Why rats are misunderstood.

[Vidal]

Originally Posted by Tonks_Animagus

Because they're dirty, they eat our food and clothes and carry illnesses that can pass to people and make them be sick seriously and even go to the hospital. They're the dirtiest animals in the world who usually before they come to our homes they live under the roads at big cities. (Also Peter Petigrew was a rat Animagus. )

Do I need to go on with this?

Wild rats are dirty, pet rats aren't. Why don't people get the difference? :C
Been keeping rats for a while now and the only time they actually smell is if I dont clean them out (once a week, every sunday), and even then it's only noticable if I stick my face in the cage...


<3 rats :3

[gertiekeddle]

Actually I wouldn't even say wild rats are so much more dirty than pet rats either. They just live where dirtiness is to get themselves some food. Back when humans didn't clean themselves regularly, rats had a chance to transfer illnesses, but we're for the most cases over this long since. Even then if hadn't mainly been the rats who were overly dirty, but rather us humans.

[Grymmditch]

I think a lot of people don't know just how closely related rats are to squirrels and rabbits. They're all rodents.
As an old TV commercial once said, does that fluffy tail really make all the difference? Apparently. I think it's something about that worm-like tail that skeeves some people out, but personally, I find mice, and sometimes rats, to be cute, on the whole, just like squirrels and rabbits.

Now, cockroaches, those things skeeve me out - they strike me as filthy, disease ridden/carrying nasty things.

[kreestu]

I think I might have already posted on this thread like a year ago... xD But rats really are grossly misunderstood. Whenever I tell my peers about them most cringe in disgust. Until they see a picture. xD

[iambeffy89]

I love rats! Well, pet rats anyway Not the sewer, disease infested rats. We had some a few years ago and they are so gorgeous, and so clean! I would love to have another one, but I can't afford the cage at the moment

[Abbsalah]

I'm reviving this thread with more rat love! I don't have one at the moment, but I've had a couple in the past and they were just angels. They're just so smart and loving!

[Avyanna]

Ive had rats since I was about..11 or 12 I believe.
It took me quite a while to convince my mum, she thought they were groose.
When I finally convinced her and I got my first 2 rats, she loved them! <3

Right now I only have 1 rat, he doesnt seem to get along with other rats so well and I dont want multiple cages. But he is adorable! <3
His name is Balou, like the bear in Jungle Book, mainly because he's big and fat and.. yeah.. thats why

[Pokota]

Part of the reason rats are misunderstood is the whole Bubonic Plague kerfuffle. I understand, intellectually, that rats that are kept clean do make for good pets. The problem is that I haven't met a rat that was clean, so I'm biased towards my survival instinct.

[Bonta Kun]

Rats are clean - if they live in sewers and rubbish dumps and down dirty, stinking alley ways just whose dirt is that? Certainly not the rats'. I recently got a couple more rats after a few rat-free years and they are adorable and extremely clean. They are litter trained so they go to their box to deposit their droppings. They spend a lot of their time grooming themselves and each other. I have a coop cup of water in their cage and they dip their hands in and run their wet hands over themselves. They don't smell at all and I barely have to clean them out since I can just spot clean their litter tray each day. They are far cleaner than dogs who roll in filth, eat other animals' poo and often sick up and fart. I love dogs, but there is no denying they are messy, and certainly messier than rats!