These Cute Rats Create Tiny Paintings And They Keep Selling Out. Now I Want One!

Ok, so when I hear the word rat…cute PROBABLY isn’t the first word to come to mind. At all. And yet, my cold little heart is warming up to these little critters and their own sense of creativity.

I mean, COME ON. You can see the accomplishment in his tiny little face and you can’t help but like them. I can’t stop looking at this picture. He looks so proud. It makes me want a pet rat, which I never thought I would say.

Toogood’s Tiny Paws shows just how talented even some lesser liked animals can be when given some paint and canvas!

Steph Toogood started out with no intention of creating a business based around rat paintings…I mean, who plans for that?

“The idea of painting on canvases came to me after I lost one of my boys, Captain Jack Sparrow (Gibbs’ brother) last year (2018),” the owner of the rats explained on their social media. Poor Jack had undergone surgery but didn’t wake up from the anesthetic.

Steph worked at the vet’s office, so she was around the pet the whole time and managed to take some paw prints after Jack had passed away.

“I thought it would be lovely for my boys to do something similar when they were with me to keep when they’re gone, so I got some mini canvases and paint, and they’ve created memorial pieces for me to keep.”

Toogood elaborated on how it all started. Steph also loves to take photographs as a hobby, so she snapped pictures of her pets next to their little art pieces. After posting them online she attracted people’s attention and many wanted to own some of the ratties’ art.

Steph also loves photography as a hobby, so she snapped pictures of her pets next to their little art pieces. After posting them online she attracted people’s attention and many wanted rat art of their own! (and now so do I!).

There are 12 rats in this artsy collective. Steph also wanted to stress that her pets are friends first, and artists later.

“They’re my best friends, and they will not spend their lives covered in paint, no matter how high the demand is for their art right now,” she recently posted on the Facebook page.
“Some of the boys are target trained and will follow a target stick or by hand to make painting easier – we even have a miniature agility course which some of them are good at!”

“I don’t want to use this page just for their art – I aim to promote the keeping of rats as pets and their welfare, as well as sharing what the boys get up to outside of painting.”

The Toogoodtinypaws’ Etsy shop sells a variety of products featuring her pets’ art. You can get everything from coasters, key rings, hair scrunchies, and more!

However, currently, their Etsy store has no listings available. Turns out, people bought everything they had available and Steph eventually run out of canvas for the little critters to paint on! “I am making an order this week and hopefully arranging pre orders soon,” Toogood posted on Facebook.