On the 31st of October 2007, yet another addition was made to our family,
Nugget The hooded Rat, AKA Noogie

The day we got him, clinging to Branden for security, 3 days later he's getting more daring, and showing off his lovely black whiskers.

Playing 'follow the bum snake' with Branden, and learning how to pose for the camera, he's got a lovely silvery sheen which I hope stays when he sheds his baby coat.

We'd had Branden for almost 2 months, and were getting worried he might be lonely on his own.

We made sure he got as much attention as we could give him, but we also had toffee to think about who deserved just as much attention, plus some more to make sure she didn't feel left out.

Branden always gets at least 4 hours of play time a day, usually a lot more as he'd be out with us during the day, then play on the sofa's for a few hours in the early evening, then he'd get his usual 4 hours of play time on the bed (we tend to go to sleep quite late, 3 am is common, so he's out from 11pm at the latest till we go to sleep)

But whilst he seemed to enjoy our company, we were also worried that we couldn't do the things a pair of rats do together. Like groom each other, talk to each other, play rattie games, cuddle up together for warmth and comfort on a night and so on, so we decided to get Branden a friend.

I originally wanted to get a rat from a breeder this time, as they will have been handled from birth. But at the time we were touring Switzerland, So I went on the net and found what I thought was the only rat club in Switzerland, but they turned out to be a rat rescue organization who don't condone breeders, pet shops or any other way of getting a pet rat it seems, and of course us not having a house in Switzerland for them to check out, they couldn't let me have a rescue rat.

We had tried a few pet shops in Switzerland, but to be honest we weren't happy with their conditions at all, plus they were all females, we were told that Swiss pet shops get all female animals if they can, as they smell less (having owned both female and male rats, i do agree females smell less, but only slightly, the males grow bigger, and are a lot more cuddly), we deffo didn't want a female for Branden, 2 would be quite enough.

So when we came back into Germany, we found a pet shop that actually cared a great deal for their animals, the staff were knowledgeable, the cages were spotless and they all had plenty of toys to play with, the animals actually looked happy.

They had 3 cages of rats, in one was a mum and her kittens/pups, they were about 4 weeks old, So too young to be separated. The next cage had 2 males in it, a brown rat and a white rat,                       they were about 4 months old,  but unfortunately whilst they were all in good condition, they hadn't been handled enough, and Branden didn't seem to take to either of the big rats.

The Next cage had the 6 week old ratties in it, they were all black and white male hooded rats, (the females had been sent into Switzerland that day they said.. confirming what we'd heard about Swiss pet shops only liking female rats)  so we put Branden upto the cage front and they all came up to have a sniff and say hello, one in particular seemed to hang around more, and Branden was sniffing at him the most, so we came to the assumption they had chosen each other for friends.

10 euros and 50 cents later and Branden had a new friend, (Branden was only 8 euro 50, but in Switzerland they were charging 45 francs for a husky rat, about 21 quid!!!) We took the new baby rat to the van and let them get acquainted on the sofa whilst I cleaned the cage out and de-odorized it, we did this to make the new baby feel the cage was his as well as Branden's, and to stop Branden being territorial, They had been getting along fine on the sofa, both ended up going to sleep cuddled up to each other, so once the cage was set up and clipped back onto it's shelf, we put the 2 rats in it together.

They both had a good sniff around, then Branden went upstairs and got into bed but the baby didn't know how to handle the ladders, so I put him in the sleeping bag with Branden and he just budged over a bit and they snuggled up and fell asleep. We headed off for a wohnmobile stellplatz to spend the night, Sam stayed in the back to keep an eye on the ratties, just in case the baby didn't like travelling, but he never stirred, both were still sound asleep when we had parked up.

At that point the new rat didn't have a name, we got him from the town of Singen (right next to the Swiss German border) but that couldn't be shortened like Brandenburg could for Branden, so he was just called Baby for the time being.

Play time that evening was a lot more fun, despite the baby getting the trots and depositing squidgy rattie raisins everywhere, hopefully he can be semi toilet trained like Branden, who does a little dance when he needs to go into his cage to deposit a few rattie raisins.

Branden and Baby played together a little, but baby wasn't sure enough of himself to go running around, so Branden ended up leaving him behind most of the time, but baby was ok with that, he'd come over to me or Sam and snuggle under our hands, he really is a lot more placid than Branden was when we got him, but that could be 'cos he scared of all the changes.

We came up with a name for him with the help of my mum (after seeing photo's of him sent to her phone) on the 2nd day, Nugget, or Noogie for a nick name, (Sam spells it Nougat!-'cos he's sweet and soft) Toffee loves him, she seems to treat him like her own puppy, she'll wash him, nuzzle him, let him walk on her back, which she's not so sure about branden doing... mind branden weighs 225 grams, where Noogie is only 95 grams, she still plays games with Branden, but seems to know Noogie is a baby who needs looking after.

One of the good things of having 2 rats, they are sooooo entertaining, we now get a floor show every night as noogie chases branden around the bed, they seem to be playing tag, as the next minute branden is chasing noogie till he catches him, then they switch roles again, they'll play fight... with noogie winning most of the time, and branden will go tearing along the bed with noogie hanging onto his tail.

Branden seems to have accepted noogie straight away, the only thing he doesn't like him doing is eating yogurt drops, which branden considers to be all his, but noogie wont give in, he keeps hold of it and runs down his kitchen roll tube, which branden cant fit down, and eats as much of the yoggie as he can before leaving it right in the middle... Branden's learnt to lift the tube up to get the yoggie out though.

They are both very sweet rats, Noogie is half the size and weight of Branden, but he'll soon catch up, his fur is so soft at the moment, like branden's was a month ago, noogie has a lovely little white patch under his chin that looks just like a goatee, and his black whiskers are such a contrast to branden's white ones, especially when they're snuggles up together with their tails and whiskers intertwined.

Below are some more photo's of Nugget, click on them to see a larger version, and as with Branden's photo's hover over them to see what Noogie's saying :)

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