Rat books?

Don't worry, no pet shop rats for me unless something goes totally wrong*!

Seeing as I've somehow managed to totally derail my own thread, one more question: kittens or adults? I was thinking adults would be a better idea, since presumably they'd already have had more good handling experiences, more assessable personalities and wouldn't be as fragile/vulnerable.



* Like someone abandoning one. Which is incidentally why I started thinking about pet rats in the first place. I make no promises if another sad little thing turns up in a plastic box with only a stick of bird food, no water.

It depends on whether you are thinking rescue or breeder? Rescues I don't think you'll have a choice as they're usually abandoned as adults, but if the choice is yours I'd say kittens, I think you can only buy kittens from breeders anyway (Zoundz will know for certain). Kittens are faster but you can ensure that all their experiences of being handled are positive ones, so they're not put off by bad or under handling like a lot of petshop babies.

We will only sell babies under 13 weeks, though we do occasionally have adult returnees or rescues looking for homes. Kittens are usually the best option though

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Why? Because they live longer, or they're more used to you, or you have full charge over their raising?

I'm not a big puppy or kitten person, so I was automatically leaning towards adults for rats.

They live longer, they get used to new people much more easily as well. I mean, adult rats are fine, but it's *usual* to get them as kittens, and as breeders we usually only sell kittens, as we are not allowed by the NFRS to sell over 13 weeks of age. We can home on older rescues/rehomes though

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"A single rat is perhaps the luckiest, for there is no competition with any other rat for your attention. A single rat might also be more devoted to you since you are the only one with whom he can play... [this is] a personal choice since rats do not need to be kept in pairs." "When obtained from a reliable source, such as a pet shop, domesticated rats are as clean as any other domesticated animal"

Picked up this book recently, Rats by Susan Fox. Didn't buy it.

Oh yes... that book!

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Have you come across it before?

Yeah... some cute pics if I remember rightly, but pretty rubbish info.

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Reading a 1917 book on pets which advises that rats should be picked u only by the tail unless known to be perfectly tame, since they bite more than mice.

Simba you find the best books!

LOL! I wouldn't mind except I have always found the opposite to be true!

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I just love the notion that being picked up by the tail will make the animal LESS likely to bite you.