Hey guys/gals,
Rather odd question I know, but it's something I've been pondering for a few days. I have a trio of rats right now...two males and one female (and one female loose in the house
, long story for another time) that I bought from the reptile shelter I volunteer at. I had pretty good success breeding mice and wanted to stockpile rats as my gopher snakes grow and move to those sized animals.
Anyways I immediately see difference between rats and mice, with rats evidently being MUCH more intelligent, I find myself just enjoying watching them run around their cage and do their rat thing. I'm finding many feeder breeders end up taking such a liking to their breeders that they basically become pets. As of now my rats are a bit terrified of me. I can scratch their noggin and stuff like that but most of the time they huddle in the corner and try to hide their heads from the world.
My mice seemed to enjoy being left alone, but the rats seem a bit more social. I'm wondering if by having a bond with the rats will create healthier, "happier" animals that produce healthier pups? I couldn't find any studies on this, so I'm assuming everything at this point would be speculation. Even still I'd be interested to hear some opinions from feeder breeders who do this on a small enough scale where socialization is viable.
So far I really enjoy keeping them. Looking forward to the first litter.
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