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Originally Posted by devereaux
Yeah, pet rats sounds great. Do rats require much attention from their dark overlord or can they be a relatively hands-off pet?
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If you have more than one rat and they have a cage that's big enough to run around in, rats can be happy without a lot of handling. They like to tear things up, and even shredding paper is entertaining for them. I've never had the persistence required to train rats to play games and do tricks, but with enough attention they are intelligent enough to solve simple puzzles. I've read about a rat that was trained using food and a clicker to play "basketball."
But anyway, that's not really addressing your question. It's best if you handle the rat(s) at least for a little while each day so they stay used to being held by humans. If they're left only to interact with other rats for too long the little guys tend to shy up and require a bit of effort to get them completely tame again. I don't mean they'll go wild and try to bite you, but they might be nervous and resist being picked up. If you handle and play with your rat(s) a lot though, they'll come to the cage door and beg to be taken out when they see you approaching.
I hope this information is useful. It's making me a bit sad, getting nostalgic over my dead pets. : (
