would would you rather a rat or a parrot as a pet?

Answer 1

(I'd just like to point out that all the things (very good arguments too!) that Angel M said about rats, can be said and doubled about parrots! Even the small ons like budgies and cockateils! Think about all those things and apply them to both animals.)

A small parrot, as I feel I wouldn't be able to properly care for a large one (they need heaps of flying room and heaps of large and sometimes expensive toys, not to mention the huge amount of different types of food) Although if I felt I couldn't properly care for a large one, I'd go for any type of parrot over a rat.

But this comes from bad experiences with wild rats (my little brother and his friends once went into a shed and came out with a whole bunch of scratches and two huge wild rats in a cage. They were 30cm long from tail to nose and they were mean...) rather then much prolonged experience with pet rats, which I hear make wonderful, clean, clever pets.

Rats could be less work then a bird, simply because it's easier to get rats to eat a proper diet (birds can be very very very picky and need a huge amount of different foods) and it's easier to get a rat to trust you and feel comfortable in your home as it is an environment that is more like the rats natural one and nothing like the natural environment of a bird. People also seems to buy parrots on a whim because they saw one and fell in love with it, not knowing how to properly care for it. People buying rats tend to do a lot more research before they get them (although this is not always the case)


There are also a lot more vets out there who can easily help you if your rat falls sick and very few for birds, as avian vets are few and far between and way a bird works is so very different to the way a mammal works.

I'd personally rather get bitten by a bird then a rat if it came to that. Although if you treat them right neither is all the likely to bite too badly.

In my opinion, nothing beats the experience of having a parrot (or 5 tiny ones in my case) flying around your head, performing amazing acrobatics. Swooping and dive bombing you or the floor or the wall, only to pull up at the lat second, completely in control and laughing inside at your shocked face. Flying simply for the joy of flying! Although all too often this wonderful experiences is negated by people clipping tehir bird's wings. The millions of other amazing, funny, curious little things birds so always inspire me and bring a smile to my face.

However having never owned rats I can't comment on how this is better or worse then the antics rats would get up to!

I love the noise of all birds and would rather a parrot for their wonderful voice then a rat but living in a small house atm my 5 budgies are quite loud enough. Some people find even the simple chatter of birds annoying and can't stand the variety of other (sometimes really loud!) noises they make.

I much prefer the bird smell over the rat smell and the mess birds make over that of a rat (bird mess being primarily seed hulls and small poops and feathers). But either animals has potential to become really smelly and messy if not taken proper care of and also either has the potential to be a very clean animals and not smell at all.

For me the choice is simple, parrot! But I'm a bird person to the very bones of my body and apart from that one bad experience with wild rats, I really have nothing against them.

Answer 2

We had an African grey parrot as a pet who was pretty old by then (all the feathers on his chest had dropped out and he was blind in one eye)My grandad had got him for my mum when she was a girl,his perch used to sit on my brothers rat cage and the rat used to eat the sunflower seeds and dry pasta dropping on him from above!
A parrot is a very long term commitment much longer than a dog or cat but a rat has a very short life I don't think ours was even five when he died.
We have a corn snake now and that's good too!
Make sure you or anyone else in your house isn't allergic to feathers before you get the parrot if that's what you decide to go with also parrots are very social animals and will get stressed if you leave them alone for long periods (if you are a party animal).

Answer 3

I would go for a rat as they are much easier to keep than parrots. They can both be taught tricks, but a parrot does also need some freedom to fly around and in a small space this can be restrictive for them. Rats are also intelligent and are very easy to handle - as well as being cute!

Answer 4

Neither... A cockatiel!!!!!!!!
they can learn to talk they don't make barley any noise, and rodents can have diseases and pick up allot of diseases. C ockatiels are very afectionate and a well trianed one dosent even bite! Rats/mice bite hard! Rats also run away and eat furnature. Cockateils/parrots can have their wings clipped, so they dont fly away.

Are rats for you?

Can you afford a suitable cage and accessories and most importantly veterinary care when they need it?

Do you have time to spend with your rats, giving them 'out-time' and general love and care and daily handling, plus weekly or twice weekly cleaning out?

Bear in mind rats can be destructive if allowed to roam free, so can you 'rat-proof' the area you will be letting them out in? Rats will chew on wires, furniture, books and anything else that looks eminently chewable! (usually anything that looks expensive or important makes a great target!)

Does anyone in your household suffer from asthma or allergies? It can make it very difficult to keep the rats if a member of the household is being made to suffer because of them.

Do you have someone who will look after your rats when you go away on holidays or in an emergency?

Do you have a good local vet and can you afford to pay for the vets fees should your rat get sick? (see finding a vet)

Rats are for life, even though it's only a short one at between 2-3 years!

Answer 5

Parrot, but I have a funny story...

So, Rio, my Military Macaw has his own room. And, in his room, he has his cage, play stands, all sorts of stuff. Well, one day, I decide to go in and move everything around. Normally, when I clean his cage, I vacuum it all out, change the stuff at the bottom and leave it at that, right? Well, I keep his cage cover (which we rarely use) on top of his cage, folded up.

So, I'm watching him, and I see him take a piece of bread up and shove it into the cage cover on top of his cage. Then I hear all this obnoxious squeaking, and I was trying to figure out what it was without getting his attention, because I wanted him to continue with what he was doing...

I watch a mouse come out of the cage cover, take the bread and go back in. I go in there (thinking Rio is in trouble and needs help, because who knows what a mouse could do to him if he got bit or something, right?) and toss back the cover.

There are not one, but TWO extremely obese mice laying there.

My parrot decided that humans aren't the only ones that get to keep pets in the household. He had been feeding them for who knows how long. There was all kinds of different food bits up there!

We had to have a very strict talk about pet keeping after that...LOL

Answer 6

Parrot, my parrot is almost like a young child. I hate to say this, but as far as a rat goes, the only good thing they are good far is
a rat trap .. I didn't say that did I ? Well I could have said " Glue board".

Answer 7

i would chose a parrot just because they are so unique and not many people can say that they own one also if u take good care of it, he/she will last a lot longer than a rat some up to 30 years. don't get me wrong i think rats are cute too but if i could pick one it would deffinitly be a parrot...good luck with your decision

Answer 8

I say a Cat, a Rat and a parrot. The rat would eat the parrot...; the cat would eat the rat...; and you would eat the cat. End of story!

Answer 9

i would rather have a parrot as a pet becase a rat would kill a parrot and plus parrots can talk

Answer 10

Definitely a parrot