wild rats as pets

Question
i found a litter of wild rats about 4 weeks old and would like to raise them as pets. i currently have hairless rats...love them...and have raised many small animals in my life, rats being my favorite...please advise me if i should raise and release or if it would be possible to keep them as pets...any info would be appreciated...thank you...maree

Answer
Hi Maree

I would keep them...but thats just me. I raised a wild rat from 11 weeks old and she lived to be almost 4. SHe was a biter though at first but with work, she turned out to be the best rat ever.

Here are the ups and downs with raising them.
FIrst of all, you either have to release them NOW or keep them. You cant raise them and release them. They will lose their keen knack for survival because you are doing everything for them from giving them shelter to providing food and water.  They will die on their own. Its just the same as letting a domestic rat loose into the wild.

Also, the wild rats cannot be kept with the hairless or any domestic rats. It wont work out no matter what. Trust me on that. The domestics wont like they any more than the wild hybrid will like them!

Also, they are probably a handful already and of course they are not properly socialized so it may take tons of time and patience to get them to trust you. They also are faster and more cunning than domestics, although they are still young pups, they still are born with that strong will to survive and to not trust humans. We are the enemy and have been trying to wipe out their species for centuries.
They are just as smart though and can be tamed to be sweet too. You may know that females are alot more energetic than males and less likely to be a lap rat like a male, and the same applies to wild hybrid as well.

They have longer tails and bigger ears and longer snouts and they tend to hop and strut when walking rather than waddle and run like the domestics do. They love to climb and may chew up things more than domestics although I have heard of domestics being destroying machines when it comes to gnawing. Although normally you do not need to provide rats with anything special to gnaw on to keep their teeth grinded down properly (this is a myth) since bruxing and simply the task of eating take care of that.   You may want to provide them with some hard dog biscuits (low protein and fat)  
Wild hybrid, however, are made up just like our domestics on the inside. They still require low protein and fat diets or suffer from kidney disease or skin problems from the protein and heart disease and liver disease from the fats. They have bad eyesight and remarkable hearing. Like domestics, they are also born with mycoplasmosis and in fact, many rodents are.  They love each other and want to be with each other just like domestics and of course, the females can get pregnant as early as 5 weeks so they should be apart by now at least.  Depending on the exact type of rat it is, they may be smaller than the domestics. They also live just as long when captive but in the wild, 3 to 6 months, tops, due to the fact they are on the top of the list for predators to get them for dinner!

Provide them with a nice roomy cage and of course be sure it is escape proof...they may try to get out more than normal too. NEVER let them free range until they are fully trained. You will never catch them.
Instead, provide  a safe play area for them and lots of toys to stimulate them and they should be happy.

I feel that since your a veteran rat owner, this should be fine for you to keep them. A challenge maybe, as it would be for anyone including myself, but a fun challenge since your first love is for ratties!!  I would not suggest this to a novice rat owner however since the wild hybrid are born with a strong will and may over power a novice rat owner.

Good luck and keep me posted!  If you have pictures I would love to see them. You can email me at askcritterkeeper@yahoo.com

OH and by the way, dont let anyone scare you into thinking they carry rabies due to the fact they are wild. Impossible. Rats are not known carriers for starters and also if they were exposed to rabies and attacked they would be dead due to their size.

Check out my website for good ideas on how to construct a secure play area for the little critters!

http://www.freewebs.com/crittercity/helpbitingscaredrats.htm


again, good luck and have fun and dont forget those pictures!


Sandy