The Gambian rat is a very large rodent belonging to the genus of mice. It is also called a hamster or marsupial, due to the tendency to hide food in cheek pouches. Thus, rats can carry a fairly large amount of food. These rodents are unique animals, because they can be trained and trained in useful skills.
Description of Rodents
The body length of an adult Gambian marsupial rat reaches 90 cm, including the tail, which is about 40–45 cm. The rodent’s weight is also quite impressive: up to 1.5 kg. The coat is coarse, colored in brown or gray, while the abdomen is always lighter than the back. Dark circles around the eyes. The ears are large, open, oval.
Outwardly, it is difficult to distinguish a female from a male, since they have the same features and sizes.
Since Gambian rats are nocturnal animals, their vision is rather weak. But they have excellent hearing and a sensitive sense of smell. These abilities help them detect not only food, but also mines, tuberculosis bacteria, and more. When it became known that this type of rodent is well trained and amenable to training, they began to catch and breed them for personal purposes. In addition, animals often become pets, because they are calm, contact and very smart.
Marsupial rats are sensitive to cold, as they have virtually no subcutaneous fat deposits. Heat is also unacceptable to them.
Comfortable temperature ranges from 20–25 ºС.
If rodents are provided with proper conditions of detention, they can live 4 years, while in the wild, life expectancy is reduced to 3 years.
Habitat and behavior
Gambian marsupial rats live in central Africa, and not only in arid areas, but also in forest areas where a temperate climate prevails. Rodents live, as a rule, in burrows, hollows of trees, crevices of rocks and other secluded places. They avoid open spaces.
Sometimes these unusual animals choose small settlements for living, moreover, they settle not one by one, but by a whole family, the number of individuals in which can reach 20.
People suffer greatly from the actions of tailed neighbors, because they cause enormous damage to the household:
- eat up stocks in barns and cellars;
- spoil property;
- clog the sewer;
- destroy the soil structure;
- contribute to the drying of the soil nutrient layer;
- destroy crops.
Hamster rats are most active at night. They crawl out of their hiding places and set off in search of food. Rodents carry their prey in cheek pouches, the volume of which exceeds 100 ml. In a short period of time, they are able to significantly replenish their food supplies. For example, in just 2.5 hours, one individual can carry up to 3 kg of food.
The Gambians do not like to encroach on their territory, so they will violently defend their nests.
In rare cases, rats can bite, but this usually happens when they are very scared or trying to show their superiority among relatives. Rodents never attack first, so you should not panic when faced with them face to face.
Captivity
Giant African rats are friendly and good-natured. Despite their impressive size, they look pretty cute, and if they are brought up correctly, then they will behave quite diligently.
Gambian rodents love affection and are able to show tender feelings for people, so they are often kept as a pet.
That's just the cultivation of such animals in captivity - a troublesome business.
To create comfortable conditions, you need to choose and prepare the place where the rats will live, and also provide them with good nutrition and care. Keeping such a large animal is recommended not in a cage, but in a spacious enclosure made of metal. It should be remembered that males and females should not live together. The exception is only the period of rearing cubs. In this case, their mother should be nearby.
Since the rodent loves to hide, it is important to equip his house with various loopholes, nooks, hanging hammocks, and labyrinths. Plastic and wooden elements will have to be abandoned, as the pet will easily gnaw them. The bottom of the enclosure is usually covered with sawdust or dry grass, but you can also use wood-based filler in granules.
The equipped house for the marsupial rat must be installed in a warm room, and it is desirable that it maintains the same temperature.
Lighting should be artificial, subdued, and direct sunlight is best avoided, because the Gambians are nocturnal animals.
You can’t always keep the tailed pet locked up; you need to walk it daily. In addition, tactile contact with the owner is important, so you should often take the rodent in your hands, stroke, scratch your abdomen and play with it.
Gambians should always have access to water and food, so The drinker and feeder should be replenished regularly. In addition, rodents are very thrifty and constantly hide food.
Therefore, if the feeders very quickly empty, do not worry that the animals are starving, and rush to feed them.
It is advisable to provide them with two meals a day and carefully monitor the size of the servings, as they can eat a lot, but overeating is fraught with the development of various diseases.
The marsupial hamster rat is omnivorous, but this does not mean that all food is equally beneficial for it. The basis of the diet should be:
- vegetables;
- fruits;
- legumes;
- seeds.
Of great importance for the health of rodents is protein, which accounts for approximately 40% of food consumed. If in the wild the Gambians get protein mainly from insects and mollusks, then at home they are recommended to be fed:
- lean boiled meat;
- low-fat cottage cheese;
- boiled eggs;
- seafood.
As for banned food, it includes fatty, salty, pickled, fried and spicy foods. In addition, do not give your pet a try soda and alcoholic beverages.
Propagation Features
As a rule, African marsupial rats breed in the summer. But if they live in captivity, and for their comfort all the necessary conditions are provided, then this process can occur at other times of the year. To conceive offspring, the animals must be at least 6 months old.
Rodents have a kind of mating ritual, during which the female and the male first comb out each other, then play catch-ups and only after that they mate.
It should be noted that females do not always take courtship of the male and bite him behind the back or tail as a negative answer.
The gestation period of the Gambian rat lasts 30–32 days, while it can bear a maximum of 5 cubs. The female after childbirth is very aggressive, so it is better not to touch it again. Babies are born bald, with closed ears and eyes, which open on days 14 and 21, respectively. As the young rats grow older, their tail grows and a coat appears.
For 28 days, the rat feeds its offspring with breast milk and teaches the cubs to eat on their own, and at first they choose soft food for the babies. If the female lives in captivity, then she needs to provide a special diet enriched with vitamins and proteins.
You can also cook rat food, which should consist of easily digestible frayed foods.
Males in no way participate in the upbringing and feeding of their cubs, and sometimes even eat them. Therefore, it is necessary to protect him from the newly minted mother and newborn rat pups. Quite often, other females help look after the offspring. At 2 months of life, young Gambians begin to eat on their own and even get their own food.
The Gambian rat is described in more detail in the next video.
