Just so were clear, the pic on the page before is a mouse...which I have no problems with as pets. However, rats are huge and much less cuddly.
Although it should probably be noted that in college I used to help my neuroscience friends kill their rats with my bare hands, remove their brains, and create little slides.
I'll provide the dissenting opinion. Three of my good friends have had pet rats for their kids and have talked about what great pets they are. They have loved them as much as any pet. One of my sons wants something from the rodent family (hamster, gerbil, guinea pig, rat), but we're over quota on dogs and cats.
Actually it was the fleas that are on the small rodents that had the bubonic plague. Furthermore, as a rat owner of 6 rats. They are indeed quite cuddly! Curling up in my lap as I surf the net or sit on my shoulder as I make dinner. Mind you it's not all at once as that's a bit silly. They are clean kid- friendly pets. Love to get attention and are absolute cuties as they play around. So to sum up. Yes yes yes Rats are great pets. Like a mini combo of cat and dog. They come when you call, do tricks, and love a good petting. :D
This sounds incredibly fruity, but there's no better way I can really phrase it.
I've owned almost every kind of common small mammal as a pet--gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, mice, et cetera--and I've loved them all, as one does a pet. At the end of the day, though, rats are the only ones from which I've ever gotten the significant and consistent feeling that they loved me back.
When I would take the other species out of their enclosure for free roaming, they'd usually just run around and do generic animal things. My rats would do that too, to an extent, but before too long they'd always come back and sit with me, no matter how unfettered they were.
It wasn't necessarily a food conditioning thing either--while a lot of them are undoubtedly strongly food-motivated, I've never had to explicitly reinforce their preference to be near me with food rewards, and I'd tried that with other species with little success. I've even had a couple who, when presented with a rather unambiguous choice between food and attention, consistently chose the latter. That's uncommon, but not something I ever saw in other species.
tl;dr: Rats can be overwhelmingly good. Don't let their popular perception discourage you. It discouraged me for a long time, and I regret it now.
I have had so many pet rats over the last 20 or so years that I lost count long ago. They are absolutely WONDERFUL small pets. They will bond with you like a dog, they are very easy and inexpensive to care for, affectionate, intelligent, playful and clean. Yes, clean! They will spend several hours a day cleaning and grooming themselves (and sometimes even their person).
Domestic pet rats are nothing like their wild counterparts. Everything bad about wild rats has been eliminated in the domestic version (well, except for the tail, lol!) Wild rats can be vicious; pet rats are usually very sweet and docile. Wild ones carry disease; domestic ones have been bred for generations in captivity so have not been exposed to such diseases. Wild ones are often pests; domestic ones are often...pets. I love pet rats!
Domestic rats are fabulous. I admit that wild ones creep me out. But my pet rat Molly was the sweetest, funniest, most clever little girl. She would run to the Front of her cage and grab the bars with both hands asking to come out when she would see me. She would follow me around the appartment, and come over when I called her. She would like to steal items from around the house and stash them! She also loved to cuddle. I just got some gerbils for my daughter, now years later, because my husband wasn't interested in rats. I keep wishing they would magically turn into rats...they just don't add up! I am thinking there is really no other small animal like them.
17 comments:
Just so were clear, the pic on the page before is a mouse...which I have no problems with as pets. However, rats are huge and much less cuddly.
Although it should probably be noted that in college I used to help my neuroscience friends kill their rats with my bare hands, remove their brains, and create little slides.
no. just no.
its like spiders- adding "pet" before a name of something we think is gross and terrified of doesnt make it ok.
i would not like to have a pet rat and if you have one, i don't need to meet it.
A thousand times no.
I'll provide the dissenting opinion. Three of my good friends have had pet rats for their kids and have talked about what great pets they are. They have loved them as much as any pet. One of my sons wants something from the rodent family (hamster, gerbil, guinea pig, rat), but we're over quota on dogs and cats.
That said, I think wild ones are gross.
Triple ewwwwwww......that is gross.
i think they're great.
you all are speciesist
I only want one if I can have this rat: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1949073.stm
Not exactly cuddly, but damn cool!
I would also not mind having a capybara, the largest species of rodent in the word. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capybara
I wonder if you could train one to do this: http://www.flixxy.com/useful-dog-tricks.htm
I love my little Splinter and Remy the Rat, they are the pet rats for all of the eastern half of my block in dupont
Absolutely acceptable.
Actually it was the fleas that are on the small rodents that had the bubonic plague. Furthermore, as a rat owner of 6 rats. They are indeed quite cuddly! Curling up in my lap as I surf the net or sit on my shoulder as I make dinner. Mind you it's not all at once as that's a bit silly. They are clean kid- friendly pets. Love to get attention and are absolute cuties as they play around. So to sum up. Yes yes yes Rats are great pets. Like a mini combo of cat and dog. They come when you call, do tricks, and love a good petting. :D
So many ignorant comments. "Like german tourists, the stupid are everywhere".
This sounds incredibly fruity, but there's no better way I can really phrase it.
I've owned almost every kind of common small mammal as a pet--gerbils, hamsters, guinea pigs, rats, mice, et cetera--and I've loved them all, as one does a pet. At the end of the day, though, rats are the only ones from which I've ever gotten the significant and consistent feeling that they loved me back.
When I would take the other species out of their enclosure for free roaming, they'd usually just run around and do generic animal things. My rats would do that too, to an extent, but before too long they'd always come back and sit with me, no matter how unfettered they were.
It wasn't necessarily a food conditioning thing either--while a lot of them are undoubtedly strongly food-motivated, I've never had to explicitly reinforce their preference to be near me with food rewards, and I'd tried that with other species with little success. I've even had a couple who, when presented with a rather unambiguous choice between food and attention, consistently chose the latter. That's uncommon, but not something I ever saw in other species.
tl;dr: Rats can be overwhelmingly good. Don't let their popular perception discourage you. It discouraged me for a long time, and I regret it now.
I have had so many pet rats over the last 20 or so years that I lost count long ago. They are absolutely WONDERFUL small pets. They will bond with you like a dog, they are very easy and inexpensive to care for, affectionate, intelligent, playful and clean. Yes, clean! They will spend several hours a day cleaning and grooming themselves (and sometimes even their person).
Domestic pet rats are nothing like their wild counterparts. Everything bad about wild rats has been eliminated in the domestic version (well, except for the tail, lol!) Wild rats can be vicious; pet rats are usually very sweet and docile. Wild ones carry disease; domestic ones have been bred for generations in captivity so have not been exposed to such diseases. Wild ones are often pests; domestic ones are often...pets. I love pet rats!
Domestic rats are fabulous. I admit that wild ones creep me out. But my pet rat Molly was the sweetest, funniest, most clever little girl. She would run to the Front of her cage and grab the bars with both hands asking to come out when she would see me. She would follow me around the appartment, and come over when I called her. She would like to steal items from around the house and stash them! She also loved to cuddle. I just got some gerbils for my daughter, now years later, because my husband wasn't interested in rats. I keep wishing they would magically turn into rats...they just don't add up! I am thinking there is really no other small animal like them.
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