How Did You Get In To The Wonderful World Of Rats? :)

[Alexc844]

I was actually always intimidated by rats.  I had a friend who had one and he bit me, and after that I wouldn't touch them.  Then the summer of '08 I was in a local petshop and saw a group of kids gathered around where the rodents were laughing and saying how something was really ugly and looked like an alien.  So I walked over to see what it was and there was baby Higgins (my nakie) in a tank all by himself.  It broke my heart.  And I knew the store sold their rats as feeders, so, I bought him on a whim.  TOTALLY fell in love after that.  Bought Kajri about 2 weeks later to be a buddy for him, and ended up feeling like I needed to expand my little furry family by finding my siamese velveteen Anaitis from a breeder that fall.  At this point, I can't see myself without rats. Ever.

[Kiko]

Got my first rat at the scuzziest looking petstore ever.
I had NO clue about rats or anything, went in bought a little fat from the filthy feeder tank.
And feel in love, sweetest little boy ever.
That was 6 years ago. I now have 11 rats

[Driftpretty]

My best friends little sister has a bit of a small zoo going on in her room, what with the snakes, newts, desert mice, lizards, and her 2 rats. One was originally snake food, but the rat was such a sweetie, that J. decided to keep her and then bred her with another of her rats.

I had stopped over to see my buddy, and J. pulling me into her room to show me the babies. After handling her 2 adults i knew that they would be a fun pet since i couldn't get a puppy.

So, a month passed, and now i have my littles. I researched and googled as much as possibly before they came home and had everything all set up a few days before they came home.

Definitely a pet I would continue to rescue and take care of.

[jasugar]

I've had tons of little critters throughout my life, but never a rat until my Monty. I walked into a pet store looking at the animals and saw Monty all alone in the cage, entertaining himself.  A guy who worked there told me a woman bought both him & his brother but brought them back because her son "didn't like them".  His brother had been adopted earlier that day, and I had to have him! I found Winston shortly thereafter as a rescue & now my boys are happy as can be. Never thought I'd love an animal as much as I love ratties. Plan on getting another boy soon!

[AMJ087]

The zoo i worked at would feed rats to smakes sometimes (unfortunatly it comes with the job) but we had this little white boy for a long time and he never was fed out. One night my supervisor told me I had to gas the little guy and give him to the snake. I fell in love with him so I took him home instead and gave the zoo money for him lol. He was the best rat ever!! RIP Pistachio I miss you!!

[Leesha]

I got my first rat on a whim. Saw them at the petstore and thought they were cute, so I came home with Noelle. A week later Zita joined us and passed away from unknown causes. I was put off of rats for a while, but it broke my heart to see Ellie all alone. I had done so much research and knew that she needed a little buddy, so my husband and I went out and bought Nibbler. She was everything I didn't want in a rat at first, very large and hooded (I'm in love with hooded rats now). At the time I wanted one a bit more colorful. But after holding her I fell in love, she was going to be sold as snake food and I just couldn't let her go. She has turned out to be the sweetest most beautiful rat I could ever ask for! (Not that I have a favorite ) We recently added a little albino to our family, Nina. She's a baby who was also going to go for snake food. She's the last rat we'll get for a while until we upgrade our cage. I can never see my husband and I not owning rats now though, they are too sweet. I want to try males when we get the room.

[RattieSalem24]

LOL! I thought you were talking about The Wonderful World of Rats that is an activity at the Peninsula Humane Society in San Mateo! Sorry, I just thought that that was a funny coincidence

Wonderful World of Rats: http://www.peninsulahumanesociety.org/events/
It is the third one on the list

[The Jenn]

I'd never really seen or interacted with pet rats until I met a friend in high school. She had the most adorable little black hooded female named Shinji. I didn't know anything about the species then and wasn't aware that having a single rat housed alone in an aquarium was a bad thing, but Shinji was an utter doll and we had a lot of fun watching her run on her wheel and playing with her.

Fast forward about five years. We were down at a music festival a few hours away where my Dad had agreed to play and so Mom and I start browsing the local shops. There was a pet store with a ton of exotic animals, loads of snakes and rats and birds and fish, etc. I can't stop looking at the rats, all their lovely colors and sweet little faces. I don't take any home, since we don't buy anything but fish at pet stores in our family, but I'm reminded of how much I liked the species.

I started doing research. Did more. And more. About two months later, I purchased a Critter Nation and started gathering supplies. My Dad was dead set against any more animals in the house, but... well, since when has that stopped any of us? I'd planned on getting two girls from a breeder in Pennsylvania.

Ironically, the week after I get my CN and the day after I set things up, a litter of twelve 5-week-old agouti babies arrives at the shelter where I work. Talk about fate. Audrey and Julie came home with me, we spayed and neutered the whole litter, and they were all adopted out over the next two weeks.

After having them for two weeks, I knew I wanted more. Just one more, I thought. A boy. The girls were spayed, so it wouldn't be a problem. And really, I wanted to get him from a rescue because Small Angels is only about an hour and a bit away. Unfortunately, they only adopt out rats in pairs.

I hemmed and hawed and waffled for a little while. Did I want to double the number of rats I had, especially being such a new rat owner?

Yeah. I did. Ondo and Jeremy are the sweetest little muffins ever and I don't regret it in the slightest. They were snipped about a month ago and now I have a fully speutered colony.

I don't see myself without rats any time in the near future!

[rach913]

First time I saw a rat, I wasn't sure about them as pets because of the teeth.  Tail and fur (or no fur! lol) never bothered me, but those teeth looked like they could slice the skin.

At 18 I met a friend who had a lot of rats.  One was just ABSOLUTELY adorable, and I doubt I'll ever find one like him around here...White curly (Only, they curly hair looked smoother than most, for some odd reason...) with grey splotches.  Kept his name, too.  He was: Moo, the Cow, the Rat lol

Then that same year, I got a tan berk female named Hinata, who had an accidental litter growing when I did so.  Kept four boys from the litter, got Hinata a female, and since Moo had such peaceful traits and an extremely loving nature, I breed him and Hinata for a female (Athena), and him and Rin (when she was old enough) for a female as well (MyRunt).

Back then, I admit, I was only breeding that year for more Moo babies, but I was inexperienced.  Now, I hardly ever keep traits like that under better litter understanding, thanks to this place mostly  =)

[hansloas]

My ex had 15 rats. I fell in love with Momma Sophie (rip) and decided to get one of my own.

Now, I'm the proud owner of 5 wonderful girls. :]

[Capistrono]

Ever since I was about seven years old there's been so many pets I've wanted. Tarantulas, cockroaches, ferrets, rats, lizards....I've just always thought they were adorable. But the only pet I had for a while was my cat. I'm 16 now and sometime late last year I somehow managed to convince my mom to let me get rats. She said no more pets after that, but I'm getting a cockroach next week.
I only have 3 rats now, but I'm sure once I live on my own I'll have a whole zoo in my house.

[RatfanaticLady29]

When I was 4 my cousin came over with a little PEW mouse she caught wandering around in her house. Turns out it was a baby rat. We named him Bernard and he was my favorite pet. I've been hooked ever since.

[kimsoeun]

I was searching for a forum for cats and dogs then the Ratforum.com came out. I was like there is a forum for rats? I got curious and then here I am, I joined in. I was thinking dirty rats, but actually it is different rats you were talking about here!

[VictorianVanity]

We bought our first rats on a whim, to be honest. We were walking through the pet store (I think I had gone in for something for my betta fish) when we came across all the hamsters and mice and gerbils. One of the people working there came over and started talking to us about how fantastic rats were as pets, and we were totally sold. We took home Tali and Rikku that very day. That's when I started reading more and more about rats and realized we knew nothing. Although we lost little Rikku shortly after bringing her home, they'd already worked their way into my heart and I just knew I'd never be able to go another day without little ratty faces in my life.

[Oscar Betta]

When I use to go into the pet store I would look at the rats and the sign by them said they were very intelligent, clean, and loyal pets. They just seemed like they had way more personality then the rabbits, mice, etc. So finally one day I just went in and got one lol.