Have you ever had a rat as a pet?

Gerbils, yes. Rats, no.

Many, many ratties over the years They're perfect pets.

No.

No - not my thing, I'm afraid. The tails give me a wiggins.

Are they nocturnal? My hamsters used to drive me nuts at night!

Is a hamster, a type of rat? NO to a rat as a pet.

I had a set of gerbils back in the mid 80s. I wound up having male and female, and I had to get rid of the males, keep the females. Gerbils seem to multiply fast.

No, but I had a roommate in college who had one. I think his name was Wilhelm (the rat, not the roommate).
And, there may have even been a Wilhelm II too.
I know it was male because he had large testicles and us being in college, this matter was discussed at great length.

They are supposed to be nocturnal, but they're not nearly as noisy at night as hamsters or gerbils. Most of the rats that I've had have actually been much more active during the day - probably because that was when they got the most attention and in particular because that's when they would get treats - they always got some of our meals to top-up their dry food mix.

No I haven't but I've had some friends who were.

No, nor would I want one.

They always turned me off, but my friends tell me they're really good pets once you get past the tail induced wiggins. Do you have to keep them in pairs, or are they ok by themselves?

No and I'm not interested. They don't live long do they?

Well, not as a pet per se. More like lunch for my pet. I used to have a ball python. Once he got longer than three feet, I started feeding him rats instead of mice.

> No, but I had a roommate in college who had one. I think his name
> was Wilhelm (the rat, not the roommate).
> And, there may have even been a Wilhelm II too.
> I know it was male because he had large testicles and us being in
> college, this matter was discussed at great length.

Here is one of my old rats balls for your amusement

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I just like this pic, his little peener looks funny!!

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Here is a cute picture of his babies

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No, I have never had a rat as a pet nor do I ever want one.

Pairs is good because they're very social animals and they do get lonely if they're kept by themselves. That said, lone rats are the ones that will become most reliant on you and will want to spend the most time with you. We had a rat that we had to keep on his own after his friend died because we were concerned he had a respiratory infection he might pass on to other rats. He is probably the most fondly remembered of all of our rats as he absolutely craved human attention and learned to escape from his cage (it had a sliding top, so it was no mean feat, especially later when we took to taping it up at night or piling heavy books on it) so that he could come and sit with us. There was a particular spot behind a settee cushion where he liked to sit - my Mum would iron a towel and stick it there so that he could be nice and cosy. But it was only okay because my Mum didn't work and so he could be out and getting attention from her a lot of the time - I don't think he would have been a very happy rat if he was all on his own until we got home from school.

> Pairs is good because they're very social animals and they do get
> lonely if they're kept by themselves. That said, lone rats are the
> ones that will become most reliant on you and will want to spend the
> most time with you. We had a rat that we had to keep on his own after
> his friend died because we were concerned he had a respiratory infection
> he might pass on to other rats. He is probably the most fondly remembered
> of all of our rats as he absolutely craved human attention and learned
> to escape from his cage (it had a sliding top, so it was no mean feat,
> especially later when we took to taping it up at night or piling heavy
> books on it) so that he could come and sit with us. There was a particular
> spot behind a settee cushion where he liked to sit - my Mum would
> iron a towel and stick it there so that he could be nice and cosy.
> But it was only okay because my Mum didn't work and so he could be
> out and getting attention from her a lot of the time - I don't think
> he would have been a very happy rat if he was all on his own until
> we got home from school.

I got Cheddar a friend (Colby) and have been trying to slowly introduce them by masking their scents. Anyhow, they got into a fight today and Cheddar bit Colby in the back drawing blood.... :( I am trying to get them to be friends though :)

Harry kept trying to jump Maxi's bones (both guinea pigs) when we first got him... Harry's like three and Maxi was only a baby. They just weren't getting on at all. So I got them secure in the emptiest room in the house on towels (neutral ground) with hay dotted about and just sat with them for three or four hours. Which sounds really boring, but it went quite quickly. I only separated them when they got vicious, I just kept a close eye on sniffing. It's like forcing them to get on but not allowing either to get the upper hand. Anyway, they've got on really well ever since. So, I don't know, it might work with rats.

How old is Colby? We found that older rats would usually accept new friends if they were as young as possible because that way they are small enough to not be any kind of threat. We never had great success introducing two rats of similar ages, apart from with one rat who was incredibly passive (his former friend was about a quarter of his size but he would happily let himself get tipped on his back and dominated when they were playfighting).

Well. Cheddar is dominating Colby and kind of bullying him. I have been introducing them together for about 2 minutes at a time. That's usually all that Colby can take before he has a bite mark and I am spraying them with water bottles. I read a web site that said keep trying... but I feel so bad for Colby. I have the cage split in 2 so that Cheddar can't get to Colby, one is on top other is on bottom... I will try for a few more weeks, if nothing happens for the good after that then I will just permanently separate them.

Sounds like you're doing everything you can to get them to play nicely. As horrid as it sounds, Colby getting bitten a few times might not be a bad thing in the long run, if it teaches him that his place is going to have to be the submissive ratty. That is, as long as these are small nips, rather than big chunks. Even our rats that got along together really well occasionally had a more "real" fight and someone would get a bite that would draw blood - the only really nasty bites we saw were when one of our rats went a bit mad with what was presumably a brain tumour (given his later behaviour) and he became so aggressive that we had to separate him from the others and couldn't really handle him ourselves either.

Hmm, have just re-read this comment and I can't help but think it would also describe a lot of my former patients!

I usually have at least one

I have two amazing rats that come to me when i call them. I love them so much!