to be considering some pet rats?

[jollymary]

Anyone have pet rats? Have DD11 and DS8, hamster and cat. How hard are rats to look after? How cute and cuddly? How smelly (kids will clean out v regularly). Any advice welcome, thankyou.

Yes! Lovely lovely little beasts.

They need cleaning every few days - just a change of bedding and removing the poo.

I have developed an allergy to them sadly so Scooter will be my last

Sorry - didn't mean that is all you need to do! A more thorough cleaning once a week is needed too.

Longevity (or the lack of it) is a problem IME. It's heart-breaking to lose them so frequently.

BTW must be 'rats' not 'rat'. Mine is solitary now as her sister died and I feel sure she is unhappy

I love having rats and they are fantastic for children - they enjoy interacting and being handled, unlike hamsters or gerbils. Sadly, my DH has also developed a severe allergy to them, and our current pair will be our last Ormirian it's interesting you say the same thing - we can't understand it, having had rats for 10 years now, but the last couple of years it has become more pronounced, he can't handle ours at all now, it's a real shame.

I would choose girl rats over boys, from personal experience, but they are lovely lovely pets either way.

I too am very fond of our ratties (2 boys). I failed to housetrain them but they are mostly let out only in DD's room (they're her rats, but I go in for cuddles when no-one's looking ) and I just air the room regularly.

We bought from a small private petshop, but they took them only from one breeder (and gave us her number in case of questions) and handled them every day (went in and saw them several times before buying) so no problems either with illness or biting. One of them did nip at first but only bare toes, so we think he had a fetish... Has stopped now. They chew paper and DD's bedding but don't bother with cables/leads etc.

Enjoy!