The Shrine

Well a few years ago I got three pet rats and I have a few things to say,

• They are easier to train than dogs, although this might have to do with their smaller size. Other small animals I have owned were completely untrainable (hamsters).

• Diets are easy, while it is good to feed a steady petfood diet - there are pellets you can buy specifically for pet rats and mice - they will thrive on a mix of vaggies and healthy cereals as well. They love mixed greens (baby romaine and other leaves, bought at any supermarket) and other greens like brocolli, carrots are also great. Small treats of chicken are nice once in a while. Rats are omnivorous.

• Use cat litter, not wood chips, I use "yesterdays news". Woodchips have a high chance in causing lung infections.

• DO NOT get them from a pet store, get them from a non-mill breeder. My guys are very healthy still, and very active at 3 (and I know from the breeder that their parents are still around and nearing 4). Pet store rats are highly susceptible to infection which result in lifetime health issues and much shorter lifespans (about 1.5 to a little more than 2 years). I have had friends with petstore rats, they were all very sneezy and those who didn't die of breathing disorders and its complications, died of cancer. A year ago one of mine developed a tumor, it grew almost as big as he did and went necrotic - the vet was able to operate and save him and he was almost fully recovered in a few days (energy and personalitywise) and recovered all lost weight and strength in about a week and a half - and has not had any issues in the past 14 months or so - aside from a scar across his belly.

• Last, buy in threes. In twos you will get a dominant and submissive pairing. I have seen no pecking order between my three, although they do playfight like kittens all night.

We kept pet rats for a while a long time ago.

We used the egg crate fluff material? Pine and cedar (definitely don't use cedar!) causes respiratory problems.

Rats are very sweet pets, very intelligent. They are definitely susceptible to tumors and cancer, since they are bred for testing.

I got into rats when I volunteered at the science museum. I worked in the "Science of Sports" display and we had 2 rats (Ratrick Ewing and Hair Jordan) that played basketball. super cute! About an hour before the show I would parade one around on my shoulder and let the kids touch him. I loved freaking out the moms

Heh, I miss the Greek rats we had. Especially Morpheus, the albino one.

They have established many different types of breeds now.

The Siamese is an older breed, but they didn't become overly popular in North America at first due to bad breeding which actually yielded some nippers - they had to bring over more from Europe which were very tame. Two of mine are Siamese, and one thing about them is their fur is longer and thicker.

The third one I have is a dumbo, essentially they have larger ears and the ears are more to the side of the head giving them more of a domesticated puppy look. All three of them also have wider jaws than the type of rat we're more used to. All of these traits are to make them more appealing as pets, and luckily it doesn't appear to have a negative impact on their genetics - if anyone had a Teddy Bear Hamster in the 1990's, you'll know what I mean (Teddy Bear Hamsters were more frail and short lived; luckily, it looks like the newer breeds of rats might actually be stronger than the traditional domestic breeds, but I like to think it is mostly due to proper diet and treatment).


Another thing I like about rats is their very different personalities ; one loves to be held and will always run up to my shoulder; another one is very vocal and will squeek at just about everything his brothers do, or if he is approached while he has food; the third one is shyest, but sometimes he'll be sitting down calm, and then he'll get spooked by something and dart down into the safety of a box or whatever kind of shelter I have set up for him - similar to how some cats behave. They have different food preferences - for example, two of mine love carrots, the third will only eat them if nothing else is available.

The smallest of the three, the one who likes to ride on shoulders, and the one with the belly scar, also does something very funny. Rats are not known for their eye sight, especially ones with ruby eyes, but this guy will sit on the top floor of the cage and when the timing is right, he will jump down and ambush one of the others, sometimes you'll hear this tremendous screech, that is the dumbo rat I have (the vocal one), and it means he has just been ambushed =P

Actually Morpheus was a Siamese Dumbo double rex When his hair was in (double rex are so curly their hair falls out sometimes like a hairless.), you could see the Siamese coloring.