Rate that Rodent

[Cooler running]

I used to have pet rats many many years ago. They were very friendly, intelligent and clean. They made great pets despite the stigma. This one was called Gretel:

Was strongly considering Rats, Gretel must be very calm if she's just chilling on your bed.

I'm saying 8.5/10.

This is the only photo I can find, sorry about the feet.

A foot for scale maybe? Not a problem at all. Gives you some scale, Gerbils are much smaller I've had two Gerbils in one hand before.

I have lots of sewer survey videos featuring rats. Given that I got these while at work, is that too professional?

I guess if it was you doing the sewer survey then sure go for it! Just didn't want this to turn into a "look at this cool picture/video I found on the internet " kind of thread.

 

[Hagar]

I used to have pet rats many many years ago. They were very friendly, intelligent and clean. They made great pets despite the stigma.

This is the only photo I can find, sorry about the feet. This one was called Gretel:

Hansel was being fattened for the pot when this picture was taken? No?

 

[dwarf]

Was strongly considering Rats, Gretel must be very calm if she's just chilling on your bed.

They are incredibly chilled, very happy to be handled and petted. They used to just sit on the sofa or chill around the room out of the cage quite a bit but you do have to be careful though as they eat anything. I once put their cage too close to the curtains and they got a hold of it and ate a huge chunk out of it. They would think nothing of chewing through a power cable for example.

Hansel was being fattened for the pot when this picture was taken? No?

Haha, not quite! You are correct though, there couldn't be a Gretel without a Hansel but we didn't make a habit of eating family pets. I'll see if I can dig up any more pictures.

 

[Haggisman]

I used to have pet rats many many years ago. They were very friendly, intelligent and clean. They made great pets despite the stigma.

This is the only photo I can find, sorry about the feet. This one was called Gretel:

Rats do make very cool pets, but don't they have a habit of randomly urinating whilst they are running around - or is that something which can be trained out?A friend of mine had a couple and they would "dribble" occasionally whilst handling them, which really put me off (not that we could have them anyway in a house with 4 cats!)

 

[Hagar]

They are incredibly chilled, very happy to be handled and petted. They used to just sit on the sofa or chill around the room out of the cage quite a bit but you do have to be careful though as they eat anything. I once put their cage too close to the curtains and they got a hold of it and ate a huge chunk out of it. They would think nothing of chewing through a power cable for example.


Haha, not quite! You are correct though, there couldn't be a Gretel without a Hansel but we didn't make a habit of eating family pets. I'll see if I can dig up any more pictures.

I was relating to the fairy tale I'll admit. Makes a story though.

 

[dwarf]

Rats do make very cool pets, but don't they have a habit of randomly urinating whilst they are running around - or is that something which can be trained out?A friend of mine had a couple and they would "dribble" occasionally whilst handling them, which really put me off (not that we could have them anyway in a house with 4 cats!)

Yes, I think a couple of them would do that but it was only ever a tiny amount so I'd just have some paper towels handy to soak it up. It wasn't such a problem with others though. I can't remember training them intentionally although I was a dirty teenager myself at the time so probably didn't consider it an issue

 

[Blackjack Davy]

I showed my cat... she said "not bad.... for a dog"

Oh that reminds of that time I called in early morning to fill up with petrol at sainsburys superstore and this mahoosive rat ran across the car park from one planter to the other must have been two foot long from nose to tail. The other time was at the park where I was parked up eating lunch watching the mums and kiddies feeding the ducks at the lake and this huge rat ran out of the bushes...

 

[Reality|Bites]

 

[Angilion]

I showed my cat... she said "not bad.... for a dog" ][..]

When I was a boy, we had a cat decide to live with us. Just turned up one day and moved in, initially lairing in the back garden. We couldn't find any evidence of any owner and it was winter, so we took her in. Mostly. She wasn't really a house cat. We got a couple of kittens a bit later and she taught them cat stuff. There was a long disused railway cutting a short distance away and they went hunting there at night. One day their back doorstep breakfast offering was a rat that was a fair proportion of the size of a cat. I would be willing to swear they were proud when they showed it off to us. I was impressed that they got it back home. Must have been a hell of a weight for a cat to move about a kilometre.