08Aug Rats
Rats are really nice pets to have, the are social, curious and smart animals. You can teach them all kind of tricks, like sitting on your shoulder and get them potty trained. If you are considering having rats, you’ld best buy two or more, because they are social animals and like to live together. Many people think this will make them less attached to humans, but this isn’t true. If they are happy in their environment, they will even be more affectioned and they might even compete for your attention. Best is to have rats of the same gender, that is, if you don’t want to have a bunch of baby rats. Female rats can already get pregnant at the age of 4-5 weeks! Then also you have to decide if you would like to have males or females. The females are more active and the males become more calm after they get passed puberty. Both of the genders will urinate a little, but with males this is more common, it has to do with marking their territory. This habit is not likely to learn off, but their urine does not really smell, at least not to humans. If you decide to buy female rats you really should look out if their not pregnant. Best is to buy any rat at a passionate breeder and not in a pet shop, the pictures below will show you why …
Also a plus is that breeders pay real attention to their animals, which is necessary to make them affectioned. A rat should at least get one hour attention a day. So also if you’re planning to have rats, make sure that you are able to spent enough time with them. Also cleaning their cage, can take a lot of time, since it has to be done every week. If you are looking for a nice cage, bird’s aviaries and ferret or chinchilla’s cages are often really good. (Pay attention that the distance between bars should not be bigger then 2 cm.) Also you have to look out for gaps, especially with aviaries, every hole their head fits is big enough to escape. A rat cage needs to be quite big and high, because rats love to climb and clamber. Tereziani cages, especially “Moore” and Ferplast cages, like the “Ferret tower”. Instead of saw-dust, you can use for other rodents, it is not at all suitable for rats, they will get air way problems. Also the cage must not stand in a draft and most likely in a place around people. Hopefully this article can help you in your decision of purchasing rats 