How our cute little Badger turned into a husky rat!

When little Badger joined our family we though he was the sweetest thing we’d ever seen. We named him Badger because that is what he reminded us of, a badger. Unfortunately as a baby he was very poorly and it was a very worrying time. Badger was so small and cute, it really did break our hearts to think of anything happening to him. Even though Badger was very poorly and tiny he still liked to get into mischief, just like all baby rats. He also enjoyed all the extra attention we gave him, as he needed his special rattie medicine several times a day and he also had some human medicine which our vet recommended to help clear his nose.

As Badger started to recover from his respiratory infection he put on a growth spurt and has he grew his fur appeared to change colour. We didn’t notice at first, just thinking it was the light and the fact he was growing. His stripe lightened gradually over a month, before the colour on his head began to fade. We didn’t think much of it, the fact Badger was getting better and growing was all that mattered.

The faster Badger grew the more noticeable his colour change became. Not knowing anything about husky rats we wondered if it was just simply because he had been so poorly. The effect his fur gave was that the colour he’d been born with was just spreading out over his body.

Badger’s fur faded into a very distinguished silver colour and the markings on his head, which had originally earned him the name Badger, all but disappeared. Lindsay was talking about Badger in a rats forum. Someone replied asking if he was a husky, they explained it was a type of rat that had fur which faded. Lindsay was intrigued and searched on the internet and sure enough Badger was a husky. There were lots of other pictures of rats just like Badger, some of the write ups said they can go almost completely white. Badger is still holding on to his nice silver stripe at the moment.

At the age of 16 months Badger’s stripe seems to have stopped fading and left him with a mottled effect, the only dark patch left is just behind his shoulders. Badger is a very beautiful and much loved little boy. We don’t care what colour he ends up as long as he continues to be healthy and enjoy his life and time with us.

Watch this space to see if Badger’s fur fades anymore.

Age 20 months and little Badger has lost most of the colour from his lower back. The silvery grey band across his shoulders doesn’t seem to be shifting at all though.