Rats...Do they make good pets?

suki1964

I had two rats a good few years back and they were great pets. Love being handled, I was only bitten the once. You need a BIG cage and its also nice to let them out as much as possible - my two were out of the cage when I was in the room. I also used to take them for a walk tucked into my collar

Bad news is they have no bladder control so pee everywhere and they CHEW.. Hubby finally made me rehome my two after they had chewed the tv cables, phone cables, a couple of cushions and started on the sofa.

http://www.quite.co.uk/rats/

an1179

Hi

We were told to have female rats. We have 2 they do not pee everywhere if you put them back in their cage every 10 mins they go there. The male rats tend to 'mark their territory' with pee!

One chews wire etc if not watched but the other doesn't.

My children love them and get them out to play every day. They are very social creatures and should not be bought to 'sit in the cage'. There are lots of 'rat' web-sites giving loads of info.

Soubrette

My daughter has 3 rats, they are female and they don't pee everywhere - in fact they rarely pee outside of their cages now and we sometimes have them out hours if they are asleep in a sleeve (although it wasn't like that to begin with!) One occasionally has a tiny accident but she likes to run up and then be gently 'tossed' back onto something soft like a duvet (only do this game when you are about to wash the covers as she will leak a tiny drop then!!).

The cage needs to be of a fair size (before you buy check the bar size as females need smaller bars than the males), my daughter has the Jenny cage they sell in Pets at Home and I think that suits 5. She has 3 females as rats are very sociable. They should be handled every day individually (then they become nice and friendly) and they need some time to 'free range' around a room. We use the hall if we're feeling kind (it has no electric wires, as mentioned previously - they do chew) or my daughter's cabin bed as the sides are enclosed so you can see if someone is making a great escape.

They definitely do not bite much at all, I don't think ours have ever drawn blood (they do like to mouth sometimes, especially when new). I don't think they are as 'grumpy' or short sighted as hamsters which we have also had in the past. Rats also seem more aware of you than hamsters do, so we have one who likes to check out your ears (and some people apparently let their rats check out their mouth......ewwwww) and if worried will come back to you for security. Rosie likes to lick our fingers (she's cute but was on her own for about 6 months which has made her very people orientated but did present problems when trying to introduce her to other rats, I wouldn't allow a rat to be on its own in the future seeing how much happier she is now).

We had one lone rat (the only rat in the petshop syndrome) and she was very nervous, it took my daughter a few months to get her comfortable with being handled but now she is the friendliest of the three. The other two were rescue rats from a breeder who rescues as well as breeds, they were much more sociable and friendlier than our first.

You can train (bribe) rats to do some commands. My daughters will come when you call them 'ratty ratty ratties' and shake the treat bag, some people say you can train them to come to their names.

The males are bigger than the females and some people say more lazy and so more likely to snooze on your lap, our girls are certainly on the go the whole time they are out, occasionally if you get them out sleepy they will snooze in your sleeve.

The downside - they can stink, be prepared to do a thorough clean out at least once a week (I'd personally prefer twice weekly!!) with spot cleans every day. I encourage my daughter to take out all the soft stuff twice weekly so that can be washed as they really don't care about keeping their sleeping quarters clean. Don't keep them on sawdust as they are prone to respiratory problems which can be made worse by wood base bedding.

They don't live very long About 2 years ish and can be prone to lumps and bumps.

They do chew....alot.

There really are some great rat forums out there, we use the fancy-rats.co.uk one (although they can be quite vocal about not buying from a pet shop).

As you can probably tell I really rate them as great little pets

Sou

lilmissmup

I have had 7 rats over last few years.

Personally i prefer boys, they were much more affectionate than my girl rats and easier to catch when escaping!

They make great pets, very intelligent, can't remember being bitten very often.

They are prone to lumps though, 2 of mine got abscesses that were luckily nothing and 2 of them did have respiratory problems and were wheezy, (all boys), my eldest was 2.5yrs when i had him put to sleep due to him not being able to eat on his own anymore but i lost the others between 1.5yrs to 2yrs.

I don't have any now as couldn't handle losing them so quickly (when i lost the eldest i was devastated, he was my baby, i miss him loads still 2.5yrs on) but they are great pets!

ZootHornRollo

rats are fantastic pets. Much more sociable then other rodents. absolutely love human contact. I would liken them to wee dogs. Ours never bite. We had one who bit towards the end but she was blind by that point and was put down because of this shortly after. But as has been said before they do chew, but then every rodent does. You just have to keep them away from cables etc and provide something wooden for them to chew in the cage. Just like any infant animals, they do not come toilet trained but this is not too hard to establish, they are naturally very clean and use one part of the cage as their loo. they can be litter trained as well.

We have 4 females just now having had 3 other rats before this lot. We keep them in a Jenny cage which is a really good cage. It will take up to 4 males or 5 females. Has plenty of room for them to play and comes with food dishes, shelves, tubes etc. and plenty of scope to add other cage accessories like cargo nets and hammocks - rats LOVE hammocks. we bought our jenny a few years ago from http://www.zooplus.co.uk/ as it was about £40 cheaper than pets at home at the time.

There are alot of rat websites about with a lot of good info. i liked this one - http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/ - friendly forum and lots of good advice. I recommend you feed the shaunamite diet - http://www.fancy-rats.co.uk/information/guides.php?subject=shunamite - as the shop bought mixes don't provide a rats complete dietery need.

good luck

UKTigerlily

I also am a fan of fancy rats website, try In The World Of Rats too. I'd advise, if you do get a Jenny cage, to powder coat the bars as far as I know they don't come that way? I have 6 girls in the Ferplast Furet Tower cage, i'd advise horizontal bars as they love to climb, as someone said narrow bar spacing & powder coating is essential. Also, but the very very largest you can afford & no, a hamster cage is definitely not acceptable. It's great you're doing research first.

eBay often have good cages available & zooplus as has been mentioned. They really need at least an hour outside of the cage daily & to be stimulated as they're highly intelligent & three is the minimum really so when one dies the other isn't left alone. Mine go nuts at night racing about & I sometimes think the cage is too small even though it'd house 17 & is 5ft 4 tall!

They don't bite unless scared etc though avoid bringing your hand down over them as in the wild they're prey to birds. Mine do nibble to taste me (ewww) but that's all, breeders are best to go to, they'll be tame & sociable & you'll know their history. I think rats are the very best small animals out there =-) Good choice!

cazac71

well, i`m getting a cage tommorrow,could someone tell me all the other stuff i need please,so its ready before i get my rats:o


Caz

Ruffles_2

Rats are fantastic, I've got 11 of them. To kit your cage out, you will need:

- Substrate, stay away from sawdust/wood shavings as the small dust particles will cause respiratory problems. Paper based cat litter, shredded paper and newspaper are all safe for rats.
- Somewhere for your rats to hide. Boxes are ideal.
- Something wooden for them to knaw on. Pet shops sell all sorts of wooden things but as a cheaper alternative, fruit tree branches are just as effective and perfectly safe.
- A heavy food bowl or they'll tip food all over the cage.
- A supply of whatever food they're currently been fed.
- A water bottle.
- Something for them to climb up/on and most rats love hamocks

Jummy

Hi!
Ruby our rat has quite a large soft lump on her side.
We are taking her to the vets tomorrow but wondered if a lump always means bad news where rats are concerned?
She's eating and drinking ok and geting along nicely with Rodders our other female.
Any ideas?

skylight

Ours was just a cyst type pusey thing that just needed anti-biotics - all was AOK after a short while, so its not all bad news!