{"id":36921,"date":"2026-05-19T08:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/?p=36921"},"modified":"2026-05-19T08:06:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T12:06:21","slug":"peeka-boo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/peeka-boo\/","title":{"rendered":"Peeka & Boo"},"content":{"rendered":"

These girls came to us on 4\/26\/26 due to their owner’s health issues.<\/p>\n<\/div>

\n\n\t
\n\tExperienced Owner<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>

Fostered by Annie in Brighton, MA.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>

#20260182, “Peeka”, Rat, Black and White, Berkshire, Standard Ears\/Standard Coat, Female, DOB: 08\/17\/2025, Spayed\/Neutered?: No<\/p>\n

#20260183, “Boo”, Rat, Black and White, Berkshire, Standard Ears\/Standard Coat, Female, DOB: 08\/17\/2025, Spayed\/Neutered?: No<\/p>\n<\/div>

UPDATE 5\/19\/26:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peeka and Boo were a very skittish, shy, and fearful pair when they first joined us, but with patience and consistency, they became happy, curious, friendly, and playful rats!<\/p>\n

Peeka is the more adventurous, brave, and playful of the two. She loves free roam\/playtime, and comes bounding to the front of the cage whenever a human enters the room when either morning or evening playtime is approaching, bouncing with anticipation and delight. When she is brought to the free roam area, she immediately zooms off and excitedly runs around exploring the structures we have set up for them. She also likes to climb on humans and into their clothing, especially if doing so would bring her outside of the standard bounds of the free roam area. In the cage, she particularly enjoys nesting, often gathering new scraps of paper and other bedding for her nest before eating new snacks when the cage is reseeded with both. She also loves foraging in the substrate, cuddling with her sister, destroying corks and other chew toys, and navigating high-variety cage setups with impressive agility. Peeka thrives when her environment changes regularly and would benefit from a caretaker who enjoys making the cage feel unique from week to week, creating foraging toys, and keeping the free roam area varied.<\/p>\n

Boo is shyer and more cautious than her sister, but because she is highly food motivated, she has become quite human-focused as she has grown comfortable with us. Although naturally circumspect, Boo finds it easier to try something new or go somewhere that feels less secure if Peeka does it first, so she often follows her sister around. Boo has also come to love free roam time, but tends to lose play energy and find a comfy spot to relax long before her hyperactive sister is ready to slow down. However, if there is even the hint of a snack, Boo is alert again and ready to do what it takes to convince you to hand over more treats. She has recently begun enjoying exploring the robe we wear while playing with them; climbing around above the waistband and in the sleeves. When in the cage, Boo’s favorite activities are foraging for snacks and keeping an eye on whatever the humans are doing nearby. She also loves cuddling with her sister and destroying chew toys. Boo, especially, would benefit from a patient human who respects her autonomy, letting her dictate the pace of familiarity.<\/p>\n

Peeka and Boo are pair bonded and cannot be separated. They are incredibly sweet with each other and are almost always cuddling together when at rest. They may do well with careful introductions to an existing mischief, but could also be happy continuing as a dynamic duo.<\/p>\n

Although generally well behaved, both girls, but especially Peeka, use their teeth to investigate unfamiliar fabrics. Neither girl has fully internalized that some fabric has human on the other side, and they may nip or tug at socks or loose clothing during playtime, accidentally catching a bit of skin in the process. This is not aggressive or hard enough to draw blood, and the behavior is improving over time, but it’s something any adopter should be aware of.<\/p>\n

Both girls now tolerate handling, but still prefer interaction on their own terms and transportation methods that let them feel in control. They are currently easiest to transport in our \u201crat robe\u201d both to and from the cage. They know that when we drum our hands against our legs it means to climb in, and we are teaching them to generalize this behavior to other soft carrier methods. In general, these girls are quick studies. Both are good at learning to use the litterbox (especially Boo), both know what sounds mean treats or other food, and both have learned to be gentler with exploratory nibbles on skin with minimal guidance. We have not done any trick training, but I suspect Boo would be fantastic at and love it with her focus, food-oriented mindset, and pattern matching skills.<\/p>\n

Although Peeka and Boo have become quite friendly and sweet, as I mentioned initially, they were extremely fearful and skittish when they arrived. While in our care, we had to move them to a new room due to some construction and they temporarily became much more withdrawn and cautious again before recovering. It\u2019s likely this will happen again after adoption, and their new caretakers should expect to be especially patient and gentle with them initially to earn their trust. Because of this, I\u2019d recommend they be adopted by someone with at least a little experience with rats and their body language. Once they feel secure, Peeka and Boo have shown themselves to be well worth the upfront work.<\/p>\n<\/div>

Peeka<\/strong>
\n\"Peeka<\/p>\n

\"Peeka<\/p>\n

Boo<\/strong>
\n\"Boo<\/p>\n

\"Boo<\/p>\n

\"Boo<\/p>\n

\"Boo<\/p>\n

Together<\/strong>
\n\"Peeka<\/p>\n

\"Peeka<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":36924,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[140],"class_list":["post-36921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-available","tag-experienced-owner"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Peeka_and_Boo_peek-a-boo_thumb.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Jamie Cross","author_link":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/author\/jamie\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36921"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36926,"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36921\/revisions\/36926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainelyratrescue.org\/rattieblog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}