How rats became an inescapable part of city living

Re:How rats became an inescapable part of city living by stevekemp on Monday March 18, 2019 @02:43AM (#19419110)

Back when I was a student I kept a couple as pets, as they were much more interesting than gerbils, mice, and hamsters. (That's about the size of pets we had space for.)

I do recall a few people were weirded out by their tails, but I never really understood it.

I'd be happy to keep rats again, they're intelligent enough to do interesting things, and learn from their environment. They can also respond to simple verbal commands - recognizing their names - and they're not at all prone to biting children, which is a good thing!

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Re:How rats became an inescapable part of city living by InitialLastName on Monday March 18, 2019 @08:34AM (#19420512)

Seconded; I had a pair of rats until recently, and they made awesome pets: affectionate, smart enough to play with, and with distinct personalities while being pretty low maintenance (and willing to eat most of our food scraps). If my partner hadn't developed a skin allergy to them (which made handling them suck for her) we would for sure have acquired more when ours died.

Edit: in retrospect, I'm pretty sure that quote is from the breeder we used! She's doing hamsters and rabbits now as well.

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Re:How rats became an inescapable part of city living by maxxxxx on Monday March 18, 2019 @09:09AM (#19420703)

I had some for a while too. I agree that they are really nice animals and a lot of fun but I also agree that the tails are a little freaky.

I still have holes in some bed sheets they chewed in :)

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