The way to make rats devoted to you is to handle them frequently - several times a day, beginning as soon as you get the rats - and to treat them gently, and offer them treats. If you doubt this, I suggest that you visit a rat show or an experienced breeder, and ask to meet some rats which live with companions of their own species. No - anyone who keeps several well-socialized rats will tell you that this is nonsense. Won't one rat be more devoted to me, because I am the only person with whom it can play? You would not, for example, communicate with it, or (presumably!) groom it with your teeth the way another rat would. They are often particularly playful during the night, when most humans are asleep.Įven if you were the rat's perfect human - never apart from it, and sleeping only for an hour or so at a time - you could not provide it with the same sort of companionship as another rat, simply because you are a very different species. Rats do not sleep throughout the night like us - they wake and sleep at intervals throughout the day and night. Unless your rat is with you literally 24 hours a day, it is inevitable that it will be bored sometimes. It has nothing to do whenever you are not around. But when you are asleep, or out at work or school, or simply going shopping, the single rat can get bored and lonely. I used to keep a single rat, and it always seemed perfectly happy as long as I spent time with it.Ī single rat is often happy, whenever you are playing with it.
Many laboratories now refuse to keep rats alone, because it is considered unfair surely pet owners should be at least as concerned as laboratory staff to keep their animals happy. Keeping rats in pairs is a very easy way to give your pets better lives - elaborate toys and cages are great if you can provide them, but the first and best toy for a rat is always another rat.
#Happy baby pet society game full#
Rats living in pairs have more full and interesting lives than single rats, because many more experiences are available for them. We should also think about what they want to give them happy lives. However, it is not fair to think only of what our pets need to keep them alive. Rats will not usually pine away and die simply from being kept alone - so if you are concerned simply with what rats need to stay alive, you can keep them alone. Some rat books say that you can keep a rat alone, so why should I get two? Some common questions and comments about the social needs of pet rats are addressed below. They are not 'designed' to live happily alone. The most important element of enrichment is allowing the animals to live in similar social groups to those found in the wild, since social animals have evolved to flourish in the company of others of their own kind. Zoos and laboratories nowadays focus on 'environmental enrichment' - ways in which captive animals can be given more interesting lives by mimicking aspects of their wild relatives' lifestyles. Rats living in groups have more full and varied lives than any single rat. It has many more options than the single rat, who can only sleep, or sit and wait for human attention. If one rat wants peace and quiet, it can simply go off and sleep alone if it wants company, friends are always at hand. Rats living in groups can have fun chasing each other around, grooming each other, sleeping in a heap, playing tug-of-war with food, wrestling, sometimes scrapping, communicating, forming friendships, and generally acting like schoolchildren at playtime. They are not like the Syrian hamster, which is a naturally solitary animal, and hence is kept alone as a pet.
They live in large family groups in the wild, so in captivity they live a more natural life if kept in pairs or more. Rats are social animals, gaining much enjoyment and stimulation from each other's company.
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