[S-Harkey]

I've had my rats for almost a month now and have been coming home to the suburbs (I live in Chicago) to see my family every weekend with them.
The first few weekends they stayed in our jacuzzi bath tub with lots of towels and toys while we saved to get a second cage. A famly friend and rat owner donated a wonderful cage to us this weekend and as such the rats have been staying in my room. However, my boxer dog also stays in my room.
The rats are not at all afraid of her (the dog) and seem to reguard her as an extra hairy human as they come to the cage bars to sniff noses with her frequently and then lose interest in her. The dog, however, has not lost interest. She spent all day yesterday staring in at them. I figured once she got tired she would forget about them but she hasn't. Instead, the dog stayed up ALL NIGHT staring at them (shes VERY concerned about rodents being in the house! But also friendly.)
Today, and as I write this, she is still staring in at them with only a few short naps in the early morning.
Does anyone else have stories about behavior of their other animals with their rats? Just thought it would be fun to share!

 

[Phobie]

Just be careful, as much as we all love our other animals, they're not specifically designed to love each other, or share their owner!

I have a miniature poodle, who lives at my parent's house now, and when I visited over christmas he met the rats for the first time! He wasn't overly impressed but got along with them ok! I just kept a close eye on him.

 

[Angry_J]

We have a 110lb German Shepherd Dog who's 8 years old. He's always tolerated, and really been indifferent to my snakes. He even found them when two of them escaped. He pointed to where they were.

With the rats, he's not as indifferent. He takes great interest, in a similar manner as your boxer. And, like your rats, they don't see him as a threat at all. When they're in the cage, he'll stare and I was told that he barked at them yesterday while I was out, but he's only done that once and I guess they were particularly active at the time. In our hands, he checks them out by sniffing, and they sniff back, but that's about it.

We don't let them on the floor when he's around though. Even if he didn't have a desire to chase and pick them up, he could easily kill one of them by stepping on them. We exercise caution and always supervise all of our pets.

 

[S-Harkey]

I agree that I would never let the dog or any other pet be loose when the rats are out. I don't believe she would hurt them but if she got too excited or startled there could easily be an accident. Its interesting that they can interact through cage bars though and not feel intimidated by one another- just curious.

 

[VetTech]

When I first brought Sienna home, I had her cage on the coffee table in the living room. My two cats, Smokey and Daphne, were very interested in this little furry creature inside the cage. Actually Daphne was more fascinated than Smokey. But she never messed with the cage at all -- just sat there and stared.


Deb