What's the skinny on pet rats? Was reading up on getting

>>2396753
Ive heard they are nocturnal and like to be loud at night

>>2396753
cute
don't live long enough for people who get attached to their animals

>>2396753
what questions do you have? they are wonderful pets. dont love long and vet bills potentially can be high. food can be costly as you have to buy it online. they need a good size cage, but can usually be found for cheap on craigslist. they can eat a lot of fruits and veggies. they are affectionate.

They smell, but not as bad as mice. I always liked playing with the rats in my lab, they're fun little guys

>>2396753
I've had five in the past- they're unique for rodents in that they tend to be really interactive. rats are generally really social and you need to be prepared to spend at least a bit of time with them every day. they also have to be kept in pairs or groups because of how social they are.
they can eat p much anything but just pick up a bag of decent rat blocks like oxbow and supplement with some fruits/veggies and you're all set so they're easy to feed, for a cage a decent ferret/rat cage with levels will do fine.
they're cool animals but they've been bred poorly and a lot tend to be really prone to respiratory infections and tumors, particularly female rats. they also only live around 2-3 years, sometimes less, so they might not be for you if you aren't ready to deal with losing pets.
tldr: they're friendly and easy to care for but they're little cancer machines and not for everyone

>>2396753

They're great, but their common health issues like tumors and short lifespan are something you need to be honest with yourself about whether you can handle or not.

Also, keeping one rat on its own is just inhumane, no matter how much time you spend with it. They're incredibly social and isolation mentally fucks them up, so you want at least two.

>>2396770
Yes but you can play with them all day and they'll sleep during the night. I adjusted to my rat's schedule instead of trying to get sleep at night.

>>2396814
It really doesn't when you have certain males, they keep them alone in pet stores and you can always get old males that just don't care for other rats. They're more prone to become attached to you, I never had to keep my rat cage closed for more than 2 hours while I shopped, but I also didn't leave the house.

If you have problems like this, you have an extremely inbred hooded rat or other worthless rat variation.

Too cute, too fun, too affectionate, too intelligent for their short lifespans.

I owned three, they were amazing. I will never own them again due to the pain of their abrupt deaths.

Great pets, smart, cute, cuddly, etc. except for their short lifespan and their huge-ass expensive cage. Also people might think you're a weirdo.

>>2396887
Also they might pee on everything and chew up wires and electrocute themselves if you let them out unsupervised.

Have owned 12 rats over past 15 years. They prefer to be kept in small groups rather than being left on their own. You can keep them in big ass packs if you so wish, but that's a lot of work and expensive to maintain.
Might be coincidence, but from experience Dumbos tend to live longer than Fancy.

>>2396771
this x10000000.

Basically a very intelligent and loving animal, but only lives long enough for you to fall in love with it then die.