# RATS!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [May 7, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090 "2017-05-07T21:37:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2017, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/1 "2017-05-07T21:37:34Z")
So, my sister has been pet sitting some rats and I had such fun playing with her temporary pets\* that I decided to get some new babies of my own to fill up the rat-shaped hole in my life after the last one I had.
So this morning, I called a pet store, and after a very short meeting where I instantly fell in love, I brought home [these](https://scontent.ftpa1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18403575_10213079913338717_3459362541414344579_n.jpg?oh=8016a169e810ea27b379768d7ce43729&oe=597F9551) [guys…](https://scontent.ftpa1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18268672_10213079914458745_1495904237823058408_n.jpg?oh=f4e58c72dda0cbacae085c589de449cb&oe=59B25689)
Say Hello to Sigfried and Tristan.
(I just had to brag 🙂 )
\*I very nearly ended up taking them myself, it’s a long story, and I am still not happy about it:mad:
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### Author:  [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2017, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/2 "2017-05-07T22:08:48Z")
Welcome to Sigfried and Tristan!
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### Author:  [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2017, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/3 "2017-05-08T08:40:35Z")
Very cute! 🙂
I sometimes think of getting pet rats myself, so I will follow the adventures of S & T.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/4 "2017-05-08T15:39:29Z")
Oh, they are so sweet! Like the names too.
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### Author:  [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/5 "2017-05-08T15:41:38Z")
My sis lives in Baltimore city and the rats there are more of the vermin variety than pet quality. She refers to them as “city kitties.” 😃
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### Author:  [@Carryon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carryon)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2017, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/6 "2017-05-08T18:07:04Z")
I know it’s prejudice but as someone from the country I can’t see rats or mice as pets. To me that would be like keeping a cockroach as a pet. They’re cute enough, I guess, but I would’ve gone for a guinea pig or chinchilla. 😉
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### Author:  [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)
#### Post date: [May 8, 2017, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/7 "2017-05-08T19:14:28Z")
Aww! I used to have ratties myself, you’re in for a good time.
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### Author:  [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/8 "2017-05-09T00:17:23Z")
Yup, they are super sweet, Triss gives me kisses, and Siggy like to nuzzle me.
I’ve tried to explain to people that fancy rats =/= wild rats, with indifferent sucess. But I’ve been called crazy before!
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/9 "2017-05-09T02:36:58Z")
[This video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmDcx86qU4k) is from 2015 but I just saw it today for the first time. It’s a video of a girl playing peek-a-boo with her rat. So cute!
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2017, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/10 "2017-05-09T02:53:18Z")
I had a dream the other night, in which the person I was hanging out with explained to someone else that this here rat was her dentist. So naturally I opened my mouth and the rat stuck its head in and gave my gums a thorough cleaning.
Maybe you can train them to do useful things like that.
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### Author:  [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2017, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/11 "2017-05-09T10:37:48Z")
> [@eschereal](#):
>
> I had a dream the other night, in which the person I was hanging out with explained to someone else that this here rat was her dentist. So naturally I opened my mouth and the rat stuck its head in and gave my gums a thorough cleaning.
>
> Maybe you can train them to do useful things like that.
Check out [this vid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMEYVG6H9ME) at 1:36
I Love that. **Zipper JJ!**
The boys are currently sacked out in Sig’s favorite sleeping spot..they could give a rats.. well, you know, that Mom has to go to work to keep 'em in rat pellets!
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### Author:  [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)
#### Post date: [May 9, 2017, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/12 "2017-05-09T12:10:27Z")
> [@Carryon](#):
>
> I know it’s prejudice but as someone from the country I can’t see rats or mice as pets. To me that would be like keeping a cockroach as a pet. They’re cute enough, I guess, but I would’ve gone for a guinea pig or chinchilla. 😉
I’m the same way. I just cannot think of them as anything but vermin.
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### Author:  [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)
#### Post date: [May 13, 2017, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/13 "2017-05-13T21:18:43Z")
Down to one… found Siggy dead when I came home from church today…NO idea what happened to him, and Tristan seems fine.
☹
RIP Little Sigfried, I didn’t get nearly enough time with you, but you were loved.
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### Author:  [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/14 "2017-05-15T17:53:34Z")
Poor little Siglet. ☹ Tristan is still okay?
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### Author:  [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)
#### Post date: [May 18, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/15 "2017-05-18T15:53:12Z")
Have the Valkyries shown up yet? 😉
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### Author:  [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2017, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/16 "2017-05-19T10:36:41Z")
We got three new rats over the last weekend, after the previous pair died. They are intelligent and make decent pets, especially for my 11 year old daughter, who is enjoying doing the training this time around. There’s one of the three who is significantly more skittish than the other two, but she’s handling him well and he’s coming around.
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### Author:  [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2017, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/17 "2017-05-19T17:00:16Z")
Yeah, Triss is okay, gaining weight and full of piss and vinegar.
No, No Valkyries yet…🙂
Rats are great pets… if little one stays skittish tell her to [try trust training](http://www.ratfanclub.org/trust.html)
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### Author:  [@Oukile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oukile)
#### Post date: [May 19, 2017, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/18 "2017-05-19T17:20:14Z")
> [@quiltguy](#):
>
> Have the Valkyries shown up yet? 😉
I guess there was some nice music for his funeral 😃
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### Author:  [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2017, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/19 "2017-11-12T00:16:39Z")
Just thought I would share a sad update… Tristan died this week… I miss him so ☹
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### Author:  [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2017, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rats/786090/20 "2017-11-12T01:05:19Z")
Oh no. I’m glad he had a good life with you. My condolences that your time together was so short.
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