I left Mushroom to settle in for a couple of days. Which I later decided was a bad thing to do; knowing how rabbits need attention straight away, so do rats.
A lot of people online say that rats are a lot like dogs, where they are very intelligent and kind. After getting to know Mushroom better, I have to agree. Although, rats are so much cuter than a dog because they binky, zoom and frolik around when they are happy.
The first thing I did was get Mushy to hop in a sack, which he loved immediately. He rolled around and played in the soft fabric for about 10 minutes. He then fell asleep in the cutest of rat poses.
I made sure that I held onto the sack, so he slept in my hand. I could stroke him gently though the fabric and he started to grind his teeth (bruxing), which means he was enjoying the company.
I spent about two hours with him sleeping in the sack, then waking up and crawling around. After a while, it was my bed time, so I popped him and the sack into his cage and we all went to bed.
In the morning I got him out straight away.
He sat on my lap and even enjoyed playing video games with me.
Of course he needed lots of sleep and food. Eating in bed is one of his favourite things.
When he was back in his cage, he quickly learned to climb.
I was naughty and gave him a tiny piece of Arrowroot biscuit to eat. Arrowroot is good for animals, but the biscuit part isn’t as good. So it was give and take…
Baby rats are the cutest when they snuggle up against something soft.
Mushroom is absolutely precious.
We built Mushroom a popsicle stick house and ramp for his cage.
He immediately loved sitting and sleeping on the very top of the new house.
He was super helpful when I wanted to put up the ramp.
He ran up and down the ramp sniffing the cable ties.
We updated the pine chips on the base of his cage to a bath mat. He loved running around with his face down pushing the toggles with his nose. In this photo he realised he was itchy and rolled into a ball.
Here he is on the roof of his house.
We knew that a single rat was going to get lonely. It is better to have two rats so they can keep each other company.
We decided to get another one.