Rats pur.

Yep.

I just found out myself, because we’ve recently become a foster home for an organisation that tries to find forever homes for abandoned pet rats. Apart from technical, university stuff I know nothing much about rats as pets. I know that they’re arboreal – and you can see this in pets because they tend to sleep in the highest spots available and don’t like walking around on the floor, much. I know they like digging for food – and that’s why “digging boxes” (filled with paper shreds or soil) are a success with pet rats. I know they eat just about anything (not chocolate, or salt, or sugar blablabla) but I didn’t know that they purred.

Well, it’s not really purring. It’s more like a scary chattering teeth-grinding noise that they make while shivering. It’s called bruxing and it’s the cutest thing ever. Once you figure out what it is!

Here is a video of a rat, not one of mine, bruxing.

And here are some photos of our foster girls, you know, because they’re cute.

Rats love boxes. And, contrary to what I thought, won’t gnaw through them. They love making nests, although it really depends on their character. Only one of ours is nest-obsessed: Kim, the naked rat (she has no fur!)

Rats love pingpong balls. I suspect it’s because they remind them of nuts and they think there’s something inside…who knows what they’re thinking though! The good thing is that they like them even when they’ve made a hole, which is after about ten minutes. Oh, and rats are definitely not stupid – they won’t eat plastic or paper or wood. Just munch

Rats love digging. This is their first digging box, with shreds of paper. I threw some treats and seeds in, so they’d have something to look for. It took a few days but then they got used to it and had loads of fun tunnelling under the debris!

This is their second digging box. I bought some soil and planted some of their food mix and catnip – I was amazed at how fast it grew and they really liked getting their paws and noses dirty looking for roots and seeds in the soil!

Rats love exploring. It’s their absolute favourite activity. Anything new is scary but exciting and not investigating is impossible. These are some photos I tried to take of Kourtney!

Rats are social, friendly and fun to have around. Think about adopting before you buy!

Uhm, did you notice their names? They arrived with different ones (Coca, Luna and Susha) but…one was naked. And one curvaceous. And there were three of them. And Boyfriend said: We should call the naked one Kim. Like the Kardashians… And the names stuck 😉