[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Rats... as pets... (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 9/8/2014 6:50:04 PM EDT
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A friend of ours son joined the Peace Corp and went to Africa and needed a home for his pet rat. Well we got the little fella for our youngest boy.. The rat died earlier this year from old age, he was already 2 when we got him. I never had much to do with him...
Fast forward to now, the wife has decided that she really liked the rat and wants another one. So we took a road trip to a rattery and picked up a 9 month old male blue dumbo. I am surprised, he is very personable, clean, and smart. 
So who else has rats as pets?? 
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| You know, I was sitting on a drop zone a few weeks ago sweating my balls off. We dug this 5 gallon water can out of a truck and passed it around refilling canteens. While there was a bit of a sweet taste to the water it wasn't too bad. Someone opened the can and there was a dead and very rotten rat/mouse that turned the inside of the can black. I was not amused. |
| I had one once, named Rambo. He got that name because he was supposed to be dinner for my 6 ft boa. But Rambo knew the deal as soon as he landed in the tank. He mounded up the gravel and stayed on his end of the tank. When Dawg (the boa) got impatient, he headed for Rambo's side of the tank. As Dawg struck, Rambo reared up on his hind legs and layed open the top of Dawg's head. The boa retreated and wanted nothing to do with the rat after that. So Rambo got his own tank. |
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I love pet rats! I do hate how short lived they are. They amaze me with how smart and personable they are.
My girl "Mish" knows her name and will come when called and loves to ride on my shoulder. They are unlike other rodents with their great intelligence and social nature. Wonderful pets!! |
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Thought that they like company, but get depressed when one dies. So, you need several, but they live such short lives with health problems. 
Looked into it, but decided against it. This little guy was rescued from another rattery that was mainly breeding for feeding and trying to pass off as a pet rattery. He was in a cage with 3 other males but was a bully and ate all their food. He is a good bit bigger than he should be. We think he will be fine alone. The wife wants to go back and get 2-3 babies in another month or so. |
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I had a friend in middle school that had a couple, they lasted three or four years, he had them when I met them and they were still around a year or two into high school. Things were huge, never did much though, just laid around on each other, not very interesting as pets go. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Yea, that did not look like a rat to me. 
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He approves of this thread... just walked up there, laid down, and went to sleep <Removed. Don't control V without making sure what you control C'd first. . -NorCal> Yea, that did not look like a rat to me.
Could have been worse... that is what I get for posting from my phone...
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Yea, that did not look like a rat to me.
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He approves of this thread... just walked up there, laid down, and went to sleep <Removed. Don't control V without making sure what you control C'd first. . -NorCal> Yea, that did not look like a rat to me.
I just brought my 6 year old in to see the rat pics too. |
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I just brought my 6 year old in to see the rat pics too. Quoted:
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He approves of this thread... just walked up there, laid down, and went to sleep <Removed. Don't control V without making sure what you control C'd first. . -NorCal> Yea, that did not look like a rat to me.
I just brought my 6 year old in to see the rat pics too. What did I miss? |
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I missed it. Scat porn? Quoted:
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He approves of this thread... just walked up there, laid down, and went to sleep <Removed. Don't control V without making sure what you control C'd first. . -NorCal> Bite your tongue... no cockapocalypse either... |
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I bred them for snake food for a while. Most of them were assholes. The few that weren't were pretty entertaining. Ferrets are more fun....kind of like a small, flexible dog. 'Fancy' rats are better behaved than 'feeder' rats. We currently have two, and yes they make great pets but as others noted, two years is depressingly short. Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Rodents in general make good pets. I had hamsters when I was a kid, my daughter has a pair of Guinea Pigs, the Guinea Pigs are the most docile creatures I can imagine, you can pet them, hold them, pick them up, and they just let you do it. I have never had a rat, but know people who have, and they insist that most species of rats are more sociable and docile than hamsters and gerbils (hamsters and gerbils are typically perfectly willing to be handled, some are not and will bit you). |
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Rats are a mans best friend... <a href="http://imgur.com/RKS0kCW" target="_blank">http://i.imgur.com/RKS0kCW.jpg</a>  just thinking of that for my post too
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| When the wife and I first started dating, she had a few pet rats. They were really neat and actually fun to play with. Two only last a little over 2 years, the other was 4. Overall, I think they're pretty good pets and, from my experience, they generally won't shit or piss on you like a hamster or gerbil. Wife also had a guinea pig - fun little thing but damn it was stupid and squeaked all the time. |
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In college I worked in the "animal lab" on campus. We raised mice and rats for everything from cancer research to behavioral research. The rats were the latter. They were cool animals, even in the lab environment they were cool and neat animals. They used to ride on our shoulders while we did lab tech things. Mice on the other hand, are mean little bastards. I have sent tens of thousands of them to meet their maker and don't feel bad about a single one. |
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Rats are awesome pets. They are very smart, like little dogs. They can be litter box trained, and will do it somewhat naturally, like cats.
I understand that they are highly social animals and will do best as SAME SEX pair. Get two males or two females. Otherwise they require daily interaction to keep them sane. As others have said, their two year lifespan is too short, and they always seem to die of a horrible lumpy cancer. |
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Quoted: Rodents in general make good pets. I had hamsters when I was a kid, my daughter has a pair of Guinea Pigs, the Guinea Pigs are the most docile creatures I can imagine, you can pet them, hold them, pick them up, and they just let you do it. I have never had a rat, but know people who have, and they insist that most species of rats are more sociable and docile than hamsters and gerbils (hamsters and gerbils are typically perfectly willing to be handled, some are not and will bit you). |