To think that a couple of rats

[SmileEachDay]

Would make great pets. I hear good things about them: intelligent, friendly, loyal, cheap.....
Then there are people who do this > or or even < not envy...

AIBU? Mainly for 6 year old, but I accept I’ll be the one doing the majority of the hard labour.

A dd had one when a student. He was incredibly tame and friendly - often more or less free range in their disgusting student house - would come when you called. She would take him to the pub, snuggled down her jumper. And when she was home in the holidays, more than once I had him on my shoulder while doing whatever in the kitchen. He was very interested in everything and would make little chattering noises.

Alas, though, he didn't live very long - 2 years was about it, IIRC.

My daughter got a pet rat when she was 15 (she is 30 now) she then got another rat, both boys and I was not thrilled. But they are adorable, they chat to you with little squeaks, they cuddle up, they look as cute as anything when you feed them a treat and they hold in their tiny rat hands. I fell in love with her boys and even now occasionally find myself thinking I’d like another of my own. I won’t, as I have cats and I think that would be unfair on the rat.

They have a love for the same ‘junk ‘ food as us humans, so a chip or a chocolate button is a huge treat for them, but obviously not too frequently, you do t want them fat with a dodgy heart.

We used to build hammocks , climbing frames, tunnels and caves for them to explore and handled often they are a great pet.

I had rats as a teenager and got some when my children were young too. The only reason I won’t have any more small mammals is their life span, rats especially are so adorable I don’t think I could cope with the grief! Daft really.

Please don't flame me, but ferrets also make great pets and live longer (about eight years). They sleep around 19 hours a day, can be litter box trained and are really good fun! They love to play games and puzzle out problems - ours played fetch and hide and seek with the kids. Hobs tend to be lazier and more cuddly than gills but my kids had them at a young age and still say they are the best pets we ever had! I would get more but we have terriers, a cat and two chinchillas - chucking ferrets into the mix in this house would be more chaos than I could handle!

We have them and despite my misgivings, they are quite cute. Not sure about the human-like hands and gross tails, and now I know that their tails come off I'm really not happy about the tail situation. But they are funny.

I've had so many pets, including the ones mentioned in this thread.
We had 2 rats, lovely sisters who their previous owner couldn't keep as they were triggering her asthma to the point she was in the hospital. We took them in and she could have very brief visits to see them, but no contact so make sure no one is allergic.
Like any appendage (arms, legs, tails) they can come off... They are not designed to do so. Gerbil tails are to an extent, as do some (but not all) lizards, but it causes a lot of stress and they can pass away from the shock, an infection in the wound or the ongoing stress afterwards.

Ferrets are awesome pets, but although they do sleep a lot when they are awake they often don't appreciate being kept in a small cage. And they do smell. The better the diet they less they smell, it's like the rubbish in their food comes out through their coat/skin... It's probably to do with toxins or something but it's not just faeces related. They are expensive in terms of toys, food and most definitely vet bills. I had mine insured, and it cost me more per month than my parent's dog insurance... and yet still worth it.

Back to rats, I think they are one of the better rodents to have as pets, they are usually awake during the day, have strong distinct personalities, love interacting and rarely bite. Plus they are bigger and therefore easier to hold for kids. Just be prepared that illnesses (especially cancer) are very very common.

Rats are great provided they are well handled.
(Although personally I prefer guinea pigs - they live longer, are less prone to tumours than rats, less pungent, & make delightful noises when you open the fridge).

Rats are adorable - they are like kittens to play with but hamsters to take care of, best of both worlds!

My children had two each and totally loved them, and cleaned them out. However... they were boy rats (SO no BABIES-GOOD). BUT boy rats stink worse than girl rats.
Also they eat bed clothes (especially if loved so much that they curl up sweetly in the bed with human child).
I was warned that they cause allergies, but luckily despite my family history of allergicness, the kids seemed immune to rat allergy.
Quite disgustingly, the boy human let the boy rat clean his teeth.

Gibber mummy gibber.

I had 2 rats when I was younger I loved them they are intelligent and not completely nocturnal like other small pets. I got mine from pets at home and they were absolutely fine I had no issues but it probably depends which store you get them from. Would love to have rats again if I could but am away too much with work.

There’s always an element of luck when it comes to how healthy or not your rats are and, per a pp, they can were easily cost you hundreds in vet bills. You’re more like likely to get sickly rats from a pet store than from a reputable breeder though, because breeders only breed from healthy parents.

And the rodent farms that pet stores use are heartbreaking :(

They need an enormous cage, they stink and are descendants of the sewer rat.

One of the factors in them being so inteligent means that this is why rats in the wild have been able to survive so successfully to the point of almost inability to be eradicated.

"they stink and are descendants of the sewer rat"

They don't stink if you clean them out, I had two girls and they only ever smelled of a sandalwood-type smell.
Its true they are related to sewer rats but they are really DESCENDED from lab rats, they have many many of generations of being bred to be amiable and like being handled. Unfortunately this leaves them very prone to tumours as they have also often been bred to be susceptible to that, you don't see many sewer rats with those.

They don’t smell as bad as a dog, cat or some teenagers...

A friend had them they were pretty cool. Get girl ones though. Boys stink and have enormous bollocks

Ours don’t come out at all any more :( They really won’t be handled, get very stressed and hide. It’s odd because we got them young, and handled them lots (carefully!), let them out etc but their instinct was always to run and hide. They never approached us (except to bite).
They came from a group of mum rats that had been given to an animal rescue/ home pregnant (had been intended as feeder rats but the snake wasn’t interested and then they got too big). They were born at the shelter, and then homes were found for all of them. No abuse or bad experience, but obviously not selective breeding either. They were 11 weeks old iirc when we picked them up.

Rats DO NOT piss everywhere that is mice. There must have been something wrong with it if was.

And they DO NOT have detachable tails.

Rats are Fantastic loving pets.

They are great pets, but many leave drops of urine everywhere (in my experience and based on every rat-care website I can find).

www.ratbehavior.org/WhyDoRatsPee.htm

understandingpetfancyrats.com/2015/10/01/rat-pee-how-often-do-rats-urinate-what-is-normal/

www.thespruce.com/why-does-my-rat-leave-drops-of-urine-when-playing-1238502

Etc etc

I've only ever had boy rats. No wee dribbling. Lots of fun and easier to handle than hamsters etc. Not nocturnal.
I've only ever had one bite and he was a bit of a special case!
They need lots of space to clamber and climb and mine (apart from "special" boy) loved getting out and playing and interacting with people.
Some places sell tiny cages with wheels that could trap tails. I think mine had a great big parrot cage with shelves added. The more enrichment the better.
I had one that would do anything to steal Baileys!

I’m fascinated to know what the deleted post said!

I’m feeling positive about rats, for sure. Just need to find a breeder. And a massive cage that isn’t 4 million pounds...

Boy rats do pee worse than girls IME, & they are bigger, & have fatter tails. Still lovely characters but I'd get girls every time. We had a couple of dumbo girls for a while & they were ADORABLE. Get those if you can

Also they are buggers for chewing fabric. Cage left too close to curtains as new owners = holey curtains. Rats roaming on bed with slightly bumpy jersey sheets = holey sheets.

dumbos

squeeeee