It's interesting that a major part of the rat problem in NYC stems from poor waste management. Even more interesting, a major reason it's so bad is because in the 50s instead of keeping the old metal trash cans, they opted to instead put plastic bags on the streets.
These sorts of regressions in the name of progress fascinate me. For example, cities that tore up their light rail systems for roads and private vehicles.
The UK now uses large plastic bins for waste collection, much bigger than the old metal ones but with less frequent collections, and varying levels of sorting needed (depending on locality).
Also unions. Hire armies of workers from the south and the problem will go away. Right now being a garbage man is one of the most in-demand blue collar civil service role in NYC because of artificial labor scarcity.
I used to live in a basement apartment, next to the trash room. Rats were often blocking my door, and I could hear them walking in the ceiling right above me as I slept. I hated them so much that I happily killed as many as I could, with no remorse.
Last year, my boy (age 12) asked for a pet rat. I thought he was kidding, but he showed me YouTube videos of pet rats being adorable. So I said OK.
We adopted two twin brothers, which he named Cricket and Clover. They look almost identical but I can tell them apart by their personality. Full of energy and wants to climb to my shoulder? That’s Cricket. Mellow and wants to cuddle in my armpit? That’s Clover.
Rats, like cats, use a litter box. They’re very trainable, so they can come when called. They’re attached and affectionate. They have personality, which then makes us more attached and affectionate, too. Go search for videos of pet rats, and you'll see.
Many times a day, I go cuddle them and kiss their bellies, and they lick my nose. They’re wonderful.
As much as I love these rats, my deepest joy is that I'm loving what I used to hate. Cuddling what I used to kill.
Rats are adorable. Lab rats have even been shown to laugh when tickled.
But the truth is, fancy rats are completely different from pest rats, even if they are the same species. If you keep a rat, keep it well-fed and its body and living area clean, take it to the vet when sick, etc. it's not going to pose anywhere near the kind of hygiene threat that a wild rat looking for food in your garbage (and maybe nesting in the area) poses.
It's like, I love dogs too, but I would treat a feral dog scavenging for food VERY differently than I would treat any of my pet dogs.
This is my go-to remark when rodent-hatred comes up in conversation. These little things are some of our closest cousins. It should be obvious: they have hands rather than paws or hooves.
Rats are good critters. They're clean like cats and smart like dogs. They can learn complex tricks if you care to teach them and will engage in mutual grooming with their favorite human.
They are very good pets if you know what to expect
Had them as kids. Amazing animals. Intelligent, social, interactive, curious, playful(/slightly mischievous), and mostly easy to keep. The only major downside is their short lifespan.
Can't recommend them enough. I have so many fond kid memories of my pet rats and their hijinks.
I see it as a textbook case of human irrationality. Creepy rats, but cute hamsters and squirrels. See also: dirty pigeons but beautiful doves; monstrous spiders but delicious crabs. And so on.
I mean, I wouldn't say I hate rats, but I kind of understand people's conditioning to be afraid/disgusted by them, even if I myself isn't. They are a vector for carrying and transferring diseases that are a serious threat to human health, like the Black Death.
Could someone list some downsides about keeping a rat as a pet? There must be something. But thus far the comments have made it sound like the ideal pet other than them dying in a few years.
I’m thinking forward to when our daughter Kess is a little bit older (she’s almost two). It’d be nice to start her on something that she can actually take care of herself with supervision, without it being a family animal like a dog. I was thinking of some kind of lizard before this thread came along.
Consider two pet mice instead. They're more portable. Kess could carry them in her pocket when going out to the playground and the mice are happy to stay in there. Get two girls because girl mice smell better and don't fight. My boy had three pet mice from age 6-9 and absolutely adored them. Took them everywhere out to play. To the beach, to friends' houses, to the playground, etc. And they're such a magnet for conversation. Everyone wants to come see and hold a pet mouse. They're so cute. Our mice lived to the old age of 3, and were very adored.
Rats have more personality than mice but are less portable, so better to have in the house instead of out in the playground. Kind of like guinea pigs. (A common pet where I grew up.) And their little claws can unintentionally scratch and hurt. Clipping their nails would help but that's hard. If you get rats, get two boys, and have them castrated ASAP. I have two boy rats now and love them.
To answer my biggest concern when I got them: they never ever bite. (Neither rats nor mice.)
Just the rats. Mice can't help themselves. To keep them in your pocket, you'd want to keep a little towel in your pocket, and a couple little alcohol wipes handy for when they pee on someone's hand.
The short life span is why I stopped keeping them as pets. They get sick a lot - respiratory issues, tumors, etc. Vet bills can add up. Finding a good vet comfortable with treating rats can be hard depending on where you are.
Being rodents, they're always gnawing on things to wear down constantly growing teeth. Can be destructive to your stuff if you're not careful when they're out of the cage (wires, remotes, ear buds, clothing, furniture, etc.). Hides, hammocks, and other cage furniture and toys will steadily need replacement too.
They're social animals and don't do well as solo pets. You want at the bare minimum two.
Many people are outright allergic, which becomes especially apparent when getting little scratches from their nails.
From what I understand, tumors seem to be common way for rats to die. Note these can often be confused with abscesses (which should be shown to a vet asap)
They will leave little bits of wee everywhere (scent marking). Apparently female rats are preferable in this regard. Something to look into.
That such a little creature with such a big personality only lives around 3 years will have an emotional toll. I know former owners that just can’t deal with the guaranteed loss anymore after such a short span.
Honestly, the short lifespan is the main disadvantage. It's made worse by how intelligent and sweet they are.
My daughter's rats hurled themselves at the sides of their cage when she woke up each morning, sticking their tiny hands out through the bars to clutch at her. When she did let them out they would run up her arms and sit on her shoulders licking her cheeks like tiny dogs.
Cedric died at the expected age of a little over two years. Bosco lived unusually long, dying at about five years of age.
You might want to consider what you know of your daughter's personality and how much of a trauma the rat's death is likely to be. My daughter was okay, but she was a young teen by the time Bosco died.
One potential downside, depending on how fastidious you are: they constantly leave scent marks everywhere, by depositing tiny drops of urine and rubbing fatty secretions from their sides on things. The amounts are truly tiny, maybe too small for you to even notice, but probably better to know about it in advance in case it icks you out. I don't think I or my daughter ever noticed them at all, though I did know about them.
Yeah, we have had two of the same and fancy rats make for really sweet pets. But it left a hole in my heart each time they died and I am not sure I can face it again :/
"We" don't have to. It's a uniquely Anglo problem to remove street cats and dogs. One that we could immediately stop. You would have a hard time finding a rat in Istanbul.
It's interesting that a major part of the rat problem in NYC stems from poor waste management. Even more interesting, a major reason it's so bad is because in the 50s instead of keeping the old metal trash cans, they opted to instead put plastic bags on the streets.
These sorts of regressions in the name of progress fascinate me. For example, cities that tore up their light rail systems for roads and private vehicles.
The UK now uses large plastic bins for waste collection, much bigger than the old metal ones but with less frequent collections, and varying levels of sorting needed (depending on locality).
I don't know about NYC, but poor waste management in New Jersey gave us one of the best TV series ever.
[flagged]
Also unions. Hire armies of workers from the south and the problem will go away. Right now being a garbage man is one of the most in-demand blue collar civil service role in NYC because of artificial labor scarcity.
My pet rats are here next to me as I type this.
I used to live in a basement apartment, next to the trash room. Rats were often blocking my door, and I could hear them walking in the ceiling right above me as I slept. I hated them so much that I happily killed as many as I could, with no remorse.
Last year, my boy (age 12) asked for a pet rat. I thought he was kidding, but he showed me YouTube videos of pet rats being adorable. So I said OK.
We adopted two twin brothers, which he named Cricket and Clover. They look almost identical but I can tell them apart by their personality. Full of energy and wants to climb to my shoulder? That’s Cricket. Mellow and wants to cuddle in my armpit? That’s Clover.
Rats, like cats, use a litter box. They’re very trainable, so they can come when called. They’re attached and affectionate. They have personality, which then makes us more attached and affectionate, too. Go search for videos of pet rats, and you'll see.
Many times a day, I go cuddle them and kiss their bellies, and they lick my nose. They’re wonderful.
As much as I love these rats, my deepest joy is that I'm loving what I used to hate. Cuddling what I used to kill.
Rats are adorable. Lab rats have even been shown to laugh when tickled.
But the truth is, fancy rats are completely different from pest rats, even if they are the same species. If you keep a rat, keep it well-fed and its body and living area clean, take it to the vet when sick, etc. it's not going to pose anywhere near the kind of hygiene threat that a wild rat looking for food in your garbage (and maybe nesting in the area) poses.
It's like, I love dogs too, but I would treat a feral dog scavenging for food VERY differently than I would treat any of my pet dogs.
Rodents are a closely related group to primates. They are grouped in the same superorder: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euarchontoglires
So between a random rat and your cat or dog, the former is likely a closer relative.
This is my go-to remark when rodent-hatred comes up in conversation. These little things are some of our closest cousins. It should be obvious: they have hands rather than paws or hooves.
Mandatory XKCD: https://xkcd.com/2608/
Rats are good critters. They're clean like cats and smart like dogs. They can learn complex tricks if you care to teach them and will engage in mutual grooming with their favorite human.
They are very good pets if you know what to expect
Here are a couple of "Stupid Rat Trick" vids:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV9z0c1hjnA
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241128-i-taught-rats-to...
I think they came from here.
clean and smart ... except for the incontinence, lovely pets.
You can train them to poop in one spot, but, yeah, good luck stopping them from scent marking with little dribbles of pee everywhere. Or the occasional bigger puddle (https://old.reddit.com/r/RATS/comments/1ihs0wn/i_cant_believ...).
I've met someone with a pet rat who is quite well-behaved
I know someone who had a pet rat who was a real pain. The rat, on the other hand, was great.
Had them as kids. Amazing animals. Intelligent, social, interactive, curious, playful(/slightly mischievous), and mostly easy to keep. The only major downside is their short lifespan.
Can't recommend them enough. I have so many fond kid memories of my pet rats and their hijinks.
I can't think of an animal that has had a worse press than the rat. Except perhaps the flea.
In my view the reality is that they are really no different from something like a squirrel.
> I can't think of an animal that has had a worse press than the rat. Except perhaps the flea.
For me, the cockroach, by far.
Oh yeah - good one.
I see it as a textbook case of human irrationality. Creepy rats, but cute hamsters and squirrels. See also: dirty pigeons but beautiful doves; monstrous spiders but delicious crabs. And so on.
I mean, I wouldn't say I hate rats, but I kind of understand people's conditioning to be afraid/disgusted by them, even if I myself isn't. They are a vector for carrying and transferring diseases that are a serious threat to human health, like the Black Death.
Could someone list some downsides about keeping a rat as a pet? There must be something. But thus far the comments have made it sound like the ideal pet other than them dying in a few years.
I’m thinking forward to when our daughter Kess is a little bit older (she’s almost two). It’d be nice to start her on something that she can actually take care of herself with supervision, without it being a family animal like a dog. I was thinking of some kind of lizard before this thread came along.
Consider two pet mice instead. They're more portable. Kess could carry them in her pocket when going out to the playground and the mice are happy to stay in there. Get two girls because girl mice smell better and don't fight. My boy had three pet mice from age 6-9 and absolutely adored them. Took them everywhere out to play. To the beach, to friends' houses, to the playground, etc. And they're such a magnet for conversation. Everyone wants to come see and hold a pet mouse. They're so cute. Our mice lived to the old age of 3, and were very adored.
Rats have more personality than mice but are less portable, so better to have in the house instead of out in the playground. Kind of like guinea pigs. (A common pet where I grew up.) And their little claws can unintentionally scratch and hurt. Clipping their nails would help but that's hard. If you get rats, get two boys, and have them castrated ASAP. I have two boy rats now and love them.
To answer my biggest concern when I got them: they never ever bite. (Neither rats nor mice.)
Are the mice trained to use a litter as well? Or is that just the rats?
Just the rats. Mice can't help themselves. To keep them in your pocket, you'd want to keep a little towel in your pocket, and a couple little alcohol wipes handy for when they pee on someone's hand.
The short life span is why I stopped keeping them as pets. They get sick a lot - respiratory issues, tumors, etc. Vet bills can add up. Finding a good vet comfortable with treating rats can be hard depending on where you are.
Being rodents, they're always gnawing on things to wear down constantly growing teeth. Can be destructive to your stuff if you're not careful when they're out of the cage (wires, remotes, ear buds, clothing, furniture, etc.). Hides, hammocks, and other cage furniture and toys will steadily need replacement too.
They're social animals and don't do well as solo pets. You want at the bare minimum two.
Many people are outright allergic, which becomes especially apparent when getting little scratches from their nails.
From what I understand, tumors seem to be common way for rats to die. Note these can often be confused with abscesses (which should be shown to a vet asap)
They will leave little bits of wee everywhere (scent marking). Apparently female rats are preferable in this regard. Something to look into.
That such a little creature with such a big personality only lives around 3 years will have an emotional toll. I know former owners that just can’t deal with the guaranteed loss anymore after such a short span.
Honestly, the short lifespan is the main disadvantage. It's made worse by how intelligent and sweet they are.
My daughter's rats hurled themselves at the sides of their cage when she woke up each morning, sticking their tiny hands out through the bars to clutch at her. When she did let them out they would run up her arms and sit on her shoulders licking her cheeks like tiny dogs.
Cedric died at the expected age of a little over two years. Bosco lived unusually long, dying at about five years of age.
You might want to consider what you know of your daughter's personality and how much of a trauma the rat's death is likely to be. My daughter was okay, but she was a young teen by the time Bosco died.
One potential downside, depending on how fastidious you are: they constantly leave scent marks everywhere, by depositing tiny drops of urine and rubbing fatty secretions from their sides on things. The amounts are truly tiny, maybe too small for you to even notice, but probably better to know about it in advance in case it icks you out. I don't think I or my daughter ever noticed them at all, though I did know about them.
Short lifespan: 2-3 years in practice.
A friend had a pet rescue Wistar rat (albino lab rat). Super fun and friendl :) but they only live about 3 years :(
Yeah, we have had two of the same and fancy rats make for really sweet pets. But it left a hole in my heart each time they died and I am not sure I can face it again :/
I used to work at the Wistar Institute. Cool place! Fun to see its name in the wild.
.. or less, on average.
Clever comment by the illustrator in the headline image:
https://genius.com/Gil-scott-heron-whitey-on-the-moon-annota...
> Can we learn to live with them?
"We" don't have to. It's a uniquely Anglo problem to remove street cats and dogs. One that we could immediately stop. You would have a hard time finding a rat in Istanbul.
Cats unfortunately also get rid of birds, extremely vital to our ecosystems.
In the 90s, I stumbled upon a rat in my living room when I came home from work.
I figured I had a choice: put out traps and poison to try to kill it or give it a name and declare it a pet.
I named him Raskolnikov.
Not "Ratskolnikov"?
if you like rats and coding, then https://docs.raku.org/type/Rat may be for you
rat?,bat!, splat, how bout that