Lab Rats

Here are Bob and Curly, two recently retired lab rats from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. They have spent the last two and a half years doing behavioral science studies, and now they are here to see how well they can condition me to give Yogies.

Back when I adopted Krycek and Rizzo I mentioned lab rats as one of my motivators. I jumped at the chance to welcome Bob and Curly. I'm hoping that they have several healthy months left (I think they are Long-Evans hooded rats, a strain that has comparatively long lives) and that they enjoy their new lifestyle.

Bob.

Curly

They are still getting the staple lab diet of Harlan Teklad blocks, but I am introducing them to the same supplements the rest of the rats get...i.e., our dinner.

Bob is the more outgoing of the two. Curly is more reserved...comes out from the box slower, jumps back in the box faster, and has, ahem, tasted my fingers. (I'm not intentionally comparing all they do with Rizzo and Krycek, but there certainly are similarities. And that isn't bad, necessarily, since the girls took awhile to warm up to me, but I think they eventually saw me as something besides a food dispenser.)

Sure, I can tell them apart. Curly has the black stripe around the base of his tail. From the front...um, yeah. The pattern of the hoods is slightly different, but at the moment I'm still relying on the tails.

Curly isn't wild about being picked up, but he very accomodatingly finished up playtime by getting into the transport cage, making it easy to transport him back home.