Pet rats

[TW]Fox;20925904 said:
Better than a cat as the rat actually seems to give a **** about you
Click to expand...
My cat is busy nuzzling me as I try to type this, if I leave the room he'll follow me around the house, when I go to sleep he'll settle on my pillow and snuggle up and purr loudly.
When I get home he recognises the sound of my car and stands on the drive to say hello.

You must have had a duff cat... :(

Rats do pong a bit, although it's probably just the bedding, just like all dog owners pong a bit because the dog sweats though it's feet. I don't see the point in keeping one though, you can't cuddle a rat? or a snake/lizard/spider come to that :confused:
 
[TW]Fox;20926100 said:
There is no awful smell from properly kept female rats. Neither do visitors need to 'endure' anything.
Click to expand...

Well since you are so perfect perhaps you should give all owners in lessons how not to make them smelly.
You have just called all the owners in this thread who admit they are smelly, that we don't (or didn't) know how to clean them.
 
Do you have female or male rats? Male rats seem to be a bit more popular and can be significantly smellier.
 
You can train rats to use a litter tray which you can clean out regularly to keep the smell right down. They also clean each other if you have a pair. Just got to wipe their tails - they keep their fur extremely clean but seem to forget about their tail and drag it through whatever mess they just made.

When they are scared their poop smells like something chronic though.

I used to have 2 boys - amazing pets. Very intelligent and nothing like the hamsters/other rodents we had previously. Used to just give them the run of the living room in the evenings. They were very cheeky and would respond to commands and come to their name. I might dig out some photos later!
 
Dimple said:
Well since you are so perfect perhaps you should give all owners in lessons how not to make them smelly.
You have just called all the owners in this thread who admit they are smelly, that we don't (or didn't) know how to clean them.
Click to expand...

Nobody in this thread has said that female rats smell, so I've no idea what crusade it is you've just run on.

Male rats do smell, but if you keep females and clean them out regularly they don't smell and your visitors do not need 'endure' anything. I kept female rats for years.
 
I have a few rats now over the years, first time round i got 3 Dows (females), one was a big black dumbo rat and acted just like she looked...really stupid but very soft. One was the boss but was really into seaking new things out and always getting into trouble in the house and the other one was small and a bit of a witch taking little nibbles at you but never drawing blood. They all died from cancer in the end (2+ years) and broke my heart. I now have 1 half bold rat, like velcro and alltho originally nasty (taking chunks from my hands) has mellowed now her sister passed away.

They are extremely funny, brainy pets but please only get one if you intend to pay attention EVERY day. They like to be friendly but if you ingore them they will not return the effort. I let mine run about the living room every night before i go to bed (when my wife has gone to bed) and she has great fun for 30 minutes. She even waits for me at 10pm as she knows i will let her out and same goes in the morning as when i get downstairs i always get her out.

DSC04923s.jpg


EDIT just found a pic of the first 3.

DSC01029.jpg
 
Last edited:
We used to let ours run round any room we were in, they were out of the cage most afternoons and evening, when we were watching TV or making food/eating food in the kitchen. We used to give them human breakfasts (cereal/toast) and they would hang out of the door waiting for their breakfasts in the morning. So cute and I really would love to get some more when I settle down.
 
Amp34 said:
We used to let ours run round any room we were in, they were out of the cage most afternoons and evening, when we were watching TV or making food/eating food in the kitchen. We used to give them human breakfasts (cereal/toast) and they would hang out of the door waiting for their breakfasts in the morning. So cute and I really would love to get some more when I settle down.
Click to expand...

Mine particularly enjoyed sitting on my shoulder and he made chattering noises in my ear as I did chores/surfed the net! :D
 
How about sleeping in your armpit? Mine always loved that, warm dark place next to you all the time, with an occasional peak out of the neck hole to see where you had wondered off too. :D
 
I kept some too, loved hanging in the sleeve of my dressing gown.

...let's see if I can find some pictures too...


P1010005 by sarawallen, on Flickr

P1010106-small by sarawallen, on Flickr

DSCF1804 by sarawallen, on Flickr

DSCF1793-edit by sarawallen, on Flickr

They were called Glaxo, Smith & Kline, they were descendants of a box of rats rescued from an animal shelter that had interbred pretty badly, so their eyesight was very poor (they were basically blind) BUT that didn't stop them exploring!
 
Last edited:
I used to have a pet rat named Denzil, he was an awesome pet!

Very energetic, intelligent and surprisingly love affection! the only problem is that they are hard to train not to urinate when you have them out of their habitat and they don't live very long lives.

Much better than a gerbil, hamster of guinea pig!
 
Wow, what triggered the deletion spree?

Yeah, they'd sometimes just sit while I was sat, and enjoy being stroked, or they seemed to like shoulders and ears (quite ticklish when they would 'whiffle' into your ear).

I kept them when I was fresh out of uni and had a loft bed because my room was pretty small - they would quite happily traverse all the slippery metal beams using their tail for balance, and climb up anything I'd hung from the underside of the bed - despite shocking eyesight they went all over...!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom