Single hen

[Joojoo]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153931/On-rat-walk-Rodent-strikes-pose-budding-fashion-photographer.html

[Snowy]

Have to admit, they are seriously cute pics

[Egluntyne]

*shudder* not keen myself...but great to see another Daily Mail reader 'come out'.

 

They are marginally cuter than the dead rat I found behind one of my compost bins on Saturday.

[Chickvic]

Lovely pics but aren't rats social creatures and meant to be kept in pairs Myy DD wants rats for her 13th birthday - still got 2 years to change her mind!

[Chook n Boo Mum]

No still can't say they are cute those horrid long tails & weird little feet *shuddering over my porridge!*

 

If they escape from their cage they revert to destructive unpleasant creatures like the brown compost-loving type, a friend of mine had this happen to her - I didn't visit for a very long time !!!!

 

Sha x

[TOMWARDFARM]

Chickvic -

 

I recently went to dare I say it - Pets at home to get my son ( 3yrs 3mnths) and daughter (2 in April) a rabbit or some sort of furry creature.

 

When I discussed it with a very knowledgeable advisor she stated she kept rats all her life and they are better for children than Rabbits. They do more, and they are more entertaining. They prefer to have human company than not so when you get them out they are more than happy to sit with you. To my surprise they don't bite unless extremely agitated. (unlike hamsters I had when I was younger, often had a hamster hanging of one of my fingers!)

 

I am always up for a new challenge so we now have our 2 rats

 

I despise anything small that runs faster than me and has a tail but we love our rats.

 

They are meant to be kept in pairs (same sex lol), they are very sociable.

 

My poor cats they have decided that their new cat bed is on a towel above the rat cage (they tease them something rotten, amusing to watch though)

 

Wild Mum -

 

The Fancy Rat (norwegian originally) is different to the Common Rattus Rattus, that you a referring to I would not find a baby rat from the wild and attempt to bring it up as pet!

 

I still won't go near a wild mouse let alone a rat!!

 

 

Christian

[Guest]

we had a pet rat once, he was gorgeous! They're just like puppies, you can play fight with them, they come when called, you can teach them tricks and they are so gentle!

 

The only problem I found was he'd try and nibble everything and the male rats are slightly incontinent and you can't house train them but the pros outweighed the cons as far as I was concerned.

 

We had him for about 3 years before he had to be PTS, poor poppet had a tumour on his jaw

[Chook n Boo Mum]

 

The Fancy Rat (norwegian originally) is different to the Common Rattus Rattus, that you a referring to I would not find a baby rat from the wild and attempt to bring it up as pet!

 

I still won't go near a wild mouse let alone a rat!!

 

 

Christian

 

It was a white creature she had that escaped not a wild one, and kept them (before the 1st one's sad demise!) in the child's bedroom, once it escaped (because said child hadn't secured the cage properly before school ) she said it had trashed a fair amount of stuff & disappeared before they got home after school & work, my skin is still crawling just thinking about it. They spent days trying to get the creature back to no avail.

I'm not suggesting they are flea infested, disease ridden revolting vermin like their wild counterparts, merely as destructive and soooooooooooooooooooo not my cup of tea! But each to their own. Some of my friends think I'm sectionable for having dogs and chooks!!

 

My children gave up asking for hamsters/gerbils/guineapigs/rabbits as I have categorically stated I will have nothing that lives in a cage in our home........some would of course call the walkin run a cage . It also helped the cause when a hamster at the vets clamped it's jaws around my son's finger tip & wouldn't let go.....result: blood everywhere, sobbing child, instant dislike of small rodenty creatures ( ) & bigger notices saying "don't put your fingers in my cage as I bite"

 

Sha x

 

p.s. I was sympathetic to the pain & misery my DS suffered, but "I told you so" and "thank goodness" did cross my mind

[Guest]

puppies are destructive too, not a reason for not having them though

[TOMWARDFARM]

Rats are cute, the boys I have heard are more loving to their owners (will sit next to you), and the females are more scatty and playful (up and down your curtains) I have 2 little girls (I hope) Havent let the roam around the house yet (not easy with a staffie and 2 cats) because they are just a bit too small and I don't want them going under the fish tank or the VCR lol!

 

Rats are great pets I say bring on the Ratglu!

 

I am absolutely petrified of rodents, and other than hamsters and a gerbil I once had that I never picked up didn't have much dealings with them when I was younger.

 

Mainly just the dogs, goats, ducks, geese, hamsters, cats, etc. in our house when I was growing up.

 

Hence why I am surrounding my children with anything that squawks or barks (that's my excuse and I am sticking to it)

 

My sister has always been brought up with 4/5 dogs around her ranging from cocker spaniels to Dobermans but insists that her kids wont have a dog and as a subsequence they are petrified of them.

 

 

Christian

[TOMWARDFARM]

Kids are more destructive than any animal I have come across thus far

 

Christian

[Old Speckled Hen]

When I was working one of my staff had a pair of rats which she used to wear under her clothes It was quite a sight to see lumps appear and disappear under her jumper

They used to get fed a small scale version of her own dinner on a small plate.

I always laugh at "rat food" in the pet shops. What a waste of money when a rat will eat most food that we throw away.

[Guest]

you can't, or shouldn't, feed them solely on s"Ooops, word censored!"s. They need hard things to gnaw on to keep their teeth worn down. Our little chap adored cheesy dog biscuits He had proper rat fod as, like layers mash, it had all the right vits and minerals in it. Then he got dog biscuits as a treat and various other bits and pieces.

 

We used to wrap dog biscuits up in several layers of kitchen roll then stuff the wrapped biscuit into a cardboard tube, that kept him entertained for a while, trying to get the biscuit out

[Old Speckled Hen]

No I disagree.

Yes rats do need hard stuff to keep down their teeth which in common with other rodents, rabbits horses cows etc etc are open ended, grow continually and need wear. But I challenge the need for pelleted commercial rat food. It's just convenient to get it out of a bag just like all in one dry dog and cat food.

[Ana's flock]

We've got pet rats. Had them since July and I wish I had 'discovered' them earlier. My three girls are adorable! Very friendly, love being taken out for cuddles, and one of them purrs when stroked . They are very clean (wash themselves and poo in their little poo tray at the bottom of their cage). Yes, the tails are a bit weird, but hey! we're not all perfect and fluffy! ...and I love their little hands, the way the pick up bits of biscuit like a little person.

 

Someone said once that rats are only squirrels with thin tails and bad PR...

 

They are intelligent and cute - I'm off to give my girls a wee cuddle.

[TOMWARDFARM]

I agree with DA and unfortunately due to lifestyles and lack of time generally people do use commercialised food, but through no fault of their own, they think they are doing the right thing.

 

I will continue to use commercialised food (generally organic with no additives though) because they do have the correct balance of vitamins and minerals that are essential, for all my animals and I then give them their extra bits for the chooks, rats, etc.

 

My staffie is on a strict diet (don't want a fat staffie!) (before any1 assumes it is a strict diet to build muscle on him its not it is merely I don't want to have weight problems for his heart)

 

Christian

[Joojoo]

*shudder* not keen myself...but great to see another Daily Mail reader 'come out'.

 

They are marginally cuter than the dead rat I found behind one of my compost bins on Saturday.

 

That's something else you are responsible Mrs E It's from seeing the little snippets that you've posted on here that I've started reading it myself

 

I can understand why everyone shudders at the thought of rats, but they are such beautiful and very intelligent little creatures. I'd love some as pets, but I think I've got more than enough critters to keep me occupied for the moment.

[Old Speckled Hen]

*shudder* not keen myself...but great to see another Daily Mail reader 'come out'.

 

They are marginally cuter than the dead rat I found behind one of my compost bins on Saturday.

That made me roar with laughter

It sounds like daily Mail readers are marginally cuter than your dead rat

They are not, of course. My Mum reads it

[Joojoo]

*shudder* not keen myself...but great to see another Daily Mail reader 'come out'.

 

They are marginally cuter than the dead rat I found behind one of my compost bins on Saturday.

That made me roar with laughter

It sounds like daily Mail readers are marginally cuter than your dead rat

They are not, of course. My Mum reads it

 

ha ha I hadn't read it like that I would like to think that I am marginally cuter than a dead rat anyway

[Charlottechicken]

Rats make fabulous pets

 

Mine ended up with an assault course in their cage, and some rather fetching sherpa fleece hammocks to sleep in. I left the cage open once and caught them emptying the fruit bowl on the table next to it and dragging their spoils back to bed

 

They also have beautiful little hands

[Seagazer]

My DD used to have a white rat, Frankie, he was very cute but I didn't like his tail. You'd pick him up and he'd wind it round my wrist and it was weird But he was very sweet and we were really upset when he died.

[chelsea]

how cute are they?

 

I love the top pic with the rat on its back snuggled up to the teddy...adorable!

[Ain't Nobody Here]

Those are great photos . I think he's really cute . I've never had a rat but our hamster Oscar is adorable and never bites (the privately-owned pet shop I got him from said that hamsters only bite when they aren't handled enough as babies. Pets At Home and others get their hamsters from "farms" where they are reared in trays and not handled. I'm inclined to believe her - our last hamster came from Pets At Home and bit us quite often .

[Guest]

that makes sense Vicki.

 

Odo, our little boy rat, never bit but the girl in the pet shop who looked after the baby rats, handled them all the time.

 

If he was fed up of play fighting and wanted you to know he was fed up he would hold on to your finger with his teeth but with virtually no pressure applied and you knew he'd had enough He was a lovely little character. We even snook him into centerparcs with us once. We put a pcinic blanket over his cage so "Ooops, word censored!"ody would see him as we drove in. He loved watching the squirrels at the patio window

[Snowy]

I used to hate rats, but I'm now quite keen on the idea of a pet rat. My friend's daughters had a pet rat - Rachel. When the girls got home from school, Rachel Rat's favourite pastime was emptying their back packs. She would trot in and out bringing out all the bits and bobs that end up in the bottom of school bags, and put them all in a little pile. Her favourite find was smarties - she would hide those in her cage. Sadly OH is still very anti-rat - he never succombed to Rachel's charms the way I did.