pet, rats

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by frankykeno

Oh I love dumbo's. You wouldn't happen to live near Toledo, OH would you LOL.

---

Sure, I'm close by. It's ONLY a 20 hour drive. :gj:

Awww, they remind me of my baby blue dumbo's! Very pretty, are they selves to boot? lol, very cute ;)

I think rats make great pets they are full of personality and curiosity. My daughter a few years back kept a male as a pet back then we didn't know having a 2nd rat was needed. But he made friends with our jack russel the jack would sit near his cage constantly and she even trained the jack to take the rat for walks the rat would just sit on the jack's back and go for rides. It was a very strange friendship and when the rat passed at about 7 months old the jack moped for weeks. We found it even stranger that the jack was a mouser but never ever tried to hurt the rat.

Good luck with your new pets when you get them Im sure they will bring many smiles to your home.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RambunctiousRatzSFL

Currently I have some very great dumbo babies that would be a good addition as pets. (not feeders, ok)

boys
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2179/...cfeced5b10.jpg

girls
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2028/...bb6854532e.jpg

---

AWWW!! Their SOOO cute!! I want one :D But chances are, if you live 20 hours away from Toleto OH, then you probaby live 19-21 hours away from me. lol.

And thanks for the advice, everyone. Yea, I'll either go for two males or two females then. I like the idea or having a lap rat, but then again sense they send to drag their 'sent' around to mark their territory- not too fond about that.. lol..

we have pet rats and ABSOLUTLY love them

I took a class here at UConn called "Lab Animal Science" and we basically learned everything you need to know to keep lab animals practically, safely, and comfortably. (Believe what you want, I've seen lab facilities where animals are happier than they would be in a lot of other places.)

Anyhow, IACUC (Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee) says that all animals being housed need enrichment and proper food and water. We housed 2 rats in each VERY small tub, with food pellets on the top and a waterer and let me tell you, they thrived. You don't need much to keep a rat happy (although big cages and playthings are perfectly fine.) Same sex pairs are great together and it seems very likely that one of the male rats talked about earlier had a bleeding injury, rats go after blood and they will absolutely kill another animal. (We did surgery on our males (castration) and one rat's suture opened and before we even noticed it the other males just waking up had killed him.)

My whole point in typing that was just to say that they make very fun pets, are incredibly easy to keep, in next to no space (though a nice big cage is great) and there is nothing wrong with keeping them in same sex pairs, we did it for 3 months with weanlings growing into mature rats and everyone did fine except the one that was killed after surgery.