Has anyone ever had rats as pets?

DaftChris

In the future, after I have more time and resources, I plan on getting a couple of rats as pets. I shall name them Professor Ratigan and Krishna.

For anyone who has ever owned rats, what was your experience with them as pets?

black_tea

Yes, I have -- they make wonderful pets. They are more patient and interactive than other small animals I've had. They genuinely like attention. They also enjoy the company of their own kind, so a same sex pair would be a good choice. You can buy from a pet shop, but you may also be able to find a breeder (for pets and show, not feeder animals). The advantages of a breeder are that a good breeder will breed for health and longevity and the animals will be better socialized right off the bat. However, I've had pet store rats, and they were wonderful too. I used to breed and show them quite awhile back. They're very fun animals, and don't get near enough credit.

Tosh

Rats are lovely; really cute things. I had a couple as a child. The only problem with them is their short life span; 2 to 5 years, so prepare yourself for some sadness if you get them.

karasti

Be careful what kind you get. Not all rats make good pets. Some of them that pet stores have are made to be pets (fancy rats, i think, but I could be wrong, make sure you ask whoever you buy them from) but some are there to be fed to other animals (mostly snakes) and do not make very good pets. My husband had 2 rats, and they were not the pet kind. We couldn't even take them out of the cage without getting bitten multiple times, they weren't friendly even though he got them as babies and we did everything we were told, handling them often and such. Once you make sure you have the right kind of rat, remember that all pets need training. Some are just more friendly than others but if you want them to be a certain kind of pet you have to train them to be that way. We trained our lizards to sit on our shoulders, but they didn't come out of the egg that way, lol.

Cinorjer

Yes, we've both had rats as pets and raised them to feed snakes when my stepson was living with us. I ended up taking care of the critters most of the time. If possible, get a young rat before it's full grown, and they tame easily with handling and learn tricks and such. I don't remember a difference between male or female far as taming goes. As mentioned, they don't have the longest life span out there, but definitely longer than hamsters (another pet we had back then).

TheEccentric

Ha my chickens would eat your rats for break fast! (literally)

zombiegirl

I've had... 4 now? They live about 1-3 years.
You need to socialize them a lot in the beginning especially. This involves taking them out and spending time with them. We've had good rats and we've had bad rats and I can't tell you what makes them different. We've bought them all from pet stores, although the last one came from a pet store that had a relationship with a breeder. Our current rat is by far the dumbest and worst rat. We couldn't socialize her for anything and years later... she's still terrified of us/bites us all the time. We decided this was our last rat.

But that's not to say that we haven't had good ones. The first one, Deliah, was by far the smartest. That rat loved us. We trained her to come to us by snapping our fingers.
The second to last rat, Motley, was probably my favorite. One time we forgot to close the cage and went to bed (we let her roam a bit because she was pretty well behaved)... She crawled into bed with us and started cuddling with my girlfriend! It scared the crap out of her, but is still adorable. She died of old age. Towards the end she got all rickety and it was no surprise the end was coming. On her last day, she was hanging from the bars (her sign that she wanted to come out) so I let her out to watch a movie with me. She sat on my shoulder the whole time, nuzzling in my neck. After the movie I figured I'd better put her back in case she had to go to the bathroom (she really only went outside her cage if I left her out for too long). About a half an hour later, she had passed away. I was just very happy that we were able to say goodbye.

Yaskan

I've had six. They're lovely creatures; very smart and affectionate. It's best to keep more than one as their very social and will get lonely. Ours would sit on our shoulders and watch TV while licking our necks or nibbling our ears. Whenever I sat with my knees up, one of them would jump from my shoulders to my knees, then run back up again and repeat over and over. All bar two didn't mind being picked up. Out of those two, one would have to walk onto your hand while the other hated being told where to go She was still affectionate though. Unfortunately, three of them died of cancer, two had respiratory issues (which rats are very prone to) and the last one was simply old age. They're wonderful pets if you can cope with the short lifespan.

zombiegirl

Yaskan said:

Unfortunately, three of them died of cancer, two had respiratory issues (which rats are very prone to) and the last one was simply old age. They're wonderful pets if you can cope with the short lifespan.

This is a good point. Honestly, having pet rats has taught me a lot about living and dying. They can be as affectionate as cats/dogs, but with such a short lifespan, you're bound to experience some pretty frequent heartache. The first rat that I was "there for" during her death was sort of unreal... I held her in my hands, trying to make her as warm and comfortable as possible as she shuddered her last breath. It was very profound (and heartbreaking, naturally).

chela

I am amazed that there are so many pro-rat people on this forum! How many other non-pet/non-rat places can you go and ask this question and get so many people who do not give the usual, "EWWWW yuck!" response!

I agree- rats make great pets if you choose the right one and give it the proper housing, nutrition, and attention it needs (just like any pet, or person, for that matter). Far better than your average hamsters, from my own experience and IMHO.

black_tea

A lot of mine lived 3-4 years. Still really short, though. It was really hard when I lost Mic. He used to climb up from my shoulder to my head and sit up top. He particularly appreciated it when I wore a ball cap -- that gave him an especially nice place to sit. He also enjoyed orange slices and trying to chew the buttons off the TV remote. Guess he didn't like what I was watching, lol.

Invincible_summer

My friend used to have a couple of rats - escape artists they were! Figured out how to untie twist tie that was temporarily holding their cage shut.

DaltheJigsaw

Check this out you guys: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2305310/Man-gets-shock-toy-poodles-turn-GIANT-RODENTS-steroids.html

how

I was once in a Buddhist monastery where the abbot encouraged the monks to keep & care for rats as pets. They would sometimes peak out from the Chinese cut monks sleeves, much to the surprise of visitors..