Feb 3, 20234 min read

Cute Rats? May Be Not! Know Why You Should not Pet Rats

Ever thought about the rat from ratatouille as adorable? Well, you won’t be the only one because there’s a generation of tiny humans defending these tiny creatures that infest our homes and the streets. The truth, however, remains sinister because if you find rats lurking in your home, you should at once leave around your trusty rat trappers; otherwise, get ready for diseases of varied kinds ready to grasp your lives and the lives of your loved ones.

Dangers of keeping rats

The tiny critters who crawl into dark spaces might seem like cute rats in pictures, but they are harmful to keep around for many reasons. For example, rats and mice are the known carriers of diseases, both communicable and non-communicable.

Cute rats also contain various ticks and fleas that cannot be distinguished and thus carry illness with them. They are also aggressive creatures that can bite or scratch you and infect you with diseases like salmonellosis and lymphocytic viral infections, which can adversely affect your health and the health of your loved ones. They were also the active carriers of the black and bubonic plague that claimed the lives of millions of people around the world.

Damages caused by rats

Besides various health hazards, rats are usually destructive; thus, they can chew through plastic and wood and even cut electric wires causing short circuits. They can travel through tiny cracks and are impossible to spot unless careful.

Ways to identify their nests

Rats avoid humans and are secretive; thus, they are hard to spot and even harder to capture. The obvious ways to identify them are rat droppings, tiny holes in plastic containers, frayed wires buckets, and even insulated woodwork.

The next step should be to set up rat traps, and if there are multiple of them, then connect the pest control services so that proper and stringent actions can be carried out for your safety. So, rats are not just cute or lovely, they are incredibly harmful to both adults and children. They might draw pictures of cute rats to try and convince you otherwise, but that doesn’t change their dangers.

Cute pet rats

However, some people might keep cute rat pet in their homes who are domesticated. They ignore the varied snide comments about their cute pet and actively love and care for them. Though They are tiny and hence take up less space and are considered social and even friendly to families. They can bond with their human caregivers and grow attached to them.

Researchers suggest that rats are highly intelligent creatures, showcase emotions of empathy and regret, and can adapt to new environments easily.

Playful and cute rats

The rats are smart and playful. They also are highly food-motivated, so by bribing them with food, you can teach them tricks and even chase you around.

However, they need lots of space to move around. Thus you might need bigger cages to control and care for them. Apart from their bad name, they keep themselves clean and are busy grooming their fur and keeping them clean and free of dirt. So if you can take precaution then cute rat can prove to be your bae.

Care for your cute rats

Rats are allowed to be domesticated but must be put under stringent care and, when bought, must be instantly taken to the vet for a proper check-up. They should be properly examined, and their fecal and urine should be checked for parasites and other diseases. Rats do not need vaccinations but must be checked out annually.

Cons to rats

This raises the question of why they don’t more people want to keep them as pets. The rats breed in large numbers and reach reproductive maturity by five weeks, so they will multiply faster than you can feed them.

The rats, as suggested, are smart and playful creatures, so owning them would require a larger cage based on their numbers. Because they require enough space to move and play around, they are usually built with various stages and numerous nooks and corners to keep them occupied.

Rats are not ordinary pets and thus need to be taken to the vet more often and are expensive. As they get older, their short life spans can lead to heartbreaks in the younger members of the family especially.

More cons

Elderly rats at the ripe age of a year and a half are at risk of respiratory problems and even tumors, so the budget for them as they climb up in age grows immensely. As reiterated before, they need to be kept occupied.

Otherwise, they might just get pissed off and destroy a lot of your things. The rats use urine as a form of communication, so they might just leave it lying around everywhere and emitting a foul smell. You have to clear out the cages weekly once, so if it seems like not your cup of tea, then rats might not be perfect for you.

Parting Note

Keeping in mind all these ideas, we can safely conclude that rats are harmful and cute. So, use your discretion and adopt cute rats at your own risk. Because once they steal your hearts with their tiny eyes, paws, and habits, you might have to prepare to send them off to the afterlife because they have shorter life spans than other pets.

Their sharp teeth and claws are great defense mechanisms, so if you enrage them, then get ready to be annihilated. They will destroy your precious furniture and leave you high and dry with the expensive repairs required.

Rats are also hard to train and are not the best pets to keep around tiny children as they cannot differentiate between what’s safe and what’s not. They still might make you sick and are fast escapers, and can scurry away if not properly monitored.

Various other animals might try to break in and chase the attracted by their smell, such as your neighborhood cat. So, keep in mind these pointers before you decide to keep a rat or if you find their nest in your home.