My daughter wanted a pet for her birthday, in the past when I was a child I had hamsters and they bit me. I had gerbils and they bit me. I was frightened that this pet I bought for Kirsty would spend it’s small amount of time on this earth stuck in a cage never being handled and all of us being frightened of it. We already had two cats and one dog, but she was adamant she wanted a pet of her own!!!
I was watching a programme on the T.V and a vet recommended Rats as a perfect per for children. I visited Petsmart that opened up quite a few miles away and I saw rats and I thought they looked ok. So for my daughters 6th birthday in August 1997 she was bought a luxury rat cage from Petsmart, this cage was huge and I started to call it rat mansions.
We went to Petsmart to buy the rat and you guessed it, they had all gone. So I did the next smart thing I bought a book about keeping rats (I should have done this in the first place) and read up on them.
I read all the points on what and where to buy rats and because Petsmart were a large pets hop I thought that would be the best place to buy from. In fact I got it in to my head that they would be the only place that was good enough. In my mind clean cages were the only important things (I would like to note hear that I was a complete novice and have since changed my ideas)
We kept going to Petsmart as often as possible it is at least a 25 minute drive from my house and one day we went in the shop and hooray they had rats this was 23 August 1997. They had quite a few. We watched them for a while and Kirsty chose the one she wanted, we hadn’t decided on a sex and I didn’t trust Petsmart so I would only let Kirsty choose one. I had read about them having lots of babies, and I wasn’t going to have the chance of getting two different sexes.
I found an assistant, and she chased the rat and grabbed one. (Until this day I do not know if it was the one Kirsty picked out –they all looked the same) The assistant looked at the rat and proclaimed her a girl.
We took the rat home with all the stuff she needed although the cage came with most of it. We set up the cage and put her into it, and then decided as the rat was a girl and so was Kirsty then girl power ruled and therefore she should be named after one of the spice girls-Geri (I also thought that if the pet shop was wrong and she turned into a he then Jerry would do, I now know better between girls and boys need I say more?)
We left her for 24 hours to get used to the cage and us and all the noise and smells eg. Dog
Then I tried to tell Kirsty to put a treat on her hand and gently coax her out and eventually she could hold her when Geri gets used to her. (This is what the book said to do). At this time I was still afraid that Geri would bite me and I didn’t want to hold her, and without my knowledge Kirsty was holding Geri within minutes of my leaving her bedroom, I would have panicked about biting if I had known.
Over the next few days Kirsty held Geri all the time in fact they ate breakfast together- Geri had toast and so did Kirsty.
Once Kirsty went back to school I began to hold Geri and I soon forgot about being frightened of Geri biting me. Then as a surprise 17 days later on September 9 97 I went into see if Geri was ok and found she had built a nest when I put my hand in her cage she bit me, this upset me a little bit and looking back she didn’t bite me very hard, it turns out she had 7 babies all looking like pink worms with arms and legs. I kept going to a bookshop looking for books on what to do, I found very little reading material on rats especially babies and I was not on the internet at the time so it was a learning experience for me. I enjoyed looking after Geri and her babies and watching them grow every day, they were so funny when they played together it was more fun than watching t.v. The only worry was that the children would mix the boys in with the girls, as all 5 looked the same, so it was a difficult decision to sell them.
Geri had 5 babies all the same colour as herself and 2 black ones. I sold the boys 1 black and 3 Geri colour to Petsmart, this was the worst thing I ever did I cried my eyes out and even today I do not forgive myself for thinking I couldn’t cope with 7 rats. I now currently have 8 rats and love looking after them it has given me a full time hobby, and Kirsty now moans at me because I don’t let her look after her rat enough. My aim is to eventually to show rats but I do not have any show quality rats but I enjoy entering in the pet class even though I have not won anything yet. I would dearly love to have an agouti rex and hope one day I will fortunate to have one own me as all my rats own me, I definitely do not own them??? I have since found out through the NFRS shows that Geri is champagne and her daughter is silver chocolate (not black as I originally thought)
I have now got a mink rex girl and a mink roberts girl and 2 boys one cinnamon berkshire and one mink roberts.
I have my 6 girls in 2 luxury cages from Petsmart with a bridge we made up in the middle of the two so the rats can use both cages this is now known as luxury rat mansions extensions.
See my rats section to read up on each one
The best time for me is when I come home from work at midnight and all the rats are sitting at the door waiting to come out and play its bliss.