Pet rats

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My youngest brother wants a pet rat. He took care of my roommate’s mice over the summer, while she was away, and he’s developed a fondness for rodents. My dad has been having conniptions over the word “rat”, but I think Bro’s going to win on this one. Thus, it seems likely that we’re soon going to have a rattus in the house. As this board has a lot of proud crazy rat ladies, I figured I’d ask for a few tips.

He’s aware of the basic differences between a pet mouse and a pet rat- in fact, he’s been going on about how he can’t wait to train them. He’s a very conscientious boy; knowing him, he’ll get all the books on rats out of the library, and memorize all the tips in them.

I’ve heard it’s better to get rats (and all other pets) from a rescue organization, but we don’t have any near us- according to Petfinder, there’s only one in our entire state. So we’ll have to get it from a pet store. I assume there are better and worse pet shops for getting rats from, and that there’s some things you should check to make sure the rat is healthy and social.

What are the best sex combinations… er, that didn’t come out right. What is the recommended mix of males and/or females? I know with mice it’s best to have two females, but I don’t know if rats are different.

Finally, any useful tips for a rat novice?

2

Here’s my two bits worth - I’m sure you’ll get lots of good advice. There are lots of good sites on the internet as well, in addition to library books.

How old is your brother? Sounds like he will be the primary care giver. Is he the type who might get bored with a pet after a few months? Having a rat is a several year commitment. They are happiest with regular handing; not so happy to be left alone for weeks at a time.

Pet stores - this is where I got my rats many years ago. Look for how all of the animals there are kept. Are the cages all clean? Do they look active? Where do they get their animals from? Use your nose. A good pet store should not smell funky.

Bedding - Ceder or pine bedding that is sold in pet stores is not a good idea. It gives off fumes that may be harmful to the rats.

Sex ratio - I had a male and female, followed by lots of little rats. I enjoyed this, and sold the little ones back to the pet store. In my opinion, two females (sisters) get along the best. Getting two rats is a good idea, unless your brother is able to lug his rat everywhere he goes. Rats enjoy company.

Rats are very smart and can be quite affectionate with their owners.

Good luck!

3

Check at the local humane societies too. Sometimes they will have small animals like this but may not bother to put up petfinder listings for them.

4

He’s eleven, and he loves animals, and I’m pretty confident he’ll be taking good care of them.

5

Two males can get along fine, too, as long as they don’t have a reason to feel they’re competing for territory. Brothers from the same litter, for instance, will recognize each other as part of the same colony. They may scuffle a little from time to time, but they aren’t likely to fight.

Generally, females are more active and males more couch-potatoey, but there are exceptions both ways.

Make sure the cage is big enough for rats - they need a LOT more space than mice or hamsters. They also need to come out to play and explore for an hour or so every day, so make sure there’s a safe room for them to run around in. They’re rodents, they chew. And if they can’t get back to their cage, they will pee and poop on the floor.

What Euphonious said about the bedding is important - the fumes that soft woods give off are really bad for their little lungs, and rats are prone to respiratory infections in the best of circumstances. Clay kitty litters are also out, because they give off nasty dust. Use a hardwood or a non-wood bedding.

Rats are very social animals. They need at least one cagemate and they need love and attention. They’re also smart, most of them love learning tricks, and they like new toys and new environments to explore. They do not like being left in a cage on the bookshelf because someone thought it would be cool to have a pet rat. But take good care of them and they can be the sweetest little pets you’ll ever have.

6

That’s a good age - I was around 12 when I had rats. it would be good to have someone in the house (you?) to just check occasionally to make sure that everything is OK. This is particularly true after a few months have passed and the novelty may be wearing off.

7

Sure, one’s filthy vermin that pee everywhere and bite you if you try to handle them, the other’s a rat. :smiley: Rats are one of the better rodents, though.

I much prefer two males. Admittedly my sample size is small, but males seem calmer. Males tend to pee in large puddles, so you can anticipate it, while females dribble constantly. They generally learn to not pee on master and such. The major positive for males is that females have a tendency to get breast tumors, they are usually benign but still not a good thing. I suppose a major disadvantage of males is the gigantic rat balls, if that’s something that bothers you.

Sounds like your brother will enjoy them. Unfortunately, they don’t live too long, so that sucks.

Advice: agree with what Euphonious Polemic says. they can eat most human food, some people caution against giving them meat because they might be more likely to bite, but I think that’s mostly BS. They liked those monkey chow nuggets you can sometimes find at petstores. Get a bigger cage than you think you need, hamster cages are too small and unsuitable. The cage should not have a wire bottom as it can cause lesions on the feet. Let them run around of course, the main concern there is pee (poop is usually dry and not that gross) and chewing things, especially wires.

8

We kept our ratties in a large fish aquarium with a flip top lid. When we were home, we kept the lid open and they would chill on top, hoping to snag a ride on people passing by.

Rats like hidey holes to sleep in. Our particularly liked to use a large plastic cup as a bed.

Nowadays I think recycled newspaper litter is recommended. We used wood shavings because we didn’t know better then.

9

I vote two girls. We got them about a year and a half ago, for my son who was 5 then. I have been the pimary care giver but the two girls were great shoulder pets. They do dribble but I have a dedicated rathoodie to wear when handling them. Norman (a girl, named after Norman in short Circut) and Desiree were the greatest pets. Norman we had to euthanize recently and Desiree was lonely. We got Desi some friends. Except they are boys. The only reason I kept the boys was they had been living in deplorable condition and their owners were going to set them loose if they didn’t get someone to buy them before they went camping. GAH!

Now I fear Desi is pregant despite all attempts to keep them separate my son let them play together once. Apparently they started doing a “bum dance” (my son’s term) I guess I will know in about 18 days. (gestation is 21-23 days) I will be probably keeping a set of sisters from that litter and giving away the rest.

There are a lot of rat owner forums with tons of info. The forums will say not to get a pet store rat, and a lot of [del] over the top [/del] helpful info about vets and so forth. I know supporting pet stores supports systems with cruelty but it is doubtful your parents want to take your brother to a rattery and enquire about three generations of the family tree. Get them young and handle them alot. They can be trained to go in one corner of the cage, a litter box.

Girls are more silky than boys, smaller and they don’t have the musky smell or the enchanting sounding “buck grease” secretions. Girl rats are awesome.

10

Don’t bring them when you go on vacation to Calgary :slight_smile:

11

Well, well. Brother managed to convince Mom to get his rat from a rat breeder. I knew there were rat breeders, I just didn’t think my parents would go to one.

12

I’ve had quite a few rats over the years. Thier stay with me was usually brief but I also had quite a few litters over the years.
My experience was that some are friendly and happy to be handled. Some are mean and bitey. Some love to romp and play with thier cage mates. Some will kill and devour thier cage mates. Or thier own pups.

None of them like boa constrictors.

13

Suggest to your brother he join an on -line rat owners forum. Really good information there, and supportive people who will help kids who are interested in taking really good care of them. What kinds/and what sexes did he get?

14

I had pet rats for about 7 years and recommend them to anyone looking for a caged pet. They are cute, intelligent, affectionate, trainable, don’t tend to bite unless you’re talking about adult animals that have never been handled, and are much less stinky than most rodents. They also chew and can be destructive if not supervised, live a very short time (making it to 2 years is great), often die of conditions that are hard to watch (quick-growing cancer, incapacitating strokes); they are prone to serious respiratory issues, abscesses, and large benign tumors that require repeat surgeries and treatment. I had very good luck with mine, because of what I fed them I believe (real food only, not processed chows), but many fellow rat fanciers spend a lot of money on these little guys.

It’s great to get rats from a breeder. They will be properly socialized and come from stock which has been bred with the intention of minimizing health issues. They also have a huge advantage not coming from a pet store, that’s where most of the respiratory issues rats suffer with come from.

As for males vs females; males are larger, sometimes twice as big. Males are much more cuddly, females never stop moving. Males have coarse fur, produce musky grease on their back ends, and have a much stronger odor (I just bathed mine a lot and they smelled nice), and are kind of gross with their urine (pee where they sleep, dribble to scent-mark where ever they walk) while females are silky, have littler odor, and are generally tidy when it comes to pee although some dribble too - many can be effectively litter-trained in the cage. Both get along in small or large groups but it’s best to introduce them on neutral territory (and ideally as juveniles), otherwise there can be serious fights and injuries. I have never seen or heard of serious fighting and injuries in any but improperly-introduced rats. For most of the time I had rats I had a colony of males, I used to introduce new babies by putting them all in a clean bathtub together and then put them back in a freshly-cleaned age.

Rats should always be kept in pairs at least. They are as social as people and obviously much happier with a friend or two.

Another important bit of advice - it saves a ton of time if you keep them in a cage without tubes, or wire mesh shelves/stairs. Urine will coat everything and smell very strong. I kept my rats in big box-like cages with a ground floor only, covered with bedding, and they were odorless as long as I switched out the bedding/cloth hammocks on the regular (and cleaned off the hard objects in the cage, bowls/toys/igloos).

I don’t recommend aquariums for keeping, there isn’t adequate circulation and that’s hard on their respiratory system. Thirding that the type of bedding and regular changing is very important - aspen or one of the recycled paper options are really the only choices.

15

Didn’t get them yet. But thanks for your advice, y’all.

16

When I was younger, my best friend bred rats. She actually managed to get three generations of rats from one boy and girl pair she bought from the pet store. That said, the third generation had all kinds of horrible cancer problems, and she was really too young to understand how to breed rats properly, so probably don’t do that.

Anyway.

Rats are wonderful pets! Please, please make sure that they get a nice big cage and are taken out and played with often. A young rat’s behaviour will change dependent on how often they are handled - if you don’t handle them on a regular basis, that’s when they get antisocial and bite a lot.

I wasn’t a particularly good pet owner when I was young, so you can learn from my mistakes. My first pet rat was male, and we didn’t play with him often enough. He got very bitey and aggressive. My second pet rat was female - female rats tend to be much more active and skittery, while males are more docile. I didn’t get her a large enough cage so she got skin problems. Eventually I gave her back to my friend so she could have more freedom.

Rats are very intelligent - they will want a little hidey-hole in their cage which they can make their bed in, and they will pick a corner of the cage to make their toilet. Like rhubarbarin mentioned, male rats will be a bit smellier and pee a lot more than female rats. If you want an excitable, energetic pet, get a female or two. If you want a docile pet you can carry around on your shoulder, get a male, but be warned that two un-neutered males will occasionally have little dominance-proving fights.