pet rat questions

[mommyoftwogirlsca]

If any of you have had a pet rat currently or in the past, how long did it take to gain it's trust and how did you make sure that it didn't get lost in the house when it is out of its cage? We just bought a rat today and were first time rat owners.

[Diorette]

I had one for two years but she died a year ago, she was really sweet from the beginning and she would always come to us we she saw us, I would say treat her nice and don't make her afraid by trying to gain her trust, give her time.

I would be very careful with taking her outside, I don't know if this is what made mine die but I used to take her outside to my garden and sometimes it was kinda chilly, she died from lung problems.

[mommyoftwogirlsca]

Thanks for the advice, really appreciate it. We got a 8 week old so will give it time to get used to us and I'm thinking of getting a exercise ball for it.

[Affi]

I'd be careful with an exercise ball, a lot of them get scared of them, and if they poop in there, the ball needs to be thoroughly cleaned out immediately, and of course if they poop as soon as they're in there it's a sign of fear. It also needs to be nice and big, so that s/he can stop when they want, or it could really hurt its back. So it does still need close supervision while in there, and of course, it's not a replacement for bonding time or regular free play time.
I'd also really recommend getting her/him a friend, especially while they're still young, they can get lonely easily so you'd have to give them free time a LOT during the day, and in my experience it gets much harder to introduce them as they get older. I only rescue rats and none of the ones I currently look after are able to live with anyone else, for 3 of them it's purely because of lack of socialization with other rats for the first big chunk of their lives.

[fossilfinger]

I had a total of four rats over a period of years, three males and one female. The female was not very friendly and bit me enough to draw blood once (but it was kind of my fault for sticking my finger through the cage). The males were very friendly. Since my family had dogs, we never let them out of their cage to run around freely except in my bedroom with the door closed. We had a rabbit once, and the rat would hide under the bed, and the rabbit would coax the rat out! They were friends!

I do not recommend the rabbit/rat thing because I've heard you're not supposed to let two species of rodents play with each other. I didn't know that at the time. But they were really cute together and neither of them got hurt.

[mommyoftwogirlsca]

I had a total of four rats over a period of years, three males and one female. The female was not very friendly and bit me enough to draw blood once (but it was kind of my fault for sticking my finger through the cage). The males were very friendly. Since my family had dogs, we never let them out of their cage to run around freely except in my bedroom with the door closed. We had a rabbit once, and the rat would hide under the bed, and the rabbit would coax the rat out! They were friends!

I do not recommend the rabbit/rat thing because I've heard you're not supposed to let two species of rodents play with each other. I didn't know that at the time. But they were really cute together and neither of them got hurt.

That is so cute that the rabbit and rat were friends. We're thinking of getting another rat once we know the gender of the one we have now. We're thinking boy but not sure.

[Iedera]

My rat is 1 year old now, best decision in my life Best pet ever