I recently bought a baby rat: how big will it get and can I train it?

Question

no sarcasm please

Answer 1

A male rat will get to be about a foot long (body, not including tail) and weigh around 1 pound. A female will be a bit smaller.

You can train a rat as long as you are prepared to spend plenty of time with them. A rat is an intelligent animal and will quickly get bored and fed up with you if they are not given enough attention. You should have your rattie out of the cage to play EVERY day.

It is easiest to train a rat if you have a daily routine. You should feed your rat at the end of his playtime, this way he is hungry enough to pay attention to food treats, and also much easier to put to bed at the end of playtime, because he is anticipating his dinner.

Good rewards for correct behaviour in your rat are ear tickles and foody treats. Your pet store should stock yogurt or milk drops for small animal treats, these tend to be very successful. You should avoid giving cheese, seeds, nuts and meat, because these have too much protein and fat for your rat and will cause horrid skin problems.

To 'punish' a rat for inappropriate behaviour you should use a sharp 'NO' command. If your rat is being very bolshy then you can pick them up behind the front legs and 'dangle' them, this is a very dominant thing to do, and should only be done if your rat is quite confident and not afraid of you.

You should avoid startling your rat by grabbing at it if you possibly can. A rat loves attention, so it is much better if possible to get your rat to come to you. Just sit quietly where your rat can come to you, read a comic or something. If your rat comes over then offer a treat and speak to him gently. Once your rat is reliably coming to you then you can start adding a recall command. A rat will never have the sort of recall that you would expect from a dog - but it should reach the level that a cat will. In fact, a rat can be trained to just about the same level as a cat.

Remember, your rat is a social animal and will get bored and frustrated very quickly if not given enough attention. Imagine shutting a cat up in a cage for weeks at a time and then expecting it to be a good pet when you take it out. The same applies to rats! Good luck!

Answer 2

We have had probably 15 rats in the last 10 or so year. Normally, domestic rats get to be about 6 inches long and get fairly chubby, if you do not have a big enough cage to let them run around in. We made a cage that was 2 feet high by 3 ft wide and about 18 in deep, for 2 rats. Our rats, got very big, because i fed them well and played with them alot so they were bigger than normal, probably about 8 inches long. I would make food at the beginning of the week for them so i didnt have to cut anything up during the week. I diced up carrots, alittle apple, lettuce, small amounts of cabbage, grapes, a few raisins, and put this in a bowl with a damp papaer towel and then covered, to keep it fresh. Then i bought pellets at the feed store and i would put a bowl of pellets in and a small bowl of the fresh food.

Rats are very intelligent, and highly trainable. I had one baby rat once that was so smart, she would just sit right in front of me and listen to me talking. I trained him to go get in his house, to come to me, to find the dogs and some other things. He was one of the best pets i have ever had. He used to sit on my shoulder in the car when i was driving, and if we were going somewhere that he couldnt go, he would get in my pocket and sleep til we were done.

Also, make sure you cover them at night, and don't let their cage be anywhere, where there is even the slightest draft. Rats tend to get colds easily, and pneumonia, as well. I used the medium pine shavings for them so they were less dusty and would'nt get into their resperatory system. I also bought some drops from the pet shop, natural antibiotics, that were great to give them, if you noticed them getting the sniffles, or you can use it like a vitmain for maintenance. You can get these at your local pet shop.

Also, i would suggest gettin another rat to keep that one company, they are very playful animals and do better when they have company and dont get bored, because they will.Just be careful, if you dont want babies:)

Thats all i can think of right now, but you can also train them to their names, they will recognize when you are calling them, over time, they are highly intelligent and friendly animals. Good Luck!

Answer 3

I had two rats as pets years ago and they were good pets. Sizewise I can only tell you they got to be about a foot long,not counting tail,but they weren't fat,so only weighed maybe a pound each. I was able to train them to do many things, including running out at parties and stealing the doobie someone had just rolled (getting them to give it up was a little harder). They took baths and snuggled with me just like cats,but seemed even more intelligent. Best to you and your new pet!

Answer 4

all of the advice here is good advice to follow, i have to rats ( lynard and skinard) . all i have to add is never pick your rats up by the tail as the skin can "slip" off . it's so they can escape from predators skin will grow back but it can get infected .

Answer 5

It can get up to 100 grams. I'm sure you can train it, I heard that rats are actually very intelligent

Answer 6

it will get about a foot long, i would handle as much as possible, the more you handle it the better it will be. also buy a ball to put him in so he can run through the house. i know one he loved to run around the office all the time but always when tired went back to the office where his cage was. so i would definitely buy one of those balls and handle him alot.