Note: Part 1 can be found here and may be a good place to start:
The mess of words in this post are purely my own observations and opinions. They will not hold true for all Dwarf rats - as always I’d encourage people to meet some if they want to form their own opinions!
In short, quite a bit!
We’ve had a handful of our own Dwarf litters (more on that later) and have now owned Dwarves from a few different breeders.
We’ve also shown them a few times, mostly in Pet classes, although we have put one or two in Provisional Standard.
We also have more concrete goals and plans for them now.
Basically, we have a bit more experience than before but always keep in mind the disclaimer above!
The vast majority of our Dwarves are still curious, engaging and playful but we have a wider age range than we did when I wrote part 1!
The oldest bucks are essentially one not-so-giant snuggle-creature now.
Most of the older does (2+) have somewhat mellowed; there’s one very small exception in our big doe group and that is Kismet Micro.
Kismet Micro
As it stands, she’s the oldest Kismet Dwarf (b. Nov 22) and she appears to have infinite energy. She’s always been small and very active - we decided not to breed from her due to her size. Sod’s law a litter might’ve calmed her down but not worth the risk with such a tiny girl. She’s one end of the scale that even I find a bit too much - not in terms of her personality, but in terms of the amount of energy she expends and how that may have impacted her size. There’s also the worry that as she’s an old girl now she could drop weight quickly - obviously not great when you’re already a tiny rat!