Yeah, rats are actually lots of fun, if you’re into little critters at all. Very sweet pets. I owned several while growing up. The urine smell is a nuisance, though. If someone were to combine the best qualities of rats and guinea pigs, you’d have the perfect rodent pet in my opinion.
Rats are great, great pets. Really smart, they actually play with you, their cute, they talk to you, ride on your shouldar, etc and so forth.
Cons - Mine smelled fairly bad (male, might not be an issue with females). And they die fairly quickly. I’ve had two over my life and both died within two years, both grew a giant tumor.
EDIT Fun little story. I got my first rat for Christmas, a female albino. My sister stole the rat from her class Biology class. They were going to crack open my rat’s skull to look at it’s brain. Instead, my sister reached into the cage, grabbed my young rat, and smuggled it out with her purse.
Capybara.
Flood your home or apartment to meet the ultimate rodent pet/food.
Not only are they incredibly social and naturally tame but you will never have to smash through drywall to figure out where “that smell” is coming from.
They are the only “Watch Rodent” offering some home security. They are the only rodent you might consider eating just because they’re tasty and not because your living in the End Times. They are considered “fish” during Lent by the Catholic Church which makes them doubly delicious and supposedly taste like pork which makes them a kind of perfect pet/food. I wonder what caybara bacon tastes like.
Unlike rats or gray squirrels, they aren’t too cunning. Unlike the various rat-dog breeds you can’t accidently step on them to death. Also, your girlfriend/wife/mother won’t care if you do step on them to death…accidently. If only they were carnivorous so I could feed them some snakes.
“Capybara”
Words cannot describe how much I want a pet Capybara.
And rats do make really great pets, if you discount the odor, marking, and lifespan. Otherwise, they are extremely intelligent and affectionate, as others have mentioned. My first rat loved to ride around in the pocket of a large sweat shirt and would often sit on my head when I sat down to read. He also learned to come when I called him and go back to his enclosure when told.
I wasn’t immediately aware of what a Capybara was. Had to google it to remind me.
Holy crap, those things grow to big the size of dogs.
I would get one to just freak out people on the street.
Rats smell. Your room will smell, and it’s not a fun smell whatsoever. I don’t think there’s much in the way of social stigma once someone sees that your rat does not look anything whatsoever like a sewer rat, or what they see in the media.
I’m gonna throw another check into the “rabbit” section. Although not a rodent, they simply do not smell. There is an odor from the cage if it’s uncleaned for several days, but even a filthy cage won’t smell strongly from more than 5 feet away. It doesn’t fill up a room with stench like a rat (or a ferret).
Rabbits aren’t really trainable in any way other than being able to be litter trained to go in their cage. It took me a while to do that, but their urine also doesn’t smell all that bad, and poop is in little pellets which can be properly picked up and not squished into rugs or carpets. They also have zero odor, although shed very very lightly.
The funnest part of a rabbit is watching it zip around. After hours in a cage it will most likely love to get out and bolt around, especially if you have stairs. My old rabbit (RIP) did a regular circuit up the stairs, then down the stairs and jumped up and off of the couch back. It’s also not very hard to get out of crevices, as poking it in the butt will generally get it to run the other way. You would want to close all doors to areas where it could easily hide from you, though, and I blocked off rear of the entertainment center with books, as mine tended to chew on every cable it saw until it finally got shocked several times and stopped (at least I assume that’s what happened).
Look at my dog! I named him Speak. My dog Speak can really speak. My dog is the best. I love my dog Speak.
Also, once you get tired of a rabbit you can always make a yummy stew.
Rabbits definitely have a very strong odor. It may or may not be unpleasant to you, but their hutches develop an extremely pungent scent if you aren’t punctual about cleaning them. We found that out after going away for a week – little bastard stank his home up something fierce, and boy was he proud of it. However, you’re a hundred percent on it being manageable, and far less of an issue than rat odor – which is, let’s be honest, beyond foul.
Guineas are definitely less odorous, and they’re also like a million times cuter. Don’t even try to dispute that figure, it has been proved with SCIENCE.
Get a chincilla and call him Speak.
edit- I fail.
I vote hedgehog.
Edit-
I’ve kept a rat and I don’t recall him being very stinky. Mice stink horribly, but rat odours are not too awful especially if you are careful about keeping their cages clean.
There is a lot of awesome in this post. I have bolded the best parts.
That reminds me of my pet flying squirrel (very bad idea for a pet) and a regular red squirrel (not bad at all). Both were released by adolescence but before then the red was very sociable, and loved to follow me around and climb into pockets. After he was released he was so much bigger and well fed than the local greys he spent one and half years terrorizing them as their king.
They certainly aren’t rodents but have you done any research into Ferrets? I have two of them and have found them to be great pets. They do require more handling and people time than rodents but they love people and are a blast to watch play. You do need to be aware that they have maintenance requirements like a cat or dog (clean the ears, teeth, etc…), some people don’t like the way they smell (I don’t even notice it), and you need to be pretty good about ferret proofing any areas they are going to be given access (they can get into a lot of trouble if allowed to crawl into heating ducts, etc…)
Rodent odor isn’t a serious problem across the board as long as you clean regularly. How often is the real problem.
Also squirrels will routinely hide in your pockets, which is beyond adorable. I volunteered not so long ago at a wildlife rehab center in Africa. We had an enclosure with about a dozen ground squirrels who would mob you once you entered to feed/clean. It was mandatory to check your pockets before you left the enclosure, because they WILL be in there.
One girl left the enclosure, and a squirrel hid away in her hoodie…er hood, and we had to chase it around before the roaming cheetah got to it first.
I can assure you that your friends and family notice the way your ferret smells. Even when you’re around and it’s not.
So I’m heavily leaning towards a pair of guinea pigs. I’ve been reading up and I think I have a basic clue as to feeding, etc (plenty of Timothy Hay, plus pellets, veggies/leafs, and vitamin C).
As to the right kind of cage, there’s a ton of info out there, some of it conflicting. In terms of space, I’ve seen everything from 4 square foot is enough for 2 g-pigs, or some sites saying you need 10 square feet for 2. I’m thinking that I want more than 4 square feet but I don’t have room for more than about 8 sq. ft max.
Everyone seems to say that wire/mesh floors are bad, but what about a solid floor with holes that allows the refuse to drop through? (I’m thinking of a cage like this. ) If the flooring is OK, would such a cage be big enough for 2 g-pigs?
About the biggest cage I could fit in would be something like this. That’s a more standard type of cage.
There’s quite a bit of info online - are there any particular sites that folks highly reccommend? I’m very likely to get a couple of g-pigs soon and I want to do it right.
http://www.guinealynx.info/ is a good place for g-pig info. When our pig lived in a classroom, we used a plastic wading pool with some fence panels around it. If you don’t have room for that, the second cage you linked is better than the first. I really can’t see the slots on the floor of the first one being very effective in letting feces fall through. You’ll just have to accept that you’ll be doing a full cage cleaning about twice a week. If you’ve got a yard, a roll of fencing from Home Depot can be used to make a really easy outdoor enclosure that can be easily taken down. We have done this for our rabbit and pig, and they both love being outside on nice days.
Unless you have no other choice, don’t buy from a pet store. I’d hit a rescue first.
The only real name for a Chinchilla is CHINZILLA!