Gathering, The - Water Rats

Advantages: friendly, affectionate, playful, interesting, intelligent, clean
Disadvantages: need lots of care

...playing with your rat and letting it explore. You will need to be able to provide a good stimulating environment for the rat; both inside and outside its cage. Most children are not capable of caring for a pet properly on their own. Rats need regular cleaning out of their cages as well as being fed, played with and given fresh water daily, so a child should not be expected to care for a rat on their own as it is too much responsibility. As with owning any pet, you will need patience. Training a rat takes time and you will need to be able to watch them and learn their behaviours and use it to understand their needs. Rats need to be kept indoors, so you should also be willing to have the cage in one room of your house, which also means noise of the rat playing and possible mess from overflowing bedding. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Where... Read review

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Advantages: Good friends, clean and playful
Disadvantages: Can be costly, depending what stores you buy from

...petstores. Leading brands such as Reggie Rat however, are just as good as less known brands. If you pet store ran out of rat food or if you couldnt find any, you can use Guinea Pig mix. Do not use hamster mix as too many sunflower seeds can lead to overweight rats. As well as dry mixture rats can eat vegetables, fruit and many other foods which us humans eat. Examples of these are: Pasta, cooked potato, breakfast cereals (low in sugar), dandelion leaves, egss, cheese and most fruit and vegetables but avoid raw sweet potato, brussel sprouts, red cabbage and artichokes, green bananas green potato skin, rhubarb, raw dried beans and raw peanuts as they contain either anti-nutrients, oxalates or even toxins such as cyanide. Here is an average feeding timetable: Brekfast - 15 grams of dry food, small piece of toast and fresh water. Dinner- 15... Read review

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Advantages: Good pets, friendly, clean
Disadvantages: none

...need a large cage preferably one with metal bars so they can climb up it but they cannot chew their way out. They will need feeding every day and a supply of fresh drinking water. On the bottom of their cage the ideal thing is paper shreds as sawdust can irritate them and make the sneeze and snuffle. They are very friendly and can be handled easily, making them ideal for children as long as the children are taught how to look after them properly and handle them correctly. They are probably better for children than other rodents as they are not as fragile. Rats can get quite big being around 40cm from head to tail when fully grown. They can live from 2-5 years average being around 3 years old. They come in many varieties mainly having different coat patterns and textures, some have different ear sizes such as dumbo rats which have... Read review

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