Day 8: Being little is hard work
Heading on in to the 2nd week in the growth of your baby rats, you are going to notice that their ears are more fully developed and protrude more from the head. On a dumbo baby, if you look at them from the side, the ears seem to point downward and on a standard eared rat the ears seem to point upward. The babies are a little more fuzzy now and the eyes protrude less and are starting to get covered by a layer of fur and thicker skin but have yet to open. While the babies are moving about the nest more they are still moving blindly. Your babies are growing fast, but still have a long way to go in their development.
Day 9: Colors and naked bellies
As you can see from photograph's 8 and 9, the fur is getting thicker literally overnight. The bellies are still naked but the fur is growing more on their limbs and feet. Colors are getting even easier to tell now, this baby here is a russian blue agouti because the base fur is a deep russian blue and the banding and ticking is agouti. You can also see very well in this photograph that this baby is a rex by looking at her whiskers which are kinked and curly.
Below is a short clip of a 9 day old baby responding to scritches. Although their eyes are not open at this point, socialization is still very important at this age. They respond to sounds and touch.
Day 10:
Your baby has not changed much overnight except that the belly which was naked before is starting to show markings and colors and grow a little bit of fur.
Day 11: Picture coming soon
Day 12: Picture coming soon
Day 13: Squishikins
You will notice on day 13 how where the eyes were sealed shut before there is now a thin dark line. For the next 3 days or so the whole litter will slowly begin to open their eyes. This baby only has one little speck of eye open at this point but still has a difficult time seeing.
Day 14: On their way
As you can see, by day 14 your babies are looking much like a real rat. Their bodies are now completely covered in fur including their bellies. You can even see here in this photo that this baby has started to open her eyes! Things are still very blurry for your little ones but they are better able to move around the nest now.
