You would not suspect it, but rats are excellent pets.

Unlike other rodents, rats rarely bite. When there are several in a cage, they almost never turn on each other. Gerbils, mice, and hamsters will attack members of their own community quite often, and are prone to biting their human companions. Rats also give little rat kisses where they will like your nose, which is just too damned cute.

I have had 4 rats in my life and never once been bit. I hand feed them most of the time. If they are confused, they will lightly put their jaw around your hand to test the difference between the edible food and your flesh, but they never clamp down. Believe me, you would know it too. I have seen both Quarantine and Fallout chew through metal screens on their cage doors. I am talking 4 inch holes with no apparent remains at the bottom. Rats are tough little customers.

Sadly, rats are very prone to cancer. They live about two or three years, and eventually get cancer. I do not like to see them suffer. Most people just kill their rats when they get cancer, but I think that is really a screwed up thing to do to another life form.

I know of a micro surgeon in Denver who works on exotic pets and actually is skilled enough to remove tumors from rats which is what I do when my rats get cancer. It extends their life usually another year. It is expensive, but worth it when you know that you saved a little being.

 

 

I used to hate rats, until I met my first one Quarantine. The first time I saw her, she was this little black puff peeking out of my friends pocket at me during a birthday party for her first owner, a girl I was dating at the time.

I loved that rat. I don't know why, but they way she always liked to be around me, she always licked my hands and crawled on me, it was very reassuring.

 

 

 

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