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The only pet rats I've ever seen sold were fed to snakes immediately thereafter, so the rat never got a shot at demonstrating sweetness or intelligence. Though I bet if it had in the seven seconds it took for the snake to strike, the owner would have saved it, so I'm pretty sure they're just rats.

dam I hate Rats

If they're not consumed by Mr Jake-no-Shoulders, then the next best thing is a trap or a bullet.

My girlfriend got one to teach her mentally challenged son about bonding and petting etc. They are one hell of a lot of work, more so than a cat. Little shit had more toys, swingy hammocks and play time than most kids.

They grew to really love the little vermin. I think you can love about anything you can tame. Boy, there sure was some howling and crying the day he died.

I was working on my truck one night had one crawl on my chest freaked me out.

oops wrong photo

We've got a family of Cotton Rats (Sigmodon hispidus) that live in the scrub and honeysuckle that grows beyond our back yard. (There's almost five acres of wonderful wilderness for them back there to run around in.)

These little guys love to come darting out from under cover, and then they join the birds on the ground under our bird feeder. The little ones are quite cute, and they play like carefree youngsters while the adults stock up on birdseed.

I haven't seen them around lately, so I can only imagine that they're hibernating right now, or else some coyotes came thru one night and got them. Am hoping to see them again in the Spring!

http://www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/images/sigmhisp.jpg

I was bitten on the wrist by a rat. I was reaching into a desk drawer and it got me. (I was in Vietnam at the time) I had to take a rabies series for that. To me, there's no such thing as a pet rat.

The list of diseases that rats carry is endless, mice are relatively harmless but rats are a nightmare.

Yea, old rattie killed half ofEurope at one stage, the disease was never cured, just seemed to die out, scarey stuff.

Well, in all fairness to rats, it wasn't the rats themselves, but the fleas they carried.
I suppose you could tame about any animal and it'd make a good pet--all except grizzlies. They are antisoicial, just plain mean. Scary critters, and smart.

We dont do grizzlies, but we got plenty of rats.

Diseases in rats

Helminths (worms):
the oxyuroid pinworm Syphacia muris in 67% of the rats
the strongoloyd parasite Nippostronglyus brasiliensis found in 23%
the liver worm Capillaria in 23%
the cestode Hymenolepsis diminuta in 22%
Toxocara cati causing Toxocariasis in 15%
the oxyuroid pinworm Heterakis spp. in 14%
the cestode Hymenolepsis nana in 11%
the intestinal tapeworm Taenia taeniaeformis in 11%
Bacteria
Leptospira spp. bacteria causing Weil's disease in 14%
Listeria spp. bacteria causing listeriosis in 11%
Yersinia enterocolitica bacteria causing yersiniosis in 11%
Pasturella spp. bacteria causing Pasturellosis in 6%
Pseudomonas spp.bacteria causing Meilioidosis in 4%
Protozoa
Cryptosporidium parvum causing cryptosporidiosis in 63% of the rats
Toxoplasma gondii causing toxoplasmosis in 35%
Trypanosoma lewisii in 29%
Eimeria separata in 8%
Rickettsia
Coxiella burnetti evidence of infection by Q fever in 34%
Viruses
Hantavirus causing Hantaan-fever or hemorrhagic fever in 5%
Ectoparasites (note: these ectoparasites are vectors for diseases which are transmissible to humans, such as typhus)
Fleas found on 100% of the rats
Mites found on 67%
Lice found on 38%

I hate rats more now.
thisseems to be the deadly culprit which people fear.

When it comes to rats, there's nothing worse (or cool) than a flood of New York Sewer Rats. I saw an entire herd of them corralled around something in a New York City alley when I was there...kinda interesting. My 5th grade class also did a science project with albino rats...when that project was done, they were given to an animal shelter......and likely found a good home inside a snake's stomach. A rat, however, is something I don't think I could ever get attatched to.