When you are looking for a prospective pet, first impressions count.
BEFORE YOU WELCOME A RAT INTO YOUR HOME, make sure you and your chosen pet are right for each other. Your choice of a rodent instead of the more common cat, dog, or bird should be based on a good understanding of rats’ social, practical, and veterinary needs, which may be more like those of other housepets than you think. Rat ownership is sure to be more fun and more successful if you plan ahead and can answer yes to the following questions: Do you want an active, interactive pet with loads of personality? Do you have at least a half hour (and preferably a couple of hours) each day to care for and play with your rat? Are you prepared to regularly clean the cage and do occasional rodent refuse duty? If you are an adult in a household with young children, will you be there to supervise their interactions with the new pet? Have you made sure no one in your home is allergic to rodents?
So many questions!
If you’re reading this book, chances are you’re already hooked on rats and have set out to learn as much as you can. Kudos to you! That also means a few of you are willing to rule out rat ownership. For example, if you weren’t expecting to clean your rat’s cage at least once a week and pick up his droppings when he’s out for a stroll around the house, rat keeping is probably not for you. If you intend to buy a rat to give your children a pet that will be easier to tend than other animals, you’ll find that rats do not make good pets for small children, who are too young to understand proper handling or rough play. Don’t expect to turn over rat care to youngsters. The responsibility for your pet’s care and safety is yours alone, and you should be available to supervise all encounters between your rat and the children in the house to prevent unfortunate mishaps for all involved. Finally, if you think a pet rat will be less likely to cause allergic reactions than other animals, you’ll find that people with allergies may react to an adult rat even if handling a baby rat (known as a pup or a kitten) doesn’t bother them.
If you’ve done your homework and decided that you are ready to handle the responsibility, congratulations! You’ll be welcoming a responsive, intelligent, trainable pet into your home.
Rats are often an impulse purchase. Unfortunately, as with any impulse purchase, the interest in the animal can quickly fade, leaving the rodent to a solitary life with little stimulation, or worse. Don’t give in to the impulse; advance planning will benefit all parties. To find the perfect rat, check out a few different sources before making your purchase.
It pays to shop around—rats of all kinds are available to the persistent, discerning buyer.
Many people go directly to the pet store, as most shops stock rats as reptile food, with a few of the fancy varieties available for sale as pets. (“Fancy” doesn’t refer to a rat’s appearance; it refers to domesticated rats bred to be owned as pets by rat “fanciers.”) It is important to ask the pet shop manager where the shop’s stock comes from; the stock’s origins have a huge influence on your pet’s social skills, health, and longevity.
A pet store can be a good source if the shop buys rodents from local breeders whose animals have been well cared for under good conditions. Other resources well worth investigating include local breeders, animal shelters, and your nearest fancy rat club. Although you will find a wealth of information and contacts online, it is important to exercise discernment—even a healthy skepticism—about purchasing animals sight unseen. Always try to meet with sellers and ask them questions about their practices.
No matter where you select your new pet, a few minutes of careful observation will help you choose a rat that will be both a good companion and easy to train. There are three main things to evaluate: the rat’s environment and diet, the rat’s health, and the rat’s reaction to human contact.
Simply looking at the rat’s environment will tell you a lot. Sellers who care about the welfare of their rats will keep their cages clean and provide some climbing apparatuses and toys. The food bowl will contain healthy foods such as lab cubes (also called lab blocks) or seed mixture, and the bedding will be soft, absorbent, and ink free. There will be little if any odor. Rats constantly groom themselves and one another. They don’t like to live in filth. A dirty environment jeopardizes the animals’ wellbeing and comfort; a clean environment promotes good health.
There are a few other things to look for in evaluating the health of the rat. First, make sure that no individual in that rodent colony is sneezing. Take a couple of minutes to listen to the rats. If you hear one sneeze, rule out the entire colony. Respiratory infections are highly contagious and often fatal—if one rat shows symptoms, you can be certain the infection has already spread. Don’t waste your money.
Obesity can be a sign of overfeeding or a hormonal imbalance—in any case, be wary.
Second, in general, don’t choose an overweight rat. Healthy rats fed a healthy diet are fairly active and normally do not get fat. A rat that is overweight and lethargic might be sick. There is one exception to this general advice. Rats surrendered to a local animal shelter or humane society for adoption are more often overweight than fit because their previous owners have not had time to interact with and stimulate them. You can still adopt these pudgy pals, though, and help them gradually get back into shape through exercise.
Always take some time to evaluate the social behavior of a rat that captures your interest. Rats are curious by nature and normally move around more once they’re removed from a cage. Well-socialized rats are rarely still when taken to a new place or when being held by a new person. Try to engage the rat you’re interested in with food or activity. Hold him for a while and see whether attention is all he needs to become more active and responsive. Hold him against your chest and listen closely for any wheezing sounds. These could be another sign of possible respiratory infection—in this case, move on.
With his dark head and striped back, the Hooded rat offers a striking alternative to the common Albino rat.
Although rats are social creatures and prefer one another’s company, it takes frequent handling by humans, starting at a very young age, to make them comfortable with their two-legged family members. You can generally gauge how much a rat has been handled by how it reacts when you reach into the cage and place your hand on the floor. A rat that runs in the opposite direction and hides in his house is a rat that wants nothing to do with humans. Perhaps he has been been picked up by his tail or otherwise handled roughly; perhaps he is merely unfamiliar with the presence of a big hand and wants nothing to do with it. Proceed with caution: an unsocialized rat may bite, and that’s the last thing you want your pet to do.
A rat that has been socialized from a very early age (picked up gently, spoken to, and cared for) will readily come to your hand, sniff at it, climb on it, and otherwise show interest in you. This is a winner. This rat won’t run away every time you take him out. Instead, he will want to snuggle and play, learn tricks, and follow you around. And if he starts grooming you with gentle nibbles, take that as the ultimate compliment: this rat thinks you’re one of his kind.
Rats come in a variety of shapes, colors, and coat textures; the choice is up to you and your personal preferences. While most people are familiar with the Albino rat—the rat commonly used as a feeder for reptiles or in laboratories—most are unfamiliar with other types of Fancy rats, which come in a wide array of colors, including black, brown, gray, cream, and agouti (a ruddy brown ticked with black). There is also the Hooded rat, which has a colored head of black or beige and a stripe down the back.
Rats with the rarer varieties of coat include the Rex, which has curly hair, and the Satin, a rat with smooth, soft fur. If you want a unique structure, try the Tailless rat. There’s also the Dumbo rat with, you guessed it, more elephantine ears.
Ever see a Siamese cat? Well, there are also “Siamese-colored” rats. These rats’ heads and ears can range from chocolate to silver. Another rat variety whose name is borrowed from the cat world is the Russian Blue, a slate blue rat first seen in 1993.
There’s even an Odd-Eyed rat with one red eye and one dark eye.
This Patchwork rat sports patches of fur that can change location from day to day.
Have allergies? Ever see the Mexican Hairless Dog and the Sphynx cat? These are relatively hairless breeds that can make life easier on humans with pet allergies. Rats, too, have been bred for hairlessness. This does not mean they have no hair at all. They do; it’s just very fine and short. One variety of hairless rat is aptly named the Patchwork; its hair grows in differing patches from day to day. You never know how your Patchwork is going to look! Both the Hairless and Rex rats have crinkled whiskers and short hair on their faces. Hairless rats, like their canine and feline counterparts, need special consideration, as they are less able to adjust to shifts in temperature and easily catch cold.
If you are looking into rat ownership and you suffer from allergies, spend at least an hour with rats of various types prior to purchase. Some people with dog and cat allergies have no reaction to rats; others have more or less serious reactions to rats. It may be a contact irritation, rather than a true allergy, and may be easy to control with immediate washing after playtime. But it’s always tough to give up a pet you love. Don’t put yourself into a position of heartbreak. Test your reactions a few times, just to be sure.
Rats are very social creatures. Wild rats live in colonies, and their domesticated relatives much prefer the company of other rats as well. A solitary rat will be lonely, move less, and have a shorter life span. I strongly suggest that you invite more than one rat into your life or consider adding a rat to the cage of an existing colony or another solitary rat that needs a companion.
These white domestic rats will keep each other company when their owner’s at work.
There is very little additional work involved in owning multiple rats. The cage may need to be cleaned a day or two sooner, and they’ll eat a little more, but Ben will be far happier having Ira in the picture than being alone.
Notice the use of two male names? Throughout this book I’ll call our trainees Ben and Ira, or Sophie and Irma, to personalize the training process and to make an important point. Do consider owning more than one rat for your pet’s well-being, but never obtain a male and female unless both are neutered. If you have an intact male and female, keep them separated. A rat can start breeding as early as five weeks of age, and a female can produce more than twelve pups per litter with a gestation of only twenty-two days. As female rats go into heat cycles every four to five days, in a relatively short time she can breed again. In no time, you’ll have a colony, not to mention a headache trying to find suitable homes for all those babies. So, keep Ben with Ira and Sophie with Irma. Decide on one sex, and stick to it. And while you’re shopping, note whether the rats you observe are separated by sex; if not, and you choose an intact female, you’re likely to get more than you bargained for—like twelve for the price of one!
Make sure you keep males and females separated, or you will have more rats than you bargained for!
The sex you choose may depend on the activity level you desire. It also has some bearing on the overall appeal of the rat.
Female rats tend to be more delicately built and sleek. They’re half the size of male rats and have little body oil or odor. Females also have a higher energy level than males do and tend to get into more mischief. Females investigate and nibble on everything. They also like to take things and hide them, as their nesting instinct is very strong. A female rat might need to get some play out of her system prior to any serious training. Because Sophie is so active, she might also have more endurance, and a higher tolerance of stressful situations, than Ben does.
Time to play? If you choose a high-energy female rat over a laid-back male, give her plenty of time to run about before training.
As youngsters, male rats have attention spans and energy levels equal to those of females, but as they age, males prefer to laze around more than climb and explore. As they age, male rats also tend to become smelly and their coats become greasy. One way to reduce the development of unpleasant odor is to neuter males. Neutering reduces not only the amount of care males require but also the male rat’s tendency to become aggressive to both humans and other rats. A neutered male rat is happy to just sit on your lap watching television with you instead of crawling around in pockets and going on adventures. And he won’t urine-mark!
Both males and females make good training candidates using the positive reinforcement methods detailed in this book. Keep in mind that a female rat may learn a tad faster and have a longer attention span, but she will need to be watched more closely when running free, as Sophie will be likely to run into things that aren’t rat-friendly. Ben, by contrast, may learn a little more slowly but will be happy to nap on your lap far more than hunt hidden treasures, so if you’re looking for a fellow couch potato, choose a male.
Remember to thoroughly research the traits and characteristics of the rats you are considering as pets before you make your final choice.