Can I please have as much information about rats as possible as I am hoping to get a couple and need to know about them.
How much time do you need to spend with them a day, how much cage space do they need, how to teach them tricks etc.
Thanks in advance!
Yay! I could spend DAYS telling you everything about them! Lets start wiiithh .. Cages.
Generally, because you need two rats or more, and they need a lot of room each, when you find a cage, just enter the mesurements here:
http://www.rattycorner.com/odds/calc.sht ... to find out how many you can keep in that sized cage. A hamster cage is too small, a chinchilla or ferret cage is fine as long as the cage bars aren't too far apart from each other, and some rat cages are actually a bit small, so this calculator is very nifty:)
Next .. Food!
It is soo cheap to feed rats. It costs about 1 pound for a bag of rat food, but they eat what you eat! They just loovvee bits of veggie's, fruits, breads, nuts, oats, cheese, seeds, ahh! The list is endless (There's a few foods that you should look out for but you'll have to find them yourself, just search food you can't give to rats into google!) Some sites give diets they have made up themselves, etc etc. It's all out there for you to find!
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
Play time ..
They need about half an hour to an hour of individual attention a day, and then every now and then, or even every day, some time running around a rat-proofed room like a bathroom, while you sit in the middle, it's so sweet ! You can lie in an empty bath and let them crawl all over you, nibble your nose, ears awwwh! It's amazing how much they interact with you!
Taming!
Taming is easy peasy. Just get them from a breeder, who handles the babies from birth. You wont even need to tame them. That's what I did, and I can't keep my rats in their cage when i open the lid. They go mad when they know they're gonna come out and play! They really love it. Buttt, if you do get them from a pet shop (Please dont: () then you will need to tame them. This is simple, you just need to hold a spoon with yoghurt on it in front of their noses until they learn to lick things before nibbling them. Then, when you give them a treat from your fingers, they will be very gentle. They you let them walk onto your palm with a treat in the middle, and eventually you can pick them up. They just need to learn to trust you, and if you don't hurt or scare them, that'll only take a few days/a week! And never force them out of their cage. Bribe them, by all means, but never grab and pull.
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com Biting:
Loadss of people ask 'Do rats bite?' Well .. Yes and no. They don't bite if you hold them, tickle them, turn them upside down, bathe them, annoy them, tease them, hold them when they're in pain. HOWEVER, if you really hurt them, or scare them for life, yes of course they will bite you. Wouldn't you bite a big hand coming down at you when just yesterday that same hand hit you? I'm not saying you're going to hit your rats! But I'm just pointing out that that would be a reason they would bite. When I put my fingers at the bars, they nibble my fingers, but soo gently it feels like a lick. That means they're grooming you, and that they love you, so LET THEM DO IT!
Tricks .. Hmm ..
Well, my rats are still young, but I do know that it doesn't take a lot of searching on youtube to come across some 'how to teach a rat to fetch' or 'stand' or 'spin'. And it is so cute when they do do it. They make it look easy, but I personally havn't tried it yet!
pets question and answers,www.5d2d.com
Genders .. Which to choose, eh?: D
Well. Girls are very inquisitive, nosy, explorative, more likely to get lost (Lol), but happy to run around you are are very fun to watch. Boys are more .. lazy hehe, and will sit on your shoulder for aagges, easier to toilet train, (Though my baby girls are already getting the hang of it) fun and will curl up on your laps. However, they do have big ballz, and scent mark (Leave a little drop of sometimes-smelly wee on you and your things!). Mind you, some girls scent mark, some girls end up being lazy, some boys are explorative, etc. It really depends what you like. The breeder should let you hold a boy and girl, so you can probably make your mind up then like I did:)
they are sweet, nice and breed like flies so if you don'tt want a lot of rats get the same sex and when you buy stay in the same cage so they do not fight
i hope this helps you:
http://ratfanclub.org/helpinfo.html
