Baby Rat Growth & development: Crew of the Nostromo first two weeks

Bright lights, bright lights!

Day 1:

Ripley, our other rat mama, had her litter on the 16th of February. Although she gave birth to 10 babies 3 were stillborn.  As sad as that may be I still find it preferable to how we lost some of Deadpool's little Deadites later down the line. I can only hope that these lost squeaks didn't suffer long, if at all. We didn't remove the stillborns from the cage and Ripley took care of them in her own way, as nature does. Making them took a lot of energy out of her, so it's only fair that she be allowed to recycle them, which is what they're naturally wired to do.

Baby rat growth & development part two: days 11-16

11th Day:

Please ignore the haggard nails, we'd been doing tie-dye. ;) 

The rat babies have been growing like little weeds! At this stage they were still unable to see, but their ears have started to open up and showcase themselves. All of Deadpool's babies, AKA the Deadites, inherited Dumbo ears as both their parents had them. Only a few of Ripley's crew (of the Nostromo, naturally) developed dumbo ears despite having the same father. Genetics! While I certainly claim no great depth of understanding when it comes to the intricacies of rat genetics, I do find it very intriguing to learn about. I believe that by breeding our dumbo eared double rex to a standard coated dumbo we've gotten a batch of 100% rex babies, some with silky coats and others with short, curly fur...but then I'm not entirely sure as some of her litter look pretty bald. 

This little sweetie is Bendleton, or Ben for short. He's definitely gotten a luxuriously silky coat! So soft and shiny! He's been growing bigger, faster, than the rest of the Deadites.