Rodents Rising
‘Ratatouille’ raised the rat profile in 2007, and experts say these rodents make loyal, cuddly – and clean – companions
Remy from the 2007 hit film, 'Ratatouille' Image courtesy Disney/Pixar
First, the little girl’s mother died. Then her father relocated from Georgia to Washington State for a new job.
And when the time arrived for her to board the plane to join her dad in Seattle, her beloved pet rat was not permitted. It did not have the proper carrier. So the distraught 7-year-old was forced to leave her pet behind with her grandmother.
“That little girl was devastated,” recalls Dyna Brown, rescue coordinator with the Georgia chapter of the Rat & Mouse Club of America (www.rmca.org). “The rat was the last link that she had to her life back in Georgia with her mom.”
It wasn’t long before the father called the Georgia chapter of the RMCA and asked what it would take to get the rat to Seattle. One $450 plane ticket (paid by the dad) later, Brown was in the Seattle airport handing the pink-eyed pet to the girl.
“She was just so excited to finally have her rat again,” recalls Brown of her September trip. “She just took it and hugged it and started talking to it.”
Think that’s a little far to go for a rodent? Think again.
“These rats, people will go the length for them,” says Amy Epperley, director of the Georgia RMCA. “They’re not like hamsters or gerbils, really. They’re part of the family.”
And their popularity as pets is growing. Debbie Ducommun, founder of the worldwide Rat Fan Club (www.ratfanclub.org), says pet rats are most popular in California, “where you can walk into almost any large urban area and find rats for adoption.”
Rat ownership is also growing in places like New York City, Chicago and Florida, where membership in that state’s RMCA chapter has risen from only five members three years ago to more than 300 members today.
“They’re becoming more acceptable as a pet,” Epperley says. “Also people are moving into smaller homes, condos or apartments and rats are the perfect pets for that type of situation.”
Epperley runs the Phoenix Gate Rattery, Atlanta, which breeds socialized, healthy rats as pets for adoption. When she started it in 2002, Epperley received about 10 requests a month. Now she gets one or two requests a day, mostly from families with kids 7 to 14 years of age.
The two most popular pet rat varieties are the dumbo, with large, floppy ears, and the blue.
“In the end,” Epperley says, “most people don’t care what they look like as long as they are sweet, healthy, well-tempered rats.”
There is even a place to register your fancy rat: the North American Rat Registry (www.ratregistry.org). There are nearly 8,000 rats registered in the NARR database, says the administrator, Sarah Paterson-Farrand. “NARR began in 2002 with a total of only 246 rats registered.”
Although NARR is primarily a tool for responsible breeding, pet owners are joining in increasing numbers, Paterson-Farrand says. “It allows everyone to research their rat’s pedigree to study health, temperament and longevity information in that line, amongst other things. Obviously, this allows the potential pet owner to be sure they are receiving a healthy rat with a sound ancestry.”
So why do they make good pets?
“They have all the advantages of a small cage pet plus all the advantages of a dog,” says Ducommun, who was also a consultant for the Disney/Pixar film, “Ratatouille.” “They are responsive like a dog. They’re smart. They learn their own name. They’ll come when you call. They can learn tricks. They’re affectionate and playful. You don’t have to take them for walks. And they’re quiet.”
But aren’t rats, well, dirty?
“They say that rats clean themselves completely something like eight to 10 times a day,” says Epperley. “That’s more than any other animal I know of. They also love for things to be clean. They like clean cages. They will naturally designate an area of the cage to use as a restroom. You can also give them baths.”
Perhaps the most endearing quality is their ability to connect with people who might be shy, or mentally or physically challenged.
“I used to have a black-hooded male rat named Ozzy that had a disease where he shook a lot, like Parkinson’s,” says Epperley. “He was fine otherwise and he loved children. We would go around to different schools in southern Georgia that had mentally challenged or physically challenged children. They would be able to see that even though he had a similar disability, he would be able to function. He would just sit on their lap and they would pet him. I think it gave them a boost of confidence … These kids who normally wouldn’t open up to anybody would open up to him.”
Starting to think you might like a rat for a pet? Well, don’t head for the pet store, experts say.
“Get a rat from breeder or a rescue,” says Ducommun, who also runs the non-profit Rat Assistance and Teaching Society (RATS), which educates veterinarians, animal shelters and pet shops on proper rat care. “Most rats in pet stores are put in these huge cages where they are never socialized. Most of these rats are equivalent of feral cats. They’ve never had human contact.”
Ducommun says pet store rats may also be more prone to illness since they are bred in large mass production facilities, then shipped across the country – a stressful situation that can lead to respiratory infections.
If you decide to become a rat owner, remember the old saying: The more the merrier.
“Always adopt in same sex pairs,” Epperley says. “Rats are so social. They’re pack animals. They aren’t going to bond to you more or less if they have no other companion. Instead, they are going to be healthier.”
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