Pets

[tetsuro_hoshino999]

Recently, I've been wanting to look after a pet. Growing up, my family had several pets; but since I'm older, I would like to take care of a pet again. I would like to own a pet that's interactive but not super high maintenance. I would like to have some kind of small or medium sized parrot because I'm familiar with taking care of them, but the issue is that they tend to not be very apartment friendly.

Then I looked into Fancy Rats (aka domesticated rats) and they sound like a cool pet. They bound well with their owners and aside from buying a cage (that is spacious and has lots of toys) and vet bills, they aren't too expensive in comparison to other pets. They seem to be the kind of pet that I'm looking for because their maintenance level seems more middle ground(more interactive than fish and hamsters but less demanding than dogs and cats).Although I don't think it's safe to say they are low maintenance pets because they need a lot of stimulation/attention (Which is the main reason why that most people buy at least two rats) and they need a specific kind of bedding. Also, sadly they often have short lives.

I'm not sure if my apartment would accept them although I heard that they are actually pretty clean pets and they are quiet, too. Since rats are stigmatized, they may not allow it. It's also probably a good idea to not take them outside, since there are a lot of hawks in the area. My family home does seem like a good home for them, but I spend a lot time at the apartment (for school and other things). I also don't really trust my mom with taking care of pets when I'm gone. She's not really an animal lover as she has a tendency to give away pets or put away in pets the basement. I would like to interact with them in a regular basis anyways.

I know my mom wants to move in with her new husband (I'm still not used to calling him my step dad) in the future and maybe me and my sisters can have the family home to ourselves. But I don't know when that would be and I kind of wanted to move to another city one day because there's no jobs over here. My sister wants a dog so if I do get a rat, I got to make sure that the dog doesn't hurt it.

I'm not completely dead set on getting one, I've got to do more research and save money for a large cage and find a vet that knows how to take care of them, but they seem like a fun pet to have. I'm a big bird fan and I would love to own another bird one day but trying to raise someone else would be neat too. I've already raised fish before but I would like to raise an animal that's more willing to bond with their owners. If I get them, I'll probably need to get two of them which is okay with me.

Comments

[moon_hotel]

Fancy rats are really cute! When I was younger I really wanted a rat, but my parents' household has always been a cat-owning household so it was a bad idea. I hope your landlord will let you have a rat! I've heard they're very clean as well, and I don't think it'll be a problem :^)

I think you might also want to consider a cat, though I know you don't sound interested in one. Cats are pretty low-maintenance, to be honest: aside from feeding them and cleaning their litterbox, they pretty much take care of themselves.

Still, you should look around and see what suits you best! You've done a lot of thinking about it, so I think you'll be okay.

[tetsuro_hoshino999]

Cats are fine, but I’m worried about cleaning the litter box, because I recall that they can be pretty smelly (there might be ways to prevent the smell from being too strong, though). However, there was a cat that I grew fond of at the SPCA that I would love to adopt if I had I could provide for it. It had an incurable condition that weakened its immune system (probably from the bad environment that it used to live in before being rescued) so it couldn’t be around any other cats. But aside from that, it was well enough to be adoptable. It licked my fingers and it enjoyed being petted by me. However, I knew that I couldn’t adopt it right on the spot because it’s never a good idea to impulse buy a pet and I was unsure if I had the funds to raise one. The next time I visited the SPCA, the cat was gone. Hopefully they found a nice, loving home.

There are people who own both rats and cats, but it’s probably a good idea to keep them apart or if they are going to be in the same room together, to watch them carefully. Any animal with a prey drive can hurt smaller animals, so it’s not exclusive to cats and rats living together.

If I do get fancy rats, (I think I should get two of them) I have an idea on where to get them. There’s a rat breeding centre in Toronto that seems to bring up rats in a humane environment. Some breeders raise rats in poor conditions because rats (including fancy rats) don’t get much protection from animal welfare laws. But judging by the way they post pictures on their social media sites and the way they talk about bringing up rats, they seem to have the right idea. There’s also a rescue centre in Ottawa and they provide useful information about the rats that are up on adoption and the rats are already set in pairs. However, Ottawa is far away from where I live. Anyway, if I go with owning rats, hopefully my landlord will be accepting towards the idea.

My apartment isn’t a pet free one; they allow animals such as cats and small dogs into the apartment. If they do have a bias against rats, I could try to print out information about how they are nothing like street rats and that I will only own two of the same gender (I would like to get them fixed too) so my dorm won’t have too many rats that I can’t take care of.