is a descendant of Thoriel (son of Thor, rescued orphan rat). Both of them are featured alot in my videos.

L-R: Thoriel, Milan, Gaston

I have discovered many years ago that you could actually tell the sex of a rat right from the moment of birth, as opposed to waiting for them to become sexually mature.

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The reason this post was delayed was because I wanted to wait for the video. But what I'm gonna do instead is publish this post, and make a separate post with video documenting this litter from the day of their birth until the day I see them off to their new home.

Milan in the background.

Milan had suddenly been getting restless and a little irritable. It was a sure sign that an imminent litter is coming. We were listening to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 to help soothe the tension. These images were shot a few moments before she gave birth.

And not long after, delivering the babies took only a split second as soon as I turned my back and went out the room. Another missed opportunity to film the birthing process...

All in all, there were 5 pups (1 male, 4 female) but the two of them disappeared mysteriously or possibly did not survive. These macro photos of the litter show alot of dreamy details that are normally overlooked by the naked eye. They're quite restless and difficult to shoot...

These last 3 images were taken on Day 2, this time I'm using daylight bulb for a warmer atmosphere. This is a series so please watch out for upcoming posts about this litter until the day I see them off to their new home.