Jack Russell and Pet Rat Advice

krlyr

Mely wrote: »

Exactly! A rat is a rat.

Very astute. Your point being?

Person_one

Mely wrote: »

Exactly! A rat is a rat.

Its a good job you're here, I thought we were talking about Siberian Hamsters.

heretolearn_2

I don't think it's a great idea. If the rat ever got out, or was being handled and the dog got in the room, it's a gonna.

I also think the dog would go a bit nuts and therefore drive you all a bit nuts if it realised there was a rat in the house. Other people on here are saying that they have had terriers with small pets, but those terriers were not jack russells. No one's hunted with a Westie for generations, which was one of the examples, they don't still have their full terrier instincts. Jack Russels are 100% hunting dogs, even when they are kept as pets - and what they love to hunt most are rats. They are commonly used for pest control and ratters - you don't have to teach them, it's in their genes, what they love to do most. Even pet bred ones are only a generation or two from the farm.

giantmutantbroccoli

If you keep the rats in a separate room from the dog, and don't allow the dog into that room, I don't see how you could have a problem. I've had pet rats before (am looking to get some more soon actually) at the same time as an ex-farm cat I was taming, and even though that cat had caught any number of rats while on the farm and was extremely predatory, it showed zero interest in the room with the rats in - because it was never allowed in there. The same goes for my parents dogs when I visited home. Just keep them separate.

A couple of other things about keeping rats - as other people have mentioned they are extremely social animals. You can keep them in pairs quite happily, but you need to be prepared to buy another one if one of the original two should die, as they really do not do well on their own. They are very intelligent, surprisingly clean animals, and with a bit of work you can even train them - to come to their names, to do little tricks, or even toilet train them so they will go back in their cage to use the loo when they're out! This website:
http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/home/
is full of useful information on keeping happy, healthy rats, so if you're still interested you could maybe check it out with your daughter? I think it'd be a good idea to make sure she knows what work is involved in keeping them. I don't know your feelings on rodents in general but if you're not too keen on rats do make sure you'll be able to stand handling them if you really need to.

Oh, and don't buy a cage new - they are massively overpriced. I have a ferplast Jenny that I got new from pets at home a couple years ago and it cost me £90, outrageous considering you can get them secondhand on eBay or gumtree for about £30! Obviously any secondhand rat stuff would need a good clean before you put any rats with it - I'm guessing that would be a job for your daughter though

Is your daughter a heavy sleeper? I ask because rats are mostly nocturnal and they will make noises at night. Mine were at their most active at 1-3am - if you feed them during the day they can adjust their activity a bit to suit your schedule, but they will still be noisy at night.

krlyr

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

Is your daughter a heavy sleeper? I ask because rats are mostly nocturnal and they will make noises at night. Mine were at their most active at 1-3am - if you feed them during the day they can adjust their activity a bit to suit your schedule, but they will still be noisy at night.

To be pedantic, rats are crepuscular - most active at dusk and dawn, which makes them ideal as they tend to be awake in the morning (before school/college) and evenings (before bedtime). Though that is most active - they're definately not inactive during the night and you do get the odd pinging around the cage at 2am which may wake up a light sleeper! (I sleep like a log so it never bothered me)

adviceforall

When we had a Bedlington Terrier x my son had a hamster, the dog was such a great all round dog, one night she was sat on my sons bed ( double) with me and DS with the hamster loose on the bed as well, she would just sit and watch it, the hamster pushing its luck even manged to get a bone shaped dog biscuit into its pouches before we could stop it.. ( dog still just sat and watched lol)
So depending on the dog and supervision anything could be possible.

Having said that our other terrier x would sit next to a empty animal cage or hamster roller ball for hours just waiting to get the invisible animal. When my DD lost her Guinea pig I took photos of the indoor cage when we were selling it and the dog wouldn't leave the cage alone ( person buying it wanted to to know if the dog came too as was in the photo