Rats are a wonderful pet and easy to take care of! “rats are amazing intelligent, interactive, loyal and affectionate!” –Bill (didn’t have a last name) http://www.fancypets.com/  I want to teach a little about what it is like taking care of a rat and the responsibilities. First things first, the living arrangements. Its typical for the rats cage to be living in your room. Also the cage type. The most popular cages out there are: cage/bars and aquarium tank. I personally prefer cage/bars. But it doesn’t stop there with the cages, you also have nest box, rabbitt hutches, cavy cage, and cabinet cage. But never ever use a hamster cage for your rat!

The latest research has shown that since rats have the same insides as human (heart, liver, kidney, bladder, ect.) they can eat just as well as humans! The only real difference with rats and human insides are a rats rib cage is made out of cartilage and humans are bone, and rats are unable to throw up so this means don’t give a rat to much alcohol or it could kill your furry little friend. instead of keeping your rat on a steady diet you could just give your rat plain rat food. That’s healthy for them too.

Something else I have learned from resent research it is now necessary to physically clean your rat. But this is needed till the end of your rats days. Which means when you rats bowels start getting loose and there too old to bend over and clean there bottom or struggle to reach there bottom you must come in with a tooth brush and warm water in the sink. Make sure no one else uses this tooth brush after your rat! But its not just the rat you want to clean it’s the cage to! Make sure to scrub your rats cage clean of any pee and poop. This should be done once a week.

Now a rat doesn’t just need a well balanced diet but exercise to! A rat just can’t stay in its cage all day, the rat should exercise an hour a day out of its cage free to run where he/she pleases. But if there’s ever a day you miss of taking out your rat just make sure there’s a wheel in the cage to entertain your rat when you’re not around. Or you could even put a rope in the cage for your rat to climb. They enjoy hanging around.

So now that you’ve had the total update on how to take care of a rat I hope this helps in anyway shape or form.

learning a little more about rats and Dasie her self.

Let me tell you a little about Miss Dasie, my rat. Once a pond a time she had a sister. But when her sister had died I did see Dasie starting to experience depression. I was afraid she would be a goner like pearl. But to my pleasant surprise she got on with her life like I did. Rats have human qualities and are smart. “rats are extremely intelligent in case you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing their smarts for your self.” –Adrienne Kruzer. http://exoticpets.about.com/b/2010/02/17/how-smart-are-rats.htm There mostly friendly, but like a rat they always have to be on the lookout for food. When it comes to food and rats there not picky. In fact they’ll eat anything that’s edible to non-edible. I kid you not my rat coco latterly ate part of my homework. She ate the whole corner of the page. Bu rats aren’t limited to food. They can eat what you eat and won’t get sick like a dog or cat. A rat can even have chocolate, (but only a little!) just like humans if you feed a rat to many sweets they’ll get fat. Feed them a well balance diet like protein, veggies, fruits, and whet, and they’ll live a long life. (and when I say long I mean 4 to 5 years long) in fact my ray doesn’t just get her own rat food; she gets my left over’s from dinner as well.

Dasie lives the life I my view. She plays in the garden, listens to me chit-chat or play guitar, runs around in my room, and she’ll even play with my cat (black jack). But now that Dasie is ageing she’s finally running into some problems. See Dasie has neurological problems. Somewhere along the line Dasie had a stroke and she now has the head tilt. All that means is the signal in the brain isn’t reaching her legs. There four Dasie can’t walk well nor climb like she used to. But each day I see progress in her legs. If you see what I’m saying then you’ll understand that rats are like me and you just in another form. They can’t talk and live in a cage but they’ll love anyone who loves them back.

rats as pets! (the backround)

I’d like to discuss why rats make such an awesome pet! In my short 18 years of living I’ve had four rats total, but now down to one. Each rat that I’ve ever had has never done me wrong. Not even the rat I currently own now. When reading threw my blogs I’ll keep you up-dated on my rat and the life she lives with me and I’ll also explain why a rat is such a perfect pet. But first a little back round to the rats iv owned and currently own now. I think along the lines while reading this you’ll see why I have such a passion for rats.

It first started with coco. She was white with a brown head and a brown line going from her head to her tail. She wasn’t my rat to begin with, she was my step sister’s Emma. Emma’s mother married my father and when she moved in with us she brought her precious rat coco. It was love at first sight. Coco grab hold of my T-shirt at the bottom and climb onto my shoulder. The first time I ever met the rat she loved my shoulder to sit on. It wasn’t long till coco was riding on my bicycle handles, touting threw woods with me , and sharing cream-cheesed bagels with me. My birthday snuck up and I was surprised with a rat of my own. I named her pearl. She was have hooded, have lab rat. She had white fur and a light brownish pearl colored head with a line going down her back like coco’s. Pearl and coco took to each other like sisters. They even rolled in the same ball together. But time went on and old age got the best of coco, peal was never the same after coco’s death. About six months later pearl died of depression.

I went about two years without any rats till the 8^th grade. I bought two rats, they were sisters. Dyane and Dasie. Dyane was the outgoing rat but for unexplained reasons she died from seizures in 2009. I currently still have Dasie till this day. And now here I am blogging on why rats make awesome pets.

That's Dasie, that rat that is still live and well today.