Pet rats in bedroom

[bebanjo]

Hi, we have a 7 year old DD and thinking of getting 2 pet rats, thing is we don't know where we should keep them.
Would they be ok in a child's bedroom or would they keep DD awake?
Can you put a blanket over the cage at night like with parrots to keep the noise down? DH thinks that's a mad idea.

I've not had rats, but we've had hamsters who have been in the DC's rooms at night. Our 2 got used to the hamsters really quickly.

We bought a super silent wheel for our hamster. The one we have now is 2 years old and all you can hear is the pitter-patter of his feet! (They say the one I've linked to is rat sized)

I don't know how much rats gnaw, I expect someone will be along with a bit more knowledge soon.

If you put a blanket over the top they will drag it through the bars. Chew on it and then it into a lovely bed!

I have retrained pet rats in the pasts to sleep at night by exercising them physically and mentally through the day. But you need to spend most of the day with them. Move used to sit on my shoulders or in my tony packet on jumpers most of the day!

I shouldn't really but I at the blanket being dragged through bars and chewed.

no, what the heck

Rats are nocturnal. A friend of mine had a lodger some years ago and he reluctantly agreed that the lodger could have one pet rat as long as it lived in the lodger's bedroom. Unfortunately the rat made too much noise at night so the cage ended up on the landing. (And one rat became two, but that's another rant).

Scratch, scritch, scratch all flippin' night.

Our kids have theirs in their room and they never get disturbed. they do smell though (female rats) so I have to be super vigilant about cleaning the cage just often enough but not too much (or they will scent mark and it smells worse) and using deodorising crystals and odour control bedding.

They still honk though. Lovely pets but I would love it if they didn't smell.

Oh and they aren't nocturnal but crepuscular so are most active at dawn and dusk.

Thanks for all that.
I'm going to try and find some where downstairs.

Not nocturnal and a rat thats kept on it own will go mental... Poor wee rat. Your friend, Calabria, was not a good owner, but if this was quite a few years ago I guess the info wasn't really out there.

I don't notice mine at night. They never wake me but DP is taking a little time to get used to them. He's old though :o

You're right, she wasn't. She did get it a friend but they were never cleaned out often enough.

She hasn't had a pet since those rats, more than ten years.