Rats

[Lochnevis]

Does anyone have any rats? I used to have 3. 2 Brown hooded and an albino. I loved them to bits. Even had them trained. I really miss them. They loved their baths and getting their teeth cleaned.

[Pucci]

Ya know, I was about to recommend you call in the exterminators til I realised you meant PET rats. I don't keep rodents (sorry, no offense). But I think my terriers would cause a bigger offense in all reality.

Yesterday my two caused complete havoc by trying to teach my laptop at the house how to fly...across the kitchen and a nasty crash landing on to the kitchen tiles. Needless to say, there was a one-way exchange of words from me to the Border Terrier. I'm thinking maybe rats might be easier....

However, on second thought, we spent a considerable expense and time getting rid of the unwelcomed and very uninvited guests last winter when construction started at the field across the road from us last winter - so the rats thought that my house was good for a B&B. I would lay in bed and SWEAR we had elephants in the attic.

[Lochnevis]

haha. There is a big difference between pet rats and the pest rats. They are so loving. The only reason i dont have one at present is because they dont live long and id rather not have to go through the heartbreak as i did with my last 3 Monty, Ben and Dylan.

Arent Border Terriers full of character!

[veetee]

Just came across this............I used to breed fancy rats for quite a long time. I developed a strain which were silver on the top half (not banded as usual, the full top half) and white underneath. I also bred ones which were black with white flashes on their noses. At one time I had over 20. Unfortunately lots of people dont realise how good they are as pets. I was running mine down as I planned to have a litter and needed more room in the spare bedroom, I was down to about 12 when I bought a new bag of food which must have been contaminated somehow. The next morning I found two big tanks of females all curled up together like they were asleep, but they were dead. I only had one big old male survive, he lasted another year.
I sent samples to the food company but they never got to the bottom of it.
After that I never got any more, but I would definately recommend them over hamsters, gerbils etc. Some of mine lived til they were 5 or 6.

[queenfairypants]

I would definatly get rats over hamsters etc I grew up around pet rats at a friend's house

This is why people don't get them as pets because they think they are smelly and full of disease, so are most wild animals!

I used to have a mouse who I would have trained if I had known it was possible then. He lasted 1.5 years and today I got his old cage out to get his ball out to give to my friend and their hamster he was called sweet pea. The dog was rolling the ball around and acting like he was in there...eeeew I need to give that a good clean if she can still smell him! (it's been in the shed and don't worry I didn't purposely try to stress my dog or my mouse out!).

He was such a character but I think he was a bit lonely. I got him off a friend who had mice, and one of them decided to have a sex change, was meant to get two but sweet pea was the only one they managed to contain. He was so tame because of always escaping then being caught and handled to be put back in his cage when he was still with his family. Infact he was on the loose for the first day in our house because the cage was all wrong for a mouse, he was so tiny! It feels like a little dream now, I miss him! I knew the end was coming before it came, then when it did his bed box thing was so cold

I actually find small animals harder to look after, or maybe it was because he was soley my responsibility. Or maybe I'm just terribly lazy! Urgh I feel all guilty now.

[Lochnevis]

I do miss my boys. Somehow i dont think my 3 min poodles and Weimaraner would get along with rats. But i would def reccomend them are the best small animal! Ill need to post a pic of my boys. (At a later date as i have a day off show dogs to do for tomorrow! )

[CKelly22]

I used to have hamsters but I couldnt have anything like that now because they smell a few days after cage cleaning day lol. I tried lavender scented sawdust though which seemed to help a bit. My last hamster Zippy was a long haired albino and I loved him to bits, but at about a year he developed this weird skin condition. It started off as two tiny spots (like acne) on his back and gradually he became overrun with the things and they were MASSIVE. Took him to the vet and they gave me this stuff to put in his water which did diddly squat. There were stacks of these huge big things growing under his chin aswell and eventually the poor wee mite had them growing inside his ears and had to have one ear amputated and they took away the biggest majority from under his chin. Poor wee soul didnt last very long afterwards it was a shame. Anyone ever heard of or experienced anything similar with rodents? The vet never seemed to find out what it was he had.

Never had rats but always thought they looked big and dopey and cute hehe. My dad is terrified of them though so I think its a no-no in our house

[queenfairypants]

yes, sweet pea my mouse had really bad ears, he would scratch at them, one more than the other so he had like open sores. The vet gave me stuff to put in his water that never did anything either and bathing them with water on a cotton bud just made him scratch at them more and try to clean them himself more, she said it was probably just something he was prone too. I did research into the right things for a pet mouse before and while i had him like with his bedding and i bought him toys to keep him occupied, but i think it was to do with him being on his own but i couldnt help it. My intention was to have two from the same litter that didnt happen and i couldnt risk buying another male mouse and having them kill each other or buying a female and having baby mice everywhere! can you tell i still feel guilty about his ears? a lot of people would say 'oh it was only a mouse' he was my fur baby!

haha he weed on the vet! she got him on the table under her hand so he started screaming and then the dog started crying, it was cute even though the dog was like 'aaaah whats happening, am i next!!?'