I am thinking about getting a rat?

Question

My mom is thinking about getting me a rat. I need alot of information on rats. Like what do they eat? What kind of bedding should I use? How old are they usually when they die? How do u tell if they are sick? I need more information too soo please help....I am 12 years old so don't say don't realy on ur parents or anything cause i don't have the money and my mom is willing to spend her money on the rat...

Answer 1

Hello there, I think I can help you. Iam the owner of a ratshelter in the Netherlands. But first of all, never buy one rat, always buy two. Rats are pack animals and highly sociable. So if they are alone they soon get bored and get a lack of confidence. As a bedding never use woodchips, a rat has a highly sensitive respartory system, so he/she will start to sneeze and get sick. It is to dusty. I use a cotton bedding and they call it: No Smell. It is dust free and the rats love it. As food you best buy Reggie rat food. It contains all the vitamins they need. You also can give them little treats like yoghurt drops, apple, young cheese, and they love peanut butter. Well I hope this will help a bit, and you always can reach me with questions at my Yahoo 360 page: http://uk.360.yahoo.com/meijered or here on Yahoo answers. See my profile. Have a lot of fun with your rattys, and I can tell you that they are very sweet and clean animals. I got 10 rats at home now. Bye Bye. http://www.freewebs.com/ratshelter

Answer 2

I am twelve two and I convinced my dad to let me get a rat and now I have a Female rat named Honey. They make such great pets and are soo smart! They can be taught so many tricks including their names! You can just buy a bag of mixed rat food at the store and cut up a few fresh veggies and fruits at home. I recomend the Carefresh bedding because some beddings cause respitory infections and other problems. They usually only live about 2-3 years some less some more. The cage cost more than the rat while my rat cost ten dollars her cage was 28 but we had a cupon too. If they have a red substance coming out theier ears or nose that means they are sick or stressed. When you get your rat make shure you look for bright eyes, no bald patches, no red around nose ears or eyes, and look for cuts or scabs.
Im shure you will love your rat just as much as I love mine
Good luck with your new rattie!

Answer 3

Hi,
If you are thinking about getting a rat, firstly you need to think about if you have the space and time. They will need a big cage to live in mine is the Jenny ferplast cage which is 80 x 50 x 79cm enough to keep up to 4 rats (anything suitable for a ferret or chinchilla) as many 'rat cages' aren’t big enough. They are intelligent animals and will need at least 30+ mins of your time out of the cage a day. I also highly recommend getting a pair of the same sex, as they are incredibly sociable animals and need to be stimulated a lot. They will eat pretty much anything (especially stuff that’s not good for them) and you'll be able to find ready made rat food mixes in many pet stores. With reference to bedding you'll need to get any which is dust free-pine shavings is a bit no! They are prone to breathing difficulties and this will aggravate it and often cause severe respiratory problems. I use recycled paper or shredded cardboard, some use the paper cat litter which is also effective. What sex? Well the two are slightly different, the females are smaller, less smelly and extremely active and the males are more likely to sit in your lap, bigger and because they scent mark they are the slightly smellier ones (my preference!). They live up to 3 years and their main illnesses are respiratory & tumours (mostly in females). It might be worth looking on the internet to find out a bit more about them. Most of all they make wonderful pets and are highly rewarding to keep. Good luck!

Answer 4

If you're in the market for a rodent the Rat is the best choice you could make. They are VERY friendly, you can handle them w/o getting bit. They do LIKE to be around other rats so you might want to look at getting 2. Our last group lived for 2 years and made wonderful pets.
They eat a simple diet of rat pellets available at most pet stores.
They can develop respitory problems from cedar bedding but there are other styles available.
My girls had females, did not care for the "appendages" of the male variety.
Good luck!

Answer 5

First off, get two rats not one as they are social creatures and hate being alone. Rats get tumors, females more often than males. Rats live for about 3 years (average). Female rats are generaly more inquisitive than the males and will run around a lot. While they are very lovable females do not like being held in one place but do like to crawl all over you and like to run down your shirt in in a jacket. Male are much less active (or mine have always been) but do like to mark their teritory (They pee on things) but they don't mind being held.
Locate a vet they has experience with rats as by the time you figure out your rat has a problem you don't have long to get them to the vet. There are many groups on the internet about rats ([e-mail]) and they can provide you with everything from health knowledge to feeding tips to cage styles and are an excellent source of information about rat problems.

Now with all that said, rats are wonderful pets, they are lovable, smart. playfull and fairy easy to care for.

Good luck.
Julie

Answer 6

Rats make great pets. I had one when I was young and trained to him walk on a leash. You can train them to use a litter box too! The life span depends on the size and what kind of rat. I had mine for 7 years. There are a variety of food on the market for them. I would suggest buying a book or going online under "How to take care of rats as pets" As for bedding, we buy the bedding made for hamsters. Mine use to love toilet paper and paper towels to make a nest in. Fresh veggies are great to feed to them. Mine loved Cheeto's, but don't give them a lot. Just as a treat here and there. Good luck. Enjoy your new pet when you get him/her.

Answer 7

I had rats two, aren't they cute!
*They eat any thing, but you can just get them rat food.
* you can get them, hamster bedding
*they usually live for 2 yrs.
*you can usually tell a difference in personality

I was 12 too when I got mine. If you get a wheel to put in their cage, they can usually figure out how to use it. Rats are very smart they can jump far and climb up things and squeeze under doors.
My rats cage was2 stories it was cool!

Tips:
*use kleenex boxes. they love to sleep in them.
*you can also put tissues in the kleenex box, they used to take the tissue from me and put it in there.
*They love to sit on your shoulder.
*Albinos lives are always gonna be shorter.

Names: oreo or blaze

I hope you have fun with your new pet!

Answer 8

ok, run down of the basics.

MUST have 2 same sex rats, lone rats can become lonely and self destruct (pulling out hair, becoming depressed, not eating, becoming ill, etc...etc..)

cage size. MINIMUM is 24"x18"x24", but remember you will have 2 rats, toys, hammocks, food bowl, and water bottle in there so bigger is ALWAYS better! (www.martinscages.com is a good cage site, go to the rat section and ALWAYS get powder coated!) a good sized cage could cost over 200$, when I got mine I spent over 150$ with shipping.

food, either a good homemade mix, mazuri or harlan teklad lab blocks.
www.ratsrule.com/diet is the site for a good homemade mix.

it will also direct you to websites for homemade toys and hammocks.

now for the sad part, rats really do only live 1-4 years.
I personally have spent clost to if not over $300 in ONE trip to the vet for ONE rat.

They can go downhill and go FAST, so if you notice something wrong, get to it to a vet FAST. Every hour you keep him or her home, his or her chances for survival lessen. even a routine checkup is about twice as much as a dog or cat because they are considered exotic.

a good book to buy is the rat health care guide by debbie ducommun. Just because it has the doses in there does not mean you can self medicate! you could O.D it, and kill it!

goodluck, ask your mom if she can afford this and if she would be WILLING to afford this (a credit card and such)

Answer 9

i am 10 and i have 2 rats.they eat every food group including chocolate.use cat litter with not a lot of dust.they are kind and cute.go to google .com and search rats

Answer 10

you may but be careful