I got Snuttan & Humlan after my last two rats suddenly and strangely got sick and died. They arrived together in a cage carried by their breeder on the 25th of June 2005. Then they were 10 months old.
I got Snuttan & Humlan after my last two rats suddenly and strangely got sick and died. They arrived together in a cage carried by their breeder on the 25th of June 2005. Then they were 10 months old.
First I must say that I about 15 years ago had another rat called Snuttan and she had the same colour as this new Snuttan! The old Snuttan.
In the photo to the right you can see Humlan in the fore-ground and Snuttan behind Humlan. These two rats are bred by the same breeder that Basenji was. Their pedigree names are long and hard to pronounce! Snuttan's pedigree name is Fingersvamp, and Humlan's pedigree name is Snöbollschampinjon. Fingersvamp and Snöbollschampinjon are two different kinds of mushroom, and all their sisters and brothers have mushroom names. The breeder call them all her mushroom litter.
Albina, also called Bina, and Basenji, both got a strange infection and died. About the same time other pets got sick and one of my cavies died, so I was worried they had gotten something contageous. But it turned out that the cavy died from a stroke and all other pets got well again. I still don't have a clue as to why Albina and Basenji got sick so bad almost at the same time.
Snuttan is a silver fawn female, and Humlan is a lilac agouti female (probably german blue based). Humlan is a very outgoing and running around type of rat while Snuttan is more of a cuddly rat. They are not much like Basenji, since Basenji was very stable and did not scare easily, which especially Humlan does. But when Humlan gets scared she runs down into the cage and hides for a while. And then the next time she gets out she seems to have totally forgotten that she had been scared at all!
Basenji actually got scared once, and then there was two dogs and a very hands-on child involved, all three with they attention directed at Basenji... It actually took a while until she got over that experience! (Two or three weeks, I think.)
When Humlan & Snuttan arrived they had not seen eachother for 2 months. They were just put together in the transport cage right before the breeder put them in the car to come to me with them. Humlan was raising her fur and the breeder was worried that they would not turn out to be the true pet rats I wanted. I just watched them and told her not to worry. Soon it was clear that Humlan was raising her fur and telling Snuttan who was the boss (they hadn't seen eachother for 2 months...). Both reacted to their new surroundings, so I decided to let them just stay in their new cage for a few days after the breeder had gone home, just to get to know all new smells and sounds and stuff. After three or four days I started taking them out and they were both just as nice as I had suspected. They were both cuddly and extremely tame. A bit sensitive, but I had already guessed as much.
I could always put Albina and Basenji in the hands of anyone, even people that had no previous experience with rats, but I think I should not do that with Humlan & Snuttan. Otherwise they are perfect pets, except that Humlan is a "naughty" girl looking for mischief... She loves climbing up into my window, so that I worry about all my pretty spider plants. She tries to jump onto my keyboard and mess it up. She pees everywhere! I've never had a female rat that pees that much... Snuttan is just a lovely, well-behaved rat, very cuddly and lovely.
There's only one problem with Snuttan & Humlan, and that is that they are smelly rats. They pee on everything, and their cage get so smelly I have to change it every 3 days. I have bred rats at home, and I have had several rats in exactly the same cage that Snuttan & Humlan are living in right now, and I used to change the cage every week even when there were 5 or 6 rats in that cage. Now there are only 2 rats and they need changing every 3 days... I don't understand how they do it!
Also they have destroyed 3 perfectly nice wooden rat houses, houses that I actually used when breeding rats and that has survived years of rat breeding. Those houses got destroyed in just a few days! Snuttan & Humlan gnawed on them and then peed on the exposed wood so badly that the houses was beyound repair. I am now looking for plastic houses for the little monster-pee-rats!
I have had many rats from the same breeder through the years, but never before any rat with this peeing problem.
The photo shows Snuttan's babies at the age of 2 weeks, this was long before I got Snuttan so this photo was taken by her breeder. I got permission to have this pretty photo here on Snuttan & Humlan's own homepage:-)
Snuttan had been away for a month from the breeder. The breeder had rehomed her. And then Snuttan was back for a month, but she was put in quarantine alone. There's a strange story here, since the breeder got Snuttan back from her new home because of biting... If I got the story right the breeder sold Snuttan to a family that already had other rats in their home. But somebody got bitten by Snuttan when that person put her hand into the hammock where Snuttan was sleeping.
By then Snuttan had lived in that family for a month. She was returned to the breeder, named a biter, and the breeder was really upset. Snuttan was put into a cage of her own (in quarantine) and the breeder watched her and was very worried. She phoned me and said that Snuttan was raising her fur, and then she told me the whole story. I told her to wait for 3 months, and if she had seen no improvement by then we'd talk about it again. The breeder was very upset.
The reason that the breeder was so upset was that she had considered Snuttan to one of her best pet rats. She had babies after Snuttan that she thought was very good pet rats. Also Snuttan was one of her favourites!
A week or two later Snuttan was back to her normal cuddly self. Actually both Snuttan and Humlan are very cuddly rats.
Later I was told that another rat breeder had been to the family when Snuttan lived there. She said that Snuttan was housed with several other female rats, and that the other rats harassed Snuttan a lot.
Then I told the breeder to stop worrying about Snuttan, rats are not made to withstand harassment from other rats and Snuttan's reaction was probably that she had not realized that it was a hand that was put into her hammock, she had probably thought it was one of the other mobbing rats.
This story only convinces me that that the rats this breeder was breeding has very good temper, since so many other rats in the same situation will never return to their normal cuddly self at all.
So when Albina and Basenji died I did not hesitate to take Snuttan and her sister instead, even though I really wanted males :-)
Snuttan and Humlan are great pet rats, I just wamt them to stop destoying their houses! And stop smelling :-) Otherwise they are really great pet rats. They are bothe gentle and very tame, and more cuddly than most rats I've had.
Here is a photo of Snuttan, making friends with the dog. Snuttan was actually licking the dog on its lips, just like so many other pet rats lick people on the lips, but I did miss to take photos of that. The dog is a close friend to Humlan, so maybe Snuttan wanted to be his close friend too?
Snuttan has a very sweet disposition, but I have never heard of a rat licking a dog on the lips before. (It looked hilarious...)
I got two new friends for Humlan on the 19th of December 2005, after Snuttan died. They are Hottan and Snuttan & Humlan's sister Soppan. Hottan is a little older. Sadly enough Humlan had a stroke only a few days after I got Soppan & Hottan, and she did not really recover from it.
When I got Soppan it was obvious that she was different from other rats. She sat in my lap and got scared by a sudden sound and she jumped right down on the floor, running for cover. I actually caught her by the tail, but I lifted her up with my two hands. I put her back in my lap, very interested to see how long it would take her calm down, but she calmed down fast. Actually that's why I chose her. (I had three rats to chose from, Soppan, Hottan and a daughter to Snuttan.) That and the fact that she is extremely gentle.
Two photos of Soppan taken on the 9th of May 2006.
I do remember the breeder telling me that Soppan was afraid. I don't believe she is afraid, she just scares easily, I mean she gets scared easily. But she also calms down fast.
I do not consider her a scared rat. Ixy was a scared rat for the first two weeks. He got tense a lot those first days, but I talked to him a lot and comforted him a lot and then he was quickly tamed, and got big and soft instead.
I do believe that Soppan is shy and avoiding things. But not scared. If she had been scared she would be tense and she isn't.
It might be that there's something wrong with her perception of what happens around her, who knows. That might explain her shyness, I guess. I am contented with just sitting with her in my lap or on my shoulder, being happy that I happen to own such a pretty and nice rat!
Her behaviour towards Hottan is perfectly normal, so there's nothing major wrong with her anyways.
I had only one photo of Soppan for a long time, she don't like to have her picture taken. I had to close the lid of the cage to get to stay, so I could have at least one photo of her. That was a bit cruel, so I don't think I'll do that again. She loves hiding in her cage too much :-)
I just took some new photos of her today, she is laying in my hand, feeling rather safe, but she did not enjoy the fact that I used the flash so she walked away after just a few pictures :-)
Soppan had to be put to sleep on the 9th of September 2006 after developing torticollis.
Copyright Eva Johansson.
Last update: 3rd of December 2007.