You can't go wrong with a nice healthy young rat as a pet. Do tell your husband that the female will make a nicer mannered pet if she has another female for a companion. Rats teach each other social behaviours. If a rat play nips another too hard, the other rat yelps and moves away (much as puppies do to each other). This conditions the nipper that biting isn't nice and no one will play with you. This translates into their interactions with humans. Unsocialized, lonely rats tend to bite and be nervous and depressed in their actions, eating and grooming behaviours.

The other issue is with feeding. Rat mixes from the pet store tend to be a lot of waste. Even if you bought some you can bump it up easily with dry stuff from your own cupboard. Check out the feeder forum for TONS of rat information and a stick on Becky's homemade dry rat mix. It's a winner! Also here's a great link on what leftover "human" food to offer a couple of times a week. Rats are omnivores so basically can eat much of what we eat and why not put those leftovers or that last handful of dry cereal or ends of a bread loaf to use. A popular favorite here with our male rat group is leftover peanut butter and jam sandwiches! The boys will sit up and beg for Mikey's leftover lunch LOL.

http://www.ratnutrition.com/suppleme...forbiddenfoods

Teach the little rat that hand fed treats mean you are a friend. Rats are food driven so use that to entice good handling behaviours. Very quickly these smart rodents figure out that yummo treat = be nice to the human persons.