Anyone keep pet rats?

[Wrath]

Sorry if this has been asked before. Does anyone keep pet rats?

I've meet more than a few feeders that have been petworthy, but it seems creepy to me to keep one as a pet when I'm constantly euthanizing other rats. Sometimes I have fleeting fantasies about keeping one as a pet *chuckle*.

[HetForHuman]

I myself do not keep them as pets, as they are illegal to keep where i live, but i think there is quite a few pwpole on here that do..

[Nicky]

I had a baby pet rat( Gumby), he was orignaly for my cornsnake but when she refused him i took care of him for a pet instead.Despite my efforts thought it died a week later, I was giving it special soy milk because from what I read there lactoice intolerant, I guess it was just to young and still needed its mother milk. I know a few people who keep them though and they can make really cool pets. Some even become responsive to there owners and seem to reconise them. I would really like to buy and adult one some time but I don't have the money, space or time right now.
Kayla

[Linds]

I have three pet rats. I would likely end up with more if it weren't for space and time constraints. Some others that I feel should be pets, I try to place in good homes. I actually used to breed rats as pets for many years, but now they just serve as designer food :p Rats are awesome pets though. My kids are the biggest mooches and all respond to their names. They are always begging for food, can't blame them as they are pretty spoiled :o

Right now I have Winky (a back and white rex), who was a runted, sickly little baby who didn't grow and lost all his hair as a baby. He used to tremble and wink his one eye a lot. He was jsut too cute though, and used to always lick my nose, so I had to keep him. He has since grown in to a rowdy, normal-sized male. Brum is a black retired breeder who was always very friendly when I was cleaning and feeding, he would come up to me and let me scratch his head or back, unlike most of my other rats who see me as the hand of death :p My newest addition, Little Buddy, is a patchwork hairless dumbo who was given to me by a friend who likes to breed rats, but has no use for all the babies so I get them. He has one normal eye, but his left eye is absolutely tiny - just like my little leopard gecko that has a tiny little left eye - so I had to keep him too :p He is still being grown up a little bit before I put him in with Winky and Brum.

[Wrath]

Yeah, I've heard that they are very smart and make good pets. But, Linds, doesnt it make it hard to kill feeders in light of your charismatic little fellas? Or do you just separate the two groups in your mind? :(

[Linds]

I'm pretty good at seperating food from pet, but I do sometimes have a bit of trouble with some of the old breeders that have to go. Sometimes they are just so sweet in personality and they did a great job for me, so I try to place those ones in homes. If I can't, then I just have to do it quick and get it over with.

[dcboas]

I keep a hairless (Rosie)a really strange look for a rat but she is cute.Last weeekend I got a large female rat for my 0:1 columbian, but she was in shed mode.Thus my daughter discovered the rat and named it(Zelda).Well I had planned to feed har to(Eve) anyway but two nights ago we were presented with about 15 little pink wiggly babies,yea for me!Now I will be looking to find a good place for them,cant do it to my kids you know.I do also plan to breed rats soon for me and some friends.

[Auskan]

I keep pets as well as feeders. I don't have any trouble separating them in my mind as one of my feeder breeders is a biter and we have agreed not to like each other. The male is sweet and I can handle and do anything with him but the other female breeder is very shy and doesn't like to be handled. I also took a dislike to her when she escaped the cage one time and was on the lam for a few days during which she chewed through some cords on my computer rendering it useless, and also chewed a big hole in the end of my couch. Therefore its quite easy to just have my breeders as breeders.

My pets on the other hand are really sweet and love to be handled. One is a beige hooded rat who loves people and if you put your arm in the cage she will climb you to get to you. The other is a dumbo russian blue that I paid way too much for and THEN spent a lot more at the vet because I thought she had a respiratory problem (turned out to be allergies). I actually do have them in with the breeders right now as I wanted to get a litter out of them, but I will be moving them back to the pet rat cage in a few days where they will have their babies and will not be bred continuously, as I don't want them to get worn out.

[mykee]

I have a new pet rat every couple weeks, as every once in a while there is one baby born that I just don't have the heart to whack. Mind you, most of my 'pet' rats tend to be rexes. Cute little things, so fuzzy and cute.....

[justinO]

forgive me mykee, but what is a rex? i've heard the term a lot, but i honestly have no idea what a rex is :)

[Cruciform]

My mice are on their second litter. The first litter didn't make it, but momma mouse stepped up to the plate this time and they're doing well.

My first few generations will probably all be breeders, so no whacking to be done for a while yet. I already have favorites though. My male breeder (Willard) is very friendly and curious, and he will remain a pet until he dies of old age. The runt of the litter is half the size of the other hoppers and is the only jet black one in the bunch. It's also looking like it will be relegated to pet status.

I do find myself getting attached to them, but I've done the farm thing in the past, and its easy enough to distance yourself from the animals when you have enough of them and only interact with some in a utilitarian fashion.

If you find one that has traits that you really like, go ahead and keep it as a pet, but if you're only breeding on a very small scale you may find yourself with more pets than food soon :)

[Youkai]

I have four pet rats...

Since I buy my feeders frozen, I have no problem separating food from pet. ;)

Seriously though, like a few have said here, they make amazing pets. All of mine beg for attention and a couple of them respond to their names.

[sapphire_moon]

2 pet rats from my beige females 2nd litter. They are just fatties that beg for food all the time now. lol. It is really hard to kill the feeders. I gas mine though, so I throw a towel over the rubbermaid so I don't have to watch.

[justinO]

to answer your question....... no..... we treat some of our breeders better than others, but we have to remember that after a year they need to go!

We do breed some really kewl looking rats (with lightning bolt on their heads!!!) that prompted us to sell our pretty ones to pet stores as pets, but it's a very small number a month.

I think I would keep one as a pet if i had a dumbo, those ones are so CUTE!

[Lisa]

We have about a dozen pets. most are retired breeders.

[Linds]

Originally posted by justinO
forgive me mykee, but what is a rex? i've heard the term a lot, but i honestly have no idea what a rex is :)

They have a sort of wirey, wavy coat with crumply whiskers... sort of like a stuffed animal. Very cute. I'm currently working on creating orange rexes.

Pic taken from http://www.spoiledratten.com/pongo.html

<img src="http://www.spoiledratten.com/_uimages/pongob1200.jpg">

[mykee]

Linds, I'll have to disagree with you on the wirey coat, my rexes are silky soft and cuddly. Actually, I'm yet to see a wiry-haired rex. Maybe I'm just lucky...
Justin, just like you see in the pic rexes have longer softer fur that is permed-looking. Their whiskers are also longer and curl, like a handlebar moustache almost. They are the cutest things ever, and in my opinion, tend to be less tempermental and more people-friendly than my other, Spragues.

[sapphire_moon]

Mykee, what linds described is a rex-http://www.nfrs.org/types.php?type=coat


it sounsd like you may have a satin/rex cross, just scroll down almost all the way.

http://www.nfrs.org/types.php?type=new

But I'm no expert either. :) just go by what I read sometimes.

Here is the home page-

http://www.nfrs.org/index.html

[annieb_mice]

I have several "pet" breeders... one in particular, Nicodemus, is my favorite rat! He's around 2 years old now and is a big sweetheart. I've pretty much retired him as a breeder now, but I don't have the heart to kill him off. I also breed dumbo rats and most of them are so sweet that I try to keep them as breeders. Once in a while when I have some REALLY cute babies, I keep one or two as breeder/pets. I use CO2 to kill my animals and I don't usually have a problem killing the feeders off when I need to. They die quickly and don't suffer, so I don't feel so bad about killing them. :) I also have several rexes and hairless.
Take care
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[HeatherK]

There may be coat differences in rex rats that makes them feel slightly different from one another. Some of them are also much wavier than others. I had two pet black berkshire dumbo rex rats (that's a mouthful :) ) that were the sweetest laziest boys. They would just hang out on their cage 'hammock' all day, and were trained to give kisses for treats (they caught onto this extremely fast and thus would always try to kiss me when I'd take them out.. real pigs with their food ;) ) Unfortunately we lost them early. I've had numerous other pet rats, and have one left right now which was purchased from a breeder. Healthiest rat I've ever had, will be 3 in August. Just your standard black hooded rat :) I didn't think she would make it this far as her sister died a long time ago from cancer and they tend to get very attached.