Hello you all. Welcome to Ratamania! I'm this month's featured rat, Koyuki. I was introduced a Himalayan rat but I am not a pure himmi. I am not that different from albino rat, except that  I have a very faint chocolate smudge on the tip of my nose, and also the base of my tail and the tail is brown.

Oh, by the way, I have recently discovered that I don't quite have the top fur. I only have the under fur, which is not too thick either. And considering the tips of my fur are facing all sort of directions, I suspected I might have a rex gene in me. Though my whiskers are pretty much straight. Mind you, I have to be thankful that at least I have some fur on me. It could have been worse if I was a hairless rat because humans always get tempted to dress them up! Huh? You wanna have a look at hairless rat? Then click here

I  quite like the idea that my nose chocolate smudge is getting darker! Also the tips of my ears are becoming dark too, although my owner Meg has been convinced that they were getting mouldy! Meg didn't know that the real Himalayan has a very dark ears naturally. I quite like my pink ears anyway.

My Himalayan patterns actually saved my life. To cut the long story short, Meg has brought a rat called Sayuri just before Fuyume passed away so that Fuyume's twin sister Miyuki wouldn't feel too lonely being left on her own. After Fuyume died however, Miyuki started to deteriorate too and she could no longer cope with little mischievous Sayuri. So Miyuki was put in a geriatric cage on her own where she can have a bit of peace and quiet.

Even though sister Miyuki was not in a good form, it wasn't however fair to leave Sayuri feeling lonely. So, what did Meg do? She rushed to a pet shop to get a friend for Sayuri. She phoned the pet shop beforehand to make sure they had girl rats in stock and the shopkeeper had told her they have two girls with brown heads.

However, it wasn't quite so when Meg had arrived to the shop. One of the rats was buff hooded around 5 weeks old and me about 6 weeks weeks old. I have never met the buff girl before and I could only occasionally smell her between the cage bars, but I suspected that she was too a left over after all her sisters were sold, just like me. But the buff girl was very active and she behaved herself so well that Meg thought she would make such a good friend for Sayuri.

I thought worryingly, oh my ratty God, I will be left behind forever, spending the rest of my life in a pet shop all on my own! but I was too nervous and shy to approach Meg to impress her over the buff girl. I was sat there, scared stiff in the corner of the cage not knowing what to do. Meg also seemed to have thought too a rat like me, unapproachable skinnny one wouldn't make a ideal pet rat anyway, therefore would probably be sold as feeder rat for a snake food. So what did she do? She decided she could not leave me behind, and was prepared to take me on, to spend a quality time together with me to make me into a happier relaxed pet rat.  Also it helped the fact that I was Himalayan (well kind of). Meg has only seen a Himalayan rat through the rat books and other people's web sites and always thought they were gorgeous. Meg just stared at my face curiously through the gap in the card board box on the way home, and I also curiously watched her, wondering who was this woman to give me a new home and a new life.   


It took me a while to get used to the new environment. I was always bought up on a rat mix so the fresh vegetable and fruits were real novelty. I ate so much of them I suffered from a dodgy stomach for a while. Also Meg noticed I was on a skinny side and could do with a bit of fattening up too so she put me in with bed bound Miyuki. Miyuki was fed on a special diet so she though I could share her dinner until I become strong enough. I loved being with Miyuki, she was so big, just like a momma rat as I missed my mom, and my sisters' company.  I liked being with other rats of my age but I was bullied a little because I was so much smaller. I  preferred to be with Miyuki. She was so nice.

And this is the last picture of me and Miyuki. I was warming her up, grooming and cuddling her and even being her pillow once in a while as she could hardly move her limbs and almost blind. Miyuki had gone to ratty heaven but Meg named me Koyuki meaning little snow after Miyuki, beautiful snow. Meg always say that I am gentle and shy, just like Miyuki.