Introducing: Rooth

I shall have to get a picture to post of my little girl soon. We received our rats today. Actually, we got to pick them out. I opted for one of the friskier rats. Though she was still moving around a lot at the end of my hour with her she was starting to calm down and I think in a few days she’ll be calmer. As our professor said, the friskier ones will likely be easier to motivate in training.

I was having a hard time deciding what to name her, but it finally came to me today while I was in the lab room. I named her ‘Rooth’, a cross between two book characters that are small (one is even white)  and capable of a lot more than they are originally given credit for. Good things come in small packages after all.

We also learned how to care for our girls today and how to care for the lab room in general. I know it’s a lot to remember at the moment, but as soon as we get into the swing of things it’ll be much easier.

I can’t wait to get to see Rooth again tomorrow (and the next day and the next…). I just didn’t want to crowd her too much today when everyone else was crowding in and out.
I did have a thought to train Rooth to rear up, but realized that’d probably be cheating as they tend to rear and explore a lot on their own. Perhaps I’ll initially train her to touch her nose to a marker and work from there.