Picture pawfect: Veterinary nurse’s pet rats providing joy with mini paintings

A veterinary nurse’s pet rats have been providing some pawsitivity by creating mini paintings for people around the world.

Steph Toogood, who is 26 and based in Somerset, has owned rats since 2016 after falling in love with the rodents when mingling with them as part of her animal management course at college and finding them to be a “huge comfort” after the death of her father in 2015.

However, it was not until 2018 that Ms Toogood realised her pets had a penchant for painting.

“The rats started creating art for myself in 2018 after I lost one of my rats, Captain Jack Sparrow,” Ms Toogood, who also has a professional pet portrait business, as well as a pet sitting business, told the PA news agency.

“I took his paw prints and wanted something for my current boys to create which I would keep to treasure and so I found some mini canvases, and the boys got to work.”

From there, Toogoods Tiny Paws was born in April 2019, which has seen hundreds of mini masterpieces, as well as other rat related products including jewellery and magnets, made for people across the globe.

The canvas most often used by the unconventional artists measures 7cm x 9cm.

The rodent painters include male rats (bucks) called William, Loki and Cosmo and female rats (does) called Tick, Denali and Kabana.

“When I first started my business, I had 12 boys who were involved in painting,” Ms Toogood said.

“I now have five bucks and 11 does, 12 of whom paint.

The rats that don’t paint aren’t on the commissions list either for health reasons, they’re too young, or they just don’t enjoy it.”

The painting process is carried out in the bath as Ms Toogood said it makes cleaning up simpler and non toxic water-based paint is used.

“Painting is positively reinforced – the rats are trained to follow my hand and treats,” she added.

“They are guided through the paint onto the canvas.

“They all paint with their feet by walking through the paint and also their tails are sometimes brought through the paint as they walk so a tail line goes onto the canvas.

“The rats are never forced to run through paint, if they show any signs of unwillingness on the day, we stop.”

Ms Toogood tends to post what her rats get up to on Instagram under the handle @toogoodstinypaws.

People can choose which rats create their tiny painting and can often choose which colours are used, when the number of orders is at a manageable level.

Commissions from rats, and other animals including ferrets and pigeons, have been growing in popularity on social media, with many taking to online marketplace Vinted to sell their unique creations.

Ms Toogood said she feels this is because naturally, many humans are animal lovers.

“I think that we as humans are naturally animal lovers, so whenever animals do something like painting which is more of a human thing, we think it’s amazing and unique,” she said.

“The added bonus of what I do is having the whole story of how this started which hundreds of people have followed from the start, and I always share posts for people to get to know the rats and encourage people to view our rattery account (@scevillerats on Instagram) which is separate to the business, and shows what the rats get up to on a day to day basis.”

She said she has been overjoyed to see her business continue to flourish, with many leaving positive reviews about her quirky offering and some even changing their initial reservations about having rats as pets.

“A lot of people have come to me and said that what I do with the photos I share, has changed their perception of rats which is lovely to hear,” she said.

“I also think that my professional pet portrait photography helps a lot with giving rats a better reputation, as they’re photographed with a number of props, pretty flowers, miniature teddy bears, rat sized shopping trolleys, flower crowns, set up scenes, I do birthday photoshoots for my rats, and it gives people a different view on them.

“I think that photographs help to capture how cute rats really are and show a different side to them, and that domesticated rats are in fact very different to their wild counterpart.”

Through her business, she also hopes to promote the correct way to look after rats as pets, adding she either got her rodents from “reputable” breeders or by breeding them herself.

More information about Ms Toogood’s work can be found on her website: https://www.toogoodstinypaws.com/