Introduction to the Pet Rat

I am writing this to be able to give my advice and expertise to others. I have been breeding and raising rats for a number of years, being a breeder from way back. I got my first pair back in 1989, before the invention of the internet, back when rat owners were lucky to find a page or 2 in the back of a mouse or hamster book.

 Originally we were told that rats were solitary animals and that they could be kept with a cage mate, but it was not recommended. I imagine in those days, the happiest rats lived in breeder colonies then, since they always had their friends. Although most of us used things like cedar and pine, aquaiums, and bird cages, cleaned cages for smell, not health concerns and the like, muc more information is now known about them. I am here to share this information with you, the new rat owner, and to make sure you can keep your new friend health and happy, knowing you are doing the best you can for them.

 Now that more is known about rats, I wish to share my own personal knowledge and some cute stories, with you so you can have access to a great resource for your rats, but also see some of the personality of rats as well. Rats, amazing creatures that they are, have very diverse personalities, from the aggressive, to the uninterested, to the attantion seeekers to the surviving on human attention, to those few special rats that spend their time grooming their humans and caring for us as much as we care for them. More times that not it is the breeder's responsibility to help these little guys to really come into their personalities, but you, as the new rat owner, will also play a part in it as well. Rats, depending on genes, raising and care, can be any point on the spectrum from aggressive to total loving groomers. Their personality depends mostly on genes and raising. You may get a good rat from a pet store and a bad rat from a breeder. Breeder does not automatically mean good and pet store does not automatically mean bad. I will help you, in this guide, to find the best of either, although a private pet breeder is the better of the 2 choices and the odds are usually in your favor of getting a good rat.

I do want to point something out. While there is not such thing as an evil rat, or evil animal, there are those who get less socialization and the breeders may not care of the temperament, so they just put 2 rats together, don't handle the babies much and then babies do not learn love. This is what you usually find a pet stores. While there are exceptions to the rules, this is normally how it works out.

The choice to adopt a rat is, for some, an easy one, for others, requires more thought. For those, especially, who have never owned a rat, or multiple rats, before, it can be a confusing time and I am trying to help, not only those who are more experienced with rats that have questions, but also first time rat owners do what is best for their new little friends. Rats can be wonderful creatures that give so much to your life, that you may actually wonder why you never adopted one before. They can also be the nastiest creature in the world, if you do not get a social one. I will discuss this later in Breeder or Rescue vs. Pet Store. Running the Social Rats Adoption and Rescue, especially the rescue aspect, I have met ppl that otherwise would have made wonderful ratty parents, had they been able to adopt a social rat their first time instead of purchasing a feeder rat and losing the coin toss on them. So this guide is geared towards those who have already adopted a rat, and those who are thinking about it.

A rat lifespan is short, they only live to be about 2 or 3 years old, usually, so you will want to spend as much time with them and make your time worth while with them. Don’t leave them in their cage and ignore them. Some rats, if they have undiagnosed issues, may only be with you a few short months. These are usually the ones with the awesome personalities too, so you will want to spend as much time with them as you can.

Get a good vet, make sure, preferably before you adopt a rat, that you have a vet that is willing to treat rats. While usually this means an exotic vet, some regular vets do see rats for basic things, like well visits (yes, rat can be taken in for well visits) and URIs and the like. Make sure you know how much the visit will cost you.

Have a rat vet fund put aside. If you only have 2 rats, then $100 for a rat fund should be sufficient. This way, if your rat gets sick and you do not have pet insurance, which can be purchased for rats, you are not scrambling for the money, you already have it set aside.

Adopt a pair. While you most likely are not going to be able to spend all day and night with your rat, if you adopt in pairs or trios, then you are you are going to want to adopt more than one at a time. Rats are very social creatures, not only with humans, but also with other rats. They need that interaction and to deprive them of it, would be like a human never going to work, never leaving the house, not even being able to watch TV or answer the phone, with their only companion being a dog that they can spend an hour or 2 with each day. It would get awfully lonely, awfully fast. Rats groom each other, snuggle together, play together, care for each other, especially when one of them gets sick.

If you are not adopting your rats at the same time, from the same place, from the same cage, you will want a second cage for use for introductions. An adult male rat will not always (the older the rat, the less likely) introduce quickly and may require a few tries and may require a few days to a few weeks to get along. If you put 2 adult males in together, they may not get along well together, at least not at first, and you will need a second cage to help with introductions.

Rats are easily trained, easily amused and easily bored. They need to be stimulated both physically and mentally. Make sure you have toys to play with, treats to train them with and hammocks or cubes for them to snuggle and sleep in. While they are easy to train, they also untrain pretty easily as well. If they have picked up a bad habit, this can be a good thing, but if you do not work with them, any training you have done with them, they may lose as well.

Rats like to chew on things. If they are not provided with something safe to chew on, like a chew blocks, or chew toys, they will chew on their hammocks, cords, books and anything else that catches their fancy. Rat’s, like all rodents, teeth grow constantly, so they need to chew on things to help keep them down. While Bruxing, which is where they grind their teeth out of happiness, will help with this issue, it will not usually fully solve it, so they need to be provided with safe things for them to chew on. This is also why you do not want to put their cage near things like electrical cords or curtains, as they will try to bring them into their cage to chew on them and snuggle in them.

Rats also chew out of boredom, if they do not have things to keep them busy, they will FIND things to keep them busy, like chewing on your curtains, blankets, socks or anything they can pull into the cage, which is anything with in 6 inches or so of their cage, because they will reach out with their paws to pull something into the cage.

Do not set things on the cage that you value, they will keep themselves busy by pulling them into the cage, this includes plastic bags, like garbage bags. One the upside, you can use this to keep them amused by placing old baby blankets or fabric scraps on top of the cage to let them pull into the cage. They will try to pull it in through multiple bars, so will keep them amused for awhile. This is also the reason why you do not try to cover their cage at night to let them know it is bed time. They will stay awake to pull it into the cage.

Appropriate sized wheels, like for ferrets, are a good thing to have in a cage. Some rats use them religiously, working out to get the extra energy off and to stay in shape. I have found that my hairless rat, Lucy, uses hers for a couple of hours a day, everyday. Wire wheels are ok, as long as they are the small mesh kind. Things like Cages, Bedding, Food and Introductions will be discussed later in this guide.

To be able  to read more and learn more about the pet rat, please purchase my Rat Care Guide. It is only $10 and the proceeds will go to help support our rescues.