Rats as Pets – Are Rats a Good Pet for Kids?
Rats. Seriously.
When our middle daughter asked for a pet rat I said, “no way”. Never would I let a rat live in my house on purpose. 6 months later she was still begging for a pet rat so I told her that she could get one for her birthday if she researched rats, wrote a paper on if rats are a good pet for kids and presented us with a plan for her to care for her rats.
Our middle daughter is the queen of shortcuts. She’s the one that we find hiding laundry behind the couch cushions instead of putting it up. I gave her a long list of to-do items fully believing that they would never be done. A week later, she had done all the research about keeping a rat as a pet, told me all the details about why rats are good pets with a paper to back up everything she was saying and she also gave me plan to care for the rat.
It didn’t stop at that point. She became obsessed in planning for her pet rats. Every time we went to the library I would see her march up to the librarians desk to ask for help in finding any more books that even mention a rat. She was hooked and there was no escaping the pet rats that were about to make their home in my house.
At that time it was one singular rat in the plan. But her research showed that rats need community so we finally agreed for her birthday she could get two rats.
We’re about to approach one year of pet rat ownership so I thought that today I would share with you my thoughts on keeping rats as a pet for kids.