Diane ÖZDAMAR - FANCY RATS

A COLLECTION OF DOMESTIC RATS PORTRAITS

Izumi - Lysander - Kaelan

As far as I can remember I have always loved rats and any rodent most people would call "pest".

When I first got pet rats, I was thrilled to find out they were such smart, affectionate and clean animals, very far from their image of "dirty little monsters riddled with diseases".

Once I felt comfortable enough taking good care of these sweet animals, I decided to give a second chance to the unlucky ones, and I started fostering and rescuing abandoned and abused pet rats until I could find them a good forever home. However, due to the prejudice against rats, getting them adopted is not an easy task, so I decided to make their lovely personalities shine through cute, often cheesy photographs, and it definitely worked.

While some of the rats you can see here were either mine or my friends', lots of them were rats I either fostered or photographed for animal shelters and animal rescue organizations.

Most of these pictures (plus many more not shown here) are featured in my book "Fancy Rats, Portraits and Stories" published by Amherst Media, after my "Fancy Rats" series went viral on Bored Panda , and got shared by many other platforms (including the Huffington post, Metro, My Modern Met, and plenty more).

I donate the raised funds to animal shelters and people who foster rescue animals.

Picture courtesy of Marjorie Coulin

Herjan

Dellingr

Thjazi

Tjall

Lysander

Heimdall

Yuri, rescue girl from 'Le Cochon Dingue' animal shelter

Pietro Pagello - Feirefiz - Inoa

Taz - Gareth - Jack Sparrow - Ken

Kissing My Song

Toutatis - Semtex

Feirefiz

Onyx

Arkanys

Ceresia

Lorich

Kjalarr

Fenrir

Grímnir

Snow

Lysander

Pocket - Jack

Louis

Thorim

"Messires & Damoiselles", rescue baby rats

Grímnir

Wait For It - Bifrost - Lillebjörn

Gareth

Svölnir

Lapsang

Taz

Charlotte

Alpha

Melehan

Stella - Feirefiz

Arkanys

Lillebjörn

Gareth - Melehan

Gareth - Jack Sparrow

Feirefiz - Pumpkin

Melehan

Chlamy

Hepha

Feirefiz

Arkanys - Lorich

Rescue boy from Care Bear Small Animal Rescue

Arumi

Thor

Izumi

Caprice

Feirefiz

Lysander

Pilgrim

Lysander

Rescue boy from Care Bear Small Animal Rescue

Fenrir

Rescue girl from Care Bear Small Animal Rescue

DISCLAIMER

No rat or any other animal was ever harmed during the shooting sessions.
The ladybug on Kjalarr's head was alive too, it had flown through a window and landed on Kjalarr's back while the rats were roaming free. Since I happened to have the perfect background handy for this picture, I just quickly turned the mini photo studio lights on, duct taped the background on the wall, gently grabbed Kjalarr and pushed the ladybug with my fingers until it was on his head (which it seemingly did not appreciate, hence the hidden legs and head buried in Kjalarr's fur, sorry ladybug). It ended up flying away while Kjalarr was standing still, waiting for a treat.

All the rats could just shake off the hats/collars/wings and other accessories shown on the pictures if they wanted to, though most of them just didn't care as long as there was a tasty piece of fruit to chew on.

You can see here how I managed to make the rats pose: it just required a lot of patience, cuddles and tasty treats. If rats didn't want to cooperate, I just let them roam free and photographed one who was willing to "model" instead.

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