A little over a week ago, I was helping out in a bicycle event to raise monies for diabetes research. I was at one of the rest stops for the cyclists, a church in rural Camden Co. NC. Well I heard two of the other volunteers talking about seeing a snake on the property. I was thinking that with all the people there, that the animal would have been long gone. The next thing I know, I see one of the guys stomping on something. When I got over there, it turned out to be a Black Rat pup that was only about 10” long. I stopped the guy from killing it. It seemed to be stunned but with no external injuries. I picked up the little guy, and while he would try to strike anyone else moving around him, he never tried to bite me.
I wasn’t too sure that he was long for this world due to being stomped, but I took him home with me, and Sunday, after about a week of rest, I got him to eat a small f/t fuzzy mouse. I think the little guy is going to make it.
Unlike the Eastern Black Rats that I have breed, this one has brown saddles and a brownish tinge to his overall coloring. He may turn out to be a brown morph Black Rat. In this part of the country, that is something that you don’t see much. For the most part, our Black Rats are jet black with very little if any pattern showing as adults.
I will post a picture soon.

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