Is owning a rat really worth it? I heard that they pee everywhere constantly and that's a problem.
Is owning a rat really worth it? I heard that they pee everywhere constantly and that's a problem.
Is owning a rat really worth it? I heard that they pee everywhere constantly and that's a problem.
female rats will not piss as much as pee is stored in the giant rat balls this has been verified by true american partiots
Rat "peeing everywhere" is really just them leaving a trail of droplets, they don't literally piss a pool every 5 steps
I had 2 rats and they literally never pooped outside of their cage, not once. Inside the cage it was a free-for-all though and sometimes I'd find that one pooped on the other's head
This. Scent marking is not a spray of piss everywhere, it's just a couple dabs to mark with scent. Males and females both do it, but males a lot more.
Pooping while being handled will almost never happen if your rats trust you. Rats can drop up to like a dozen little poops when scared. I remember reading it might be to reduce their weight and/or leave something to distract the predator. If your rats know and like you, they will pretty much never poop on you.
Rats can also be litter trained. Not all will take to it, but if you deliberately leave some poops/piss marked bedding in one area of their cage, some rats will understand that to be the designated shitting corner. In my experience it's about 50/50, some rats just don't give a shit about shit. Rat shit is not very dirty compared to other animals' shit either, just tiny dry pellets.
>its just a couple dabs
A rat merely walked around in my garage and I could smell it
If you saw one rat you probably have many many more unseen. That would explain the smell, although depending on the size of the room, a single male rat could probably stink up the place in a week or two if you don't clean it.
No, A rat. Literally one single rat. I was feeding him peanuts and forgot I left the door open.
Maybe you should litter train him, anon
they piss and shit everywhere, theyre not clean animals
Newsflash: animals don't care about keeping your house tidy.
smart animals have a designated piss and shit areas, rats piss and shit on everything because thats how they their way in the dark, by following their piss and shit
So rats are smart because they use their piss and shit intelligently?
Smart humans teach their pets.
Fancy rats take like 1 day to litter train. You don't know shit, literally.
Is it also possible to train them not to pee when they're outside the cage?
NTA, when free roaming rats you would just have designated areas for them to go via litter boxes. Mine don't piss and shit on the floor because they know to go to their litter box. My rats also know not to defecate when being handled
Once my rats learned to associate pissing/shitting in my hand with playtime immediately ending they stopped doing it.
That's interesting. Would they even end the play time themselves if they can't hold it?
They'd still have accidents occasionally, they're just animals, and I'd usually just quickly and quietly put them back. But for the most part they'd hold it while being handled. Play sessions were never overly long to the point that they had to hold it for long anyway, and it's not like they were constantly sipping water while chilling with me.
That being said, male rats definitely piss more than females. I prefer the generally chiller temperaments of males, but females are definitely cleaner and less smelly.
They're animals but I heard they are one of the most intelligent animals, probably the most intelligent rodents at least.
They're incredibly intelligent, empathetic, and social, but they're still animals. Just think of how crazy smart dogs, crows, or apes are, then remember how fucking stupid they can be at times too. Rats are no different and they're probably one of the easier pets to train, assuming you actually put in the time and effort.
Nice trick
no the fuck they dont, they take repeated training sessions upwards approx few weeks to few months.
they WILL piss on you to mark you not actual urine.
they WONT shit on you if they are comfortable on you. infact i never had to train any of them to not shit outside their cage cause they pick a spot themselves most of the time.
you absolutely will get dribbled on and chewed on. You can technically train them not to chew on your clothes but aside from being a pain in the ass, they also enjoy doing it.
Rats are poor people pets who have no idea the medical costs and training / stimulation they require.
You acting like its an easy ride means more rats in shelters cause "there rat is broken" you fucking mongoloid.
I enjoy having rats. They give me a reason to sweep daily and to always keep produce in the house
It's not because they live for three years -max- and will chew on you and everything you own