You surely have a lot of rats. Rats are pretty common, but not as pets.
They are often used in labs. Try not to get a few of our reptile people excited. To them, rats are just feeders for their big snakes.
Just how often do you let them out of the cage? How easy is it to get them back in?
Haha
I have 6 rats right now. Which really is nothing compared to the breeders here in Sweden who have around 30-40! Don't know how they have times for all of them.
I know they're common in labs (have worked in a research lab myself) and that reptile owners keep them for feeding. I'm not against keeping rats for feeding, reptiles need food too, but i'm very firm on letting them have a good and worthy life before getting put down in a humane way. Good cages, good food and not being on their own etc. And believe it or not, a lot of people who have just been keeping rats for reptile food, have ended up enjoying their company so much that they have completely switched to just having them as pets!
I let them out every day. When they're older and socialised with their human, it really isn't a problem. I come home, open the cage door, shove my face in to get kisses and say hi to my babies and then juts leave the doors open. Then they're free to go as they like, so the older or tired ones will stay and the active curious girls will climb out and explore. Most of them stay on the shelf but sometimes i find one or two on my desk or my bed or even on the floor. But they always find their way back, either to the cage or to me. If not, you hear them getting up to no good somewhere in the room and just pick them up. It's real reasy to get them back in the cage, like I said most will go back on their own but otherwise just pick them up like a small doggie. They crave human interaction so they won't run from you.
I also spend a lot of nights cuddling with them by the tv or something, and then carry them back myself.
Really the key to keeping rats is to spend as much time with them as you can. The more time you spend with them, the more relaxed they will be and it will be easy to have them out, lift them up, etc. Obviously a rat who has had no human interaction won't be like the ones i'm describing. They will probably just squeek and run away and hide if you try to pick them up. The more time you put in = the better rat you will have.
