I used to keep pet rats. You probably already know that rats are social animals. What may surprise you is that, as social animals, the psychological make up of rats is very much like that of dogs. At least this is something that many dog people attest to. Personally, I think that rats smell better, and are also less needy while being equally loyal.

I started my colony with three agouti rats; two does and one buck. Their names were Tara, Millie, and Siddartha. I wanted a lot more rats, but I figured I could breed my own rather than buying each and every one that I welcomed into my home.

Tara and Millie had their first litters three days apart from each other, Tara being the first to give birth. I was privileged to watch them being born. Tara was so delighted to have babies! She fussed over them, picking them up in her hands and turning them over and over, licking every millimeter of their tiny bodies.

Tara did everything a mother rat should do, except allow her pinkies to nurse. She trusted me enough to let me handle her babies without objection, but when I tried holding a little one’s face against one of her nipples to show her what the pinkies needed, she strongly objected and squirmed away. She would have none of it.

Millie was already full of milk, and I gave all of Tara’s babies to her hoping that she might nurse them. Thankfully, she did, but Tara was very insistent about reclaiming them and giving them every manner of nurturing except milk.

Finally, I took Millie and the pinkies out of the cage and made them a nest in a cardboard box. Tara became extremely dejected, as evidenced by her body language. She kept very still with her chin and stomach on the cage floor, breathing shallowly. She stared blankly at nothing in particular. From this appearance I was able to infer that her heart was breaking.

I figured that one baby trying to nurse might not overwhelm Tara, and that even if she still wouldn’t nurse I could rotate pinkies so that none of them would starve. I took one pinkie out of Millie’s box and offered it to Tara. Her eyes brightened and her musculature relaxed. She’d been a little hunched up, but now she stretched out. Then she rolled on her side to face me and reached out with both hands to take her baby from my fingers. She then pulled the baby close to her body and proceeded to fuss over it.

I went out to run some errands, and when I returned an hour later Tara was allowing that one pinkie to nurse from a nipple near her collarbone, far away from her soft ticklish underbelly. I cautiously gave her a second baby, hoping she would nurse it as well. Sure enough, she did. I gave her one more baby at a time every five to ten minutes until she was nursing her entire litter. Then I put Millie back in the cage.

Three days later, when Millie gave birth, Tara stole all of her babies and claimed them as her own. Tara was alpha, and Millie was the submissive rat. Poor Millie simply gave up in despair and appeared as dejected as Tara had been when deprived of her brood. Since the two litters were three days apart in age, at first it was easy to tell whose pinkies were whose, and I repeatedly returned Millie’s little ones to their mother’s nest. Fortunately, Tara took her time about stealing them back, and I only had to redistribute them about once every two hours.

After this had gone on for three days it became difficult to tell the litters apart. Happily, when this determination was on verge of becoming impossible to make, Tara grasped the ethical implications of depriving Millie of her brood. She proceeded to place her babies in Millie’s nest, and from that point on Tara and Millie cuddled with each other while they nursed their two litters as a team.

Tara and Millie had their second litters twelve days apart, with Millie giving birth first. When Millie’s babies were one week old, Tara joined Millie in her nest and began nursing the little ones. This was a full five days before she gave birth to her own litter! And amazingly, when Tara did give birth, Millie acted as a midwife for her!

Tara sat on her tailbone, legs spread, facing Millie, who was sitting on her haunches. First one baby emerged from Tara’s womb. Tara took hold of it in her hands as it emerged and gently pulled on it to help it out. Then Tara lifted it up to her mouth and opened the amniotic sack. While Tara was giving the first pinkie perinatal care, the second one began to emerge. Millie took hold of it in her hands and gently pulled on it. Then like Tara, she opened the amniotic sack and gave the pinkie its perinatal care. Tara and Millie proceeded like this, delivering alternate babies until the entire litter had been born. When mother rats give birth, they eat the placentas; these two closely bonded does actually shared these, freely passing each one back and forth, taking turns in nibbling on this rare treat.

Like many of my female rats, Tara eventually developed the ability to lactate without having gotten pregnant. As a grandmother alpha-rat she came to share in nursing almost every litter that came along, ruling by love rather than by fear.

There are many other stories to tell about my rats. I went on to breed and socially engineer for kindness towards other rats. According to many satisfied rat lovers, I bred the sweetest most affectionate rats they’d ever met. But that's another story.