How to Have Fun With a Pet Rat

By Ryn Gargulinski

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

Fish tank with screen top
Hiding places
Water bottle
Pine shavings for bedding
Dog food
Rolly ball
Rat

Step 1:
Get the accessories. Most pet stores sell 10-gallon or larger fish tanks with clipped screen tops. Also stock up on pine, not cedar or chloroform, shavings. The cedar can cause respiratory problems and the chloroform turns their tails green. A water bottle, hamster or bird houses for hiding, the rolly ball and anything safely shred-able, like a cereal box, round out the mix. Rats like to eat dog food.
Step 2:
Pick the rat. In my many years of rat keeping and breeding, I found the most useful way to pick a new rat is to simply stick your fist in the pet store’s rat tank. Most of the rats will be terrified and run from you, but if you leave your hand in there long enough, a few may come tentatively sniffing over. Pick one of those unless you want a really scaredy-rat.
Step 3:
Get the rat home and cozy in his new environment. Fill the water bottle with room temperature water as too hot or too cold can cause illness, like diarrhea. The rat is going to be terrified of you and his new envrionment at first, so don't be alarmed if he wants to bite you when you handle him. He'll get over it. So will you.
Step 4:
Handle the rat daily. Constant contact with your new pet will insure he gets used to you. Plop him on your shoulder while you’re doing the dishes. Let him run up and down your extended arm. Give him some room to run around the bed, provided you don’t let him jump off and run away.
Step 5:
Introduce the rolly ball. Sold in several sizes, these enclosed plastic contraptions will let your rat roll around the house, banging into cupboards and often scaring the dog. With enough reinforcement, you’ll eventually get him to roll your way when his name is called.
Step 6:
Enjoy. Rats can be trained to do a number of amazing feats, like even play basketball. Work with him daily and don’t forget to show him how much you love him.

Tips & Warnings

Watch your dog or cat. Other household pets may want to eat the rat. The best way to get rid of this urge is to let the dog or cat be around when the rat is in the rolly ball. Yell “No” each time they start batting the ball and soon they’ll just ignore the rat in his ball or, like one terrier does, run from it!
Rats only live about three years so make the most of your time with him.
Rats do well as solitary pets, as long as you pay enough attention to them. You can also get two rats but make sure they are the same sex unless you soon want dozens of baby rats.
If you want two rats, get them at the same time from the same cage so one does not end up killing the other.
I found dog food and dog treats to be the best nourishment for rats. It keeps them big, shiny and healthy.
Rats are very susceptible to respiratory ailments and tumors. Treat the former with bird medication. The latter is usually not deadly but looks really ugly.
While rats can be trained to live on a bookcase shelf or such place with no cage, this only works if you don’t have other pets that want to eat him. This also doesn’t work near an open window, as I kept a rat once in New York City, who ended up going out every night, making friends with the street rats and bringing them home.
Don’t place the rat cage in direct sunlight, near a heat source or by an open window.
Don’t feed the rat hotdogs, roast beef or anything else that could resemble human fingers unless you want the rat to bite your hand each time it comes near.

Photo/Video Credit

Photo of Mica by Ryn Gargulinski

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