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

...~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ RATS!! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Rats can make great pets yet many people unfortunately seem to dislike them still. They are surprisingly affectionate and friendly, very active and entertaining to watch. You need to take great care when buying a rat as the temperaments can really vary. I will start by telling you my experiences with rats and then give more information and advice but please do not be put off by Frisky’s story! ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Skippy ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Skippy was a black hooded rat which belonged to a friend of mine when we were in junior school. To the horror of my parents I volunteered to look after Skippy while my friend went on holiday for a month. Skippy was an extremely affectionate and friendly rat and would happily sit on my shoulder or climb up on my head! Caring for Skippy... Read review

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Advantages: Clean, intelligent, affectionate, fun-loving, good small pets for kids
Disadvantages: Short life span, stigma, pet shop rats often badly bred with more tendency for inherited problems

...My first pair of rats came to me in 1995, from a run down pet shop. Snatchett (a pink eyed white, often referred to as albino) and Ginnal (a black hoody) were my introduction to the rat world. Since then I have succumbed to the addiction of keeping rats as pets - Snatchett and Ginnal were great ambassadors for their species! Rats are amazing creatures, and I'm here to tell you a bit more about them..... **History of the Fancy Rat** Fancy rats as we know them today are domesticated forms of Rattus Norvegicus - the Brown or Norway Rat. The Brown Rat started colonising England in the 18th Century, and immediately began to drive out the Black Rat, and it's population exploded. In Victorian times, this rat overpopulation led to the use of rats in "rat pits", where a dog would be put up against a number of rats to see how many... Read review

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

..., as there are with humans, so just keep an eye on your rat for any changes. Colours. Most comman rat colours are :- Albino Rats - Pur White fur and red eyes. Agouti - Plain brown fur. Fawn - Pale brown fur. Chocolate - Dark brown. Black - Black shiny fur. Hooded - Coloured head and stripe down back and white body. Rarer rat colours are :- Champagne - Pale fawn hair and pink eyes. Himalayan - White fur on its body and white fur on its face, ears and feet and has red eyes. Rex - Curly fur and whiskers All rats fur should be kept in good condition and should be glossy. Girls fur is smoother and boys is rougher. Baby Rats. If you can afford and have the time to look after pregnant and baby rats you may wish to breed. The average rats litter consists of seven to ten babies. Rats are born with no fur and their eyes shut so they cannot... Read review

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Advantages: Intelligent, loving, affectionate
Disadvantages: Need a lot of care

...to paddle in, you could also give frozen fruit as ice lollies and add ice cubes to their water bowl This list is by no means exhaustive I have just aimed to give a basic rundown of common illnesses, you should keep an eye on your pet and notice anything that is unusual for your animal ~*~ Coat types ~*~ There are many different colours of rats available, I will aim here to give a quick rundown of the most common colours and patterns: Agouti - This is the colour of the original 'wild' rats. They are dark brown with black specks and black eyes and grey ears Cinnamon - The coat is a lighter brown then agouti. They have black eyes and grey ears Black - Their coat is jet black. Their eyes are black and their ears grey Albino - They are pure white. The eyes are red and their ears flesh coloured Siamese - They have a beige coat... Read review

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Advantages: Fun, intelligent, sociable, loving, gentle and clean.
Disadvantages: None!

...word of warning if you let your rat do this, they have a tendancy to wee down your neck! Not a pleasant experience! Male rats tend to be slightly more smelly in that department than female rats but this is not a problem if you clean out their cage regularly, at least once a week. I have never been bitten by a rat in all the time I have kept them. Unlike hamsters, they are so gentle and would normally only bite if they really felt threatened. Every rat has it's own personality. My current two female rats are so different. They are just over 4 months old now and their individual characters are really coming out. One is a black and white hooded fancy rat and she is very big and boisterous, although still as good as gold when you handle her. The other one is a smaller topaz fancy rat and she is very sweet and gentle. Having said that, she... Read review

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Advantages: They are truly brilliant creatures
Disadvantages: Alot of People don't like them

...Fancy rats make brilliant pets, but not alot of people liek them, which puzzles me. They are nothing like the wild rat, they do not smell, and they do not carry the plague! I have owned rats ever since being a child and i currently have 8 males and 13 females, each one totally unique and different from the rest. Fancy rats have been domesticated for many years now, and for anyone who thinks they carry/ carried the plague, this is wrong. rattus rattus, or the black rat, carried the flea which carried the bacteria known as the plague. Rats DONT smell. Often, people will say rats smell too much, or males smell more than females, and this is also untrue. Any animal will smell if it is not cleaned out as often as required. The fancy rat comes in a variety of colours, coat types, ear and eye variations. They live for around 3 years... Read review

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Advantages: Great companions, lovable creatures
Disadvantages: POOP

...Rats have a very bad rap, don't they. To the contrary, they are wonderful to have around the house. I began to acquire rats 3 years ago when I rescued my first male, Templeton, from being dissected from a University lab. I quickly learned that rats are very smart and sociable animals. I then rescued 2 female rats, Zipper and Button, from a hospital lab. These girls were very active and loved to play. All 3 were Black Hooded Rats. Rats need alot of attention and alot of cleaning up after. There are so many breeds of rats to choose from, all of them being very intelligent and loving animals. They are best kept in pairs. Males are best matched with other males at a young age. Females, ofcourse should be fixed if they are to be kept with another male. Un-fixed females do have the tendancy to develop benign tumors, as do lab rats... Read review

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Advantages: fast, gory, a real page-turner
Disadvantages: *Please detatch brain and become gore loving twelve year old for duration of novel* ;o)

...been created to suit just about any time whether it be a week ago when I found it lurking up in our loft and gave it another read or when I last read it as a teenager 10+ years ago or on the day it was published. The main premise is as simple as they come, straight out of the realms of 50s B-movies. London is under siege from a swarm of giant black rats which mutated into small dog sized, vicious blood thirsty creatures with above average intellect from feeding on a pile of contaminated grain. They moved from that home into the sewers where they first gained their taste for human flesh from attacking and eating the ‘already dead’ husk of a tramp who had once been a successful businessman...then migrating onto attacking a child and then a woman and her baby before laying siege to a school, a subway and a zoo before things really start to get... Read review

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Advantages: Clean, friendly, intelligent, sociable, tame, gentle, cuddly and playful.
Disadvantages: Require a lot of attention and regular cage cleans.

...I got my first rats, Suki and Aiko, four years ago. They were black-eyed Siamese females, the most beautiful of all rat breeds in my opinion. Since then I have had nine more rats - at one point we had all eleven, five boys and six girls, living in our home at the same time. This is why I have had so many, and consider them to be such fantastic pets. Rats are incredibly intelligent animals. Mine have all learned to come to their name, making free-ranging time that bit easier as one could just call them back when it was time to go 'home' (back into the cage). They easily learn tricks and games, as the videos (easily found by a quick Google search) of rats playing basketball will attest. Their intelligence means that they are acutely social animals, who willingly seek out human companionship and need a lot of attention to thrive. Rats... Read review

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Advantages: Easy to play
Disadvantages: Can be hard work concentration wise

...Hundreds of card games have been devised over the centuries, but relatively few have had lasting appeal. Cards must have been invented in China where paper was invented. Cards were introduced into Italy and Spain around 1370 they most likely came from Egypt. Within a few years they had spread to other parts of Europe, although record of their introduction to England dates about 90 years later. Card games make you think and put your brain into action. They help you to work out problems with solutions. They give you something to do when your bored. Since being in hospital card games have been a large part of my visiting time where I have sat and played cards with my husband. I love playing card games and I think I've played nearly all of them. From rummy, poker, black jack and solitaire. I've even dealt many hands of black... Read review

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