The rat rescue group I help out with (Mainely Rat Rescue) was asked to help with a hoarding situation in Holbrook, NY. This man started out with two females from a pet store and they were both pregnant. When my group arrived, he had well over 1,000 rats running around, many which were pregnant.

So I took home a nursing mother and 21 little eepers. Sadly only 15 survived, but they are all doing great.

The mother, whom I call Matilda, so sooo sweet considering she probably had very little human contact. When I pet her in the cage, she gets as flat as she can and just holds very still. But when I pick her up, she sits in the crook of my arm and bruxes (the rat equivalent of purring). She lets me ‘steal’ her children without any fuss, although she’s happy when I return them, as you can see in this video. (Don’t worry, #4 looks worse than it was.)

They aren’t all her children. These ratties represent at least two separate litters. But rats are great about nursing any baby.

The oldest six all look pretty much alike; they’re PEW (pink eyes white) girls. To tell them apart, I marked their tails with different colors of Crayola non-toxic magic markers. Here’s a cute picture of Roo smiling for the camera, and her sister (I think!), Scout:

The youngest bunch still have their eyes closed, but they’re getting close.

This is Brynn (#4 from the first video). I know it’s out of focus, but I thought it was so adorable that she still has her eyes closed and yet she’s grooming herself. Later I caught her sucking on her sister’s ear in the big sleeping pile.

And lastly, here’s Mommy Matilda. About an hour ago, she was too scared of the leg bridge to cross it. But then I broke out the baby puffs (Graduates by Gerber). I put one on my leg for her to get, then a little farther, and in about 30 seconds she forgot her nervousness.