Meet my pet rats!

So I thought i'd make a thread to show off my girls. Pet rats aren't the most common pets in the world and often very misunderstood, especially not in Sweden where I live. Sadly you get a lot of looks if you tell people you have rats, and a lot of "eww, don't they bite you?" and "their tails are so disgusting and they are so unsanitary!". But any pet rat owner knows there's no better pet, they're like small dogs and each with their own amazing personality!

So here are a few pics of my current girls:


This is Ziza, my favourite girl. She's 8 months and the most amazing girl ever! Loves human contact and not scared of anything. She's going to become a mother in a few weeks!


Zizas cute belly marking. Ziza is a Silver Black American Irish Dumbo.


Next up is Audrey. She's a bit calmer than Ziza and more careful, but still enjoys all the time she gets to spend outside her cage exploring. Audrey is Silver Mink Hooded Dumbo.


My sweet little girl Bipin. Bipin is the youngest in the cage and a bit shy. She doesn't really have that much of a personality yet, but hopefully she'll open up to us soon. Bipin is a Beige Rex Dumbo, and looks like a teddybear!


This is Toast. Toast was rescued from a terrible home when she was 5 weeks old. When rat pups are 5 weeks they should weight at least 80 grams, she was only 23 grams... So terribly malnourished and not handled at all. Now, I have managed to get her up an ok weight and she loves life with her rat friends. Unfortunately she still hates being handled and wants no human contact, even though we spent hours with her every day ever since the first day here. But that's fine, as long as she enjoys life with her friends i'm not going to make her move again. She's a Russian Silver Capped, a very rare colour!


And finally, my two old ladies, Shmi and Aayla. These sisters are 2 years old now and my grumpy old girls. They aren't very fond of all the new young rats at all, but absolutely LOVE cuddling with their human! As soon as you pick them up they start licking your fingers and vibrate and chatter their teeth. Shmi is Golden Himalayan Rex Dumbo and Aayla Seal point Siamese Rex Dumbo.


Throwing in a picture of the girls cage too, and the shelf they're always on as the cage is almost always open when i'm home.

Enjoy!

eww! Rats!





























Just kidding!




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?

(05-30-2013 03:59 AM)Ram Wrote:  eww! Rats!

Just kidding!




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.

I like rats. They are intelligent. I am planning to buy one soon. Right now I have 2 gerbils and a leopard gecko. My gerbils are cute and quite tamed.

I know some people who keep pet rats, and I would like to have a couple of pet rats myself. I like these photos, and I think Audrey is the cutest. Thank you also for showing a picture of the cages. These do look clean and tidy, and I'm certain the rats like living there.

I agree that pet rats need human interaction so they will want to spend more time with their owners.

(06-04-2013 11:23 PM)Alphonsus Wrote:  I like rats. They are intelligent. I am planning to buy one soon. Right now I have 2 gerbils and a leopard gecko. My gerbils are cute and quite tamed.

Awesome! I'm glad you're thinking about getting rats, you won't regret it. Just one thing, please buy at least two rats (of the same gender ofc)! Rats are incredibly social animals with a huge need of social interaction with other rats, a human simply isn't enough (we can't speak their "language"). It's even a law, at least here, that you have to have at least two together. Your rat will live a much happier life if he/she gets a friend, trust me.

More fur babies!! I love them! We currently have two (along with other pets and service dogs), although I have had others during my lifetime. Our two girls are sisters; Fiona is a butterscotch hooded, and Ashes is a coal-gray hooded rattie.

I love all the breeds you have too! Two breeds of rats I would love to have someday are the Dumbo and hairless! I wish I knew some reliable breeder here in MN, USA. Maybe I should subscribe to rat fancy!

Our rats love fresh vegies, fruits, a variety of seeds, and once and a while some safe human food.

We also love how intelligent our babies are. Just for the heck of it, I taught my little Ashes to turn on the light switch by the porch counter. The switch doesn't take much for her to push down, but she knows she get a cool treat in the end! I should now train her to turn the switch off in order to conserve energy!

Rats are a big problem in the USA. I have never known anyone to own them as a pet. I, personally, think that mice are cuter. Everyone is entitled to choose what they want for a pet. I'm glad you shared the pictures so that I can understand each breed you explained. I think I like best the Himalayan and her colors.

I am glad you posted pictures of your pet rats...I love rats! I have had them as pets many times and they are excellent as pets, very smart and very clean.
I know exactly what you mean when you say people think they are disgusting, dirty and will bite you but as pet rat owners we know better! I have actually always thought it is a shame more people do not choose them as small pets for their kids instead of hamsters, gerbils etc because they are much more affectionate and gentler for children (I know, I have kept all these pets in the past).

I used to have some rats. I had both haired and hairless varieties. The hairless ones looked really weird, but once you got past that, you could see how really sweet and clean they were. The rats I had never bit and were very gentle, as the previous poster said. They were generally calm creatures who like to be petted and cuddled. Compared to hamsters and gerbils, which are much more high-strung, rats would make a much more suitable child's pet.

I guess rats have a bad reputation because wild rats can carry germs when they get into humans' dwellings and food. Of course any wild animals can be disease carriers but in this case the rat's resourcefulness in finding food works against it.

I took care of some mice for a while. Despite the outward resemblance, mice are not as nice as rats. They are much smellier.

I like the second picture of you holding the rat! It's almost cartoonish. That's quite the awesome cage set up you've got for your little friends. It looks like they've got plenty of space to move and play in.

I agree that rats get a bad rep. I can't get past the thoughts of how gross it was in 2007 when the block of military housing we were in became mice infested and they'd poop and pee in everyone's ovens. Ugh. However those were wild mice, these are cute and clean domesticated rats. Big difference.

They are gorgeous!! Do they respond to you when you call them?


By the way I was just wondering...how do keep them clean? I have pet squirrels which are almost same as rats. I give them a sponge bath every month. Is that safe for them? Also how often do you take them to the vet?

Those are some very cute pet rats. I'm not scared or grossed out by rats personally, especially if they have been raised indoors their whole lives. However I would be nervous about them getting loose and lost in the house somewhere. I'd be concerned about them slipping out the door and not being able to come back in the house. How long do they typically live, out of curiosity?