Misunderstood - Rats Rule! (Rats)

Member Name: AngelaR76

Product:	Rats
Date:	29/03/07 (426 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun, intelligent, sociable, loving, gentle and clean.

Disadvantages: None!

Rats are probably one of the most misunderstood pets around. They have the misfortune of their wild cousins being associated with sewers, spreading diseases and being generally filthy animals. For domesticated fancy rats that couldn't be further from the truth. They are extremely loving and affectionate animals and very, very intelligent and clean. They can also be highly amusing and a lot of fun.

Now I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the different varieties of rats and how to breed them, etc. but I can share with you my experiences of keeping rats as pets.

I have now owned three lovely rats. The first one I bought while I was a student at university. He was a male white fancy rat with a lovely nature. He used to ride around the house on my shoulder or cuddle up on the back of my neck under my hair and go to sleep. One word of warning if you let your rat do this, they have a tendancy to wee down your neck! Not a pleasant experience! Male rats tend to be slightly more smelly in that department than female rats but this is not a problem if you clean out their cage regularly, at least once a week.

I have never been bitten by a rat in all the time I have kept them. Unlike hamsters, they are so gentle and would normally only bite if they really felt threatened.

Every rat has it's own personality. My current two female rats are so different. They are just over 4 months old now and their individual characters are really coming out. One is a black and white hooded fancy rat and she is very big and boisterous, although still as good as gold when you handle her. The other one is a smaller topaz fancy rat and she is very sweet and gentle. Having said that, she doesn't put up with any nonsense from the bigger rat! They love each other but they like to play fight and wrestle a lot! This can be very funny to watch but I tend to break it up if they start getting a bit rough.

Rats are extremely inquisitive animals and love to investigate everything. I love letting them out of the cage to have a run around but you need to be careful that there are no holes they can disappear down or electric cables to chew through. I always keep an eye on my rats when they are out but they still managed to destroy 3 of my favourite t-shirts trying to turn them into a nest!

Rats are very intelligent animals and their cages need to have plenty of things for them to do to keep them stimulated. Something as simple as a cardboard toilet roll will keep them amused for quite a while and it gives them something to chew. I have also hung a thick rope from the ceiling of my rats cage for them to play with and climb.

When I bought my newest rats back in December it became apparent that things have changed a lot since I bought my first one regarding how you should best look after them. For starters a lot of places no longer sell rats individually, only in pairs as they need the company. Also my first rat used to have sawdust in the bottom of his cage. Nowadays they recommend using paper-based cat litter instead, firstly because it stops it smelling so much and secondly because sawdust can cause supposedly skin conditions which are common in rats. The correct cat litters normally come with a symbol showing that they are safe for use with small caged animals.

There are various rat foods on the market but I personally feed my rats with Reggie Rat food and then supplement this with fresh vegetables and sunflower seeds (which they go absolutely mad for!). There are other cheaper foods out there but as long as they get a complete and varied diet it doesn't really matter which one you choose.

One thing I like to do on a weekly basis is to give my rats a bath! Rats are very clean animals anyway but having a bath helps to keep their fur and skin extra clean which helps to prevent them getting skin problems such as eczema. Admittedly the first time I did this they were a little taken aback! One of then didn't mind too much but the other one started doing vertical take-offs which was very funny to watch but not so amusing for the rat! Once they realised that they were not going to get hurt they decided that actually they quite liked it. I normally start off with very shallow slightly warm water and let them have a good scrub. Then I make the water a bit deeper so they can have a short swim.

Rats are also very good at learning tricks. I admit I have never really attempted to teach any of mine anything but I might try a spot of tight-rope walking with these two!

Summary: Rats make wonderful pets and companions, easy to look after and very loving.