Hey! I'm finally allowed a rat after 2 years of asking... but not only 1, my dad said I'd have to get 2 because otherwise it will be lonely. So I have a few questions:
1. Would it be better to get 2 rather than 1? Why?
2. Are they hard to look after?
3. Males or Females? Why?
4. Is there any difference between normal rats and dumbo rats?

You don't have to answer all the answers to get 10 points. Just as much information as possible. Thanks!

Well i had just one rat and it did fine by it's self

i suppose two rats would hurt by make sure they are both female or both male otherwise they will reproduce like rabbits.

I had a pet rat when i was five and it was not hard it take care of

Doesn't matter on gender as long as it comes from a good breeder or pet store

You NEED to get 2. Rats are very social animals and will get depressed and lonely if not in pairs. pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

It depends on what you consider hard to look after. I dont think they are. I just feed them once a day, change the newspaper in the bottom of their cage once a day, clean their whole cage once a week, get them fresh water every day and give them lots of love and attention.

Females are hyper and wont stop moving. Males are lazy and more cuddly. I like males better because they are more cuddly.

The only difference is their ears. Otherwise they are the same.

This is a great rat website.
http://www.goosemoose.com/
You should look around that website. There is everything you need to know about rats.

Please adopt. You can look on petfinder.com or at shelters and rescues.
Pets from pet stores are sick, pregnant or have parasites. Pet store get their animals from mills and if you buy rats frmo them you are supporting those mills. You may end up with a male and female since pet stores dont know how to sex the animals they sell. The rats are also not socialized. Its just way better to adopt and save rats.

If you are going to have it with you 24/7 get one, if you are going to be busy and only take care of it for a bit, get two (so it WONT be lonely) Rat's are lovely animals, not hard at all I think my cat is harder! males I heard are better, the females get temper issues. If you are going to get two, make sure they are from the same litter and boy-boy or girl-girl. Always ask the breeder if they are feeder rats or pet rats. Feeder rats are inbred and tend to have temper problems.

rat parent

Rats are social animals. I had 3 at once and they thrived better than my lone rat. A lone rat will do fine if it gets A LOT of attention. They are pretty easy to care for. Clean the bedding once a week depending on cage size might have to do bedding changes more often. Give them lots of chew toys because they love to chew. Males stink more than females but i find both are very social. If you get two you must get the same sex unless you want babies running around. pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
I loved my rats. I would get them at a young age and make sure they were handled a lot when they where younger because if not they may not want to be handled as much. I has mine litter box trained. Yes you can do it, its very easy and it makes clean up much easier. They sell litter boxes for ferrets, thats the type of box i used because it connected to the cage. My advice is chew toys will be your best friend. If they are bored they might become aggressive. Mine loved to eat peanuts. Good luck have fun with them.

Congrats on your new pet!
My boyfriend and I are the proud owners of two beautiful rats!
They are brothers!

I'm not sure if it is proven to be better to get two, but I know that our rats would have been lost with out each other! They can get lonely, especially when you're not around to play.

They aren't very hard to look after. We give our fresh food and water daily and clean they're cage 1-2 times a week. They like to bury themselves in bedding so be sure to give them plenty of that! And handle them as much as possible to keep them from becoming aggressive. pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com

I'm not sure whether it is better to have males or females, we have two males and we haven't had any problems.
I would however get two of the same sex that way you don't have little baby rats scurrying around.. Unless you want that.

Our rats are considered Large rats, they are about 10in long. Dumbo rats are a bit smaller and have very large ears. Google a picture, they are very cute.
You can find just about any sized rat that you'd like. Small, medium, large even extra large!

Do you have any names picked out?