The "Pro-Rat" thread!

[Tyler Durden]

I like rats. We've had 5 as pets in our house from time to time. They are intelligent, responsive emotionally, gentle and social creatures. Naturally clean and disease free, the perfect pet for small RESPONSIBLE children.

Personally, when the big mucking rock wipes out the human race because we'll never cooperate long enough to deflect it, I hope the rats get the next shot at top rung on the land-based evolutionary ladder.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. Ooooh, no! Not after seeing the movie for "1984."

That was fucking disgusting!

:scared:

[Tyler Durden]

2. They use peanut butter to get rats to lick people as special effects.

No one in the animal effects industry dislikes working with any rodent. Calm, smart, easy to train and gentle.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

3. Oh, I know they aren't really evil.

It's just that 1984 is freakish with that regard. :D

[Tyler Durden]

4. They had to starve rats to get them to do that in the Inquisition.

A popular, low effort and somewhat successful method of extracting confessions during the Spanish Inquisition.

They had to starve the rats until they got to the point of madness to get them to do the Rat Cage on the Head gig.

Now PIGS on the other hand (wild boars) need little pushing to eat people. They regularly ate casualties (Dead AND Living) during the American Civil War.

[Tyler Durden]

5. One li'l ol' kick for the rodents!

I threw away TWO of those revolting boxes with sticky floors billing themselves as painless rodent traps.

You want to solve a rodent issue? Clean up your living space, and insulate the cracks.

[azmouse]

6. Any love for mice here?

Since it's my nickname I have a fondness for the little critters.

[Tyler Durden]

9. THAT is the working definition of the word "CUTE."

I love all rodents. From the mice to the capibara.

[bumblebee1]

7. We have two rats as pets.

We lost one of our females due to old age. We've had a total of 15 rats the whole six years we've been living here. The most we had at one time was 7. Four of the seven were born to a litter. After that, we keep them separated by gender.

[Momgonepostal]

8. OMGosh I just posted about rats...

Check the lounge thread about Freecycle...

LOL

[Madrone]

10. I lurve ratties!

I used to have 5 girls - 3 sisters, and 2 "neices" - the offspring of a littermate of the sisters. I will now forever be a rat-owner - even though I haven't gotten any more since the 5 died. I will have them again someday - for the moment, I'm seriously over my pet limit. NO MORE!

Rats are the best - a fact completely lost on me until I aquired some.

[Tyler Durden]

12. You couldn't be more right.

Nothing in the world is cuter than a rat chasing your hand to get tickled on the belly.

They laugh in the ultrasonic range...that's why we didn't know that they laughed until recently. They're the only other species (including the primates) other than us that acutally LAUGHS. Maybe they know something we don't...

[LibertyLover]

11. I have 3 rats myself

and I love them. They are very affectionate and love nothing more than to cuddle next to an ear. My 4 year old daughter likes to pet them. She is a bit afraid to hold them yet because of their paws, but she loves to have me hold one while she pets it. They are great pets.

[Tyler Durden]

13. My daughter used to carry one around her neck.

all you could see through her long brown hair was nose and tail.

They used to climb up on her chest when she lay down on the couch, hold her chin between their front paws, and kiss her lower lip. GAWD did she laugh.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

14. Is no rat!

Is Siberian Hamster!

[LadyoftheRabbits]

15. I think they're cute

I've only ever had hamsters as far as rodents go, but rats and mice are adorable as well. :D

[William Bloode]

16. They give me the creeps!

I must have seen some movie as a kid that traumatized me. I have little fear of anything, but rats. My daughter brought the one they kept in class it really freaked me out.

It was a nice animal, very affectionate. I even tried handling it to get used to it. I never could. oddly enough mice, hamsters and gerbils don't bother me at all. I in fact find them very cute. Another odd twist to this is i have been bitten many times by hamsters, and never a rat yet i still fear the rat and like the hamster.

Talk about unreasonable fears.

[BarenakedLady]

17. I'm a fan of rodents myself

I rescue the deer mice from my garage and release them. I had a three-legged one live with us over the winter one year before I released her in the spring. Then came the hamsters. They lived with us for 2 years before they croaked. Rats are a bit big for my liking.