Like many animals, rats can suffer from depression (e.g after the death of a friend or when being bullied by a cage-mate), but their default attitude is cheerfulness. There are many reasons why rats make excellent pets for both adults and supervised children. The good: 7 reasons why rats make excellent pets Thankfully, rats are their own best PR, and as more people keep them as pets, we are beginning to learn that they are, in fact, intelligent, inquisitive, cute, cuddly, and very interesting to be around. But repeatedly seeing rats portrayed in a poor light just feeds society’s prejudice. The “horror” image of a forwardly aggressive animal with wild red eyes and canines is, of course, a fantasy. Like all wild animals, undomesticated rats can, of course, pick up and spread diseases and parasites, but they really aren’t alone in this. Rats are often subjected to all kinds of prejudice and misconception as people think of them as filthy, aggressive and disease-ridden. It is thought that neophobia in wild rats has increased as humans have tried to trap or poison them. This means they are wary of new items and food in their environment. This, along with their excellent senses, robust physical abilities and adaptability have made them successful in many locations across the world.Īnother adaptive behavior that helps rats survive is neophobia. Wild rats are intelligent and can be good at solving the problems that arise in their daily lives. They will eat anything they know to be safe and have the capacity to seek out foods that will meet their nutritional deficiencies. Foraging makes up a lot of their nighttime activity.īeing avid foragers also makes them physically adept explorers who love to run, climb, balance and dig. The males particularly are also territorial over relatively small areas, foraging up to about 100 feet from their nest to find food. Rats are foragers and opportunistic omnivores. They also have amazing hearing, smell, and other sensory adaptations that help them to avoid being eaten. In common with many prey animals, they have a fierce startle reflex in response to sudden noise, surprise, and even just the smell of a predator.
In the wild, they usually head for their burrows to sleep during the day. They are physically adapted to this kind of light level and prefer not to be exposed to bright light.
Rats are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at twilight – dawn and dusk. Records show that there were rat fanciers as early as 1850 who supplied the first animals to laboratories. Pet rats are thought to have been recently domesticated within the past 200 years. They are thought to have originated in the temperate regions of Northern China and Mongolia. They belong to the species rattus norvegicus, otherwise known as the brown rat, Norway rat, or ship rat. There’s nothing fancier about some of them than others! Pet rats are all fancy rats (so-called because a group of people who own, breed, take interest in and exhibit a species of animal are called a “Fancy”).
Characteristics of the pet (or fancy) rat
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