Aww, he's a cutey though!
My little rat Sandy is quite vocal too x3 Well, used to be, but only when I gave him the tri monthly bath or at night when Mister Beans is trying to beat up on him (Not really, Dangerous Beans is a sweetie)
You can do eet!

LOL Mister Beans is an awesome name for a rat.

x3 Its more fun if we say it "Mishtah Beansh" x3 heheehe. Its actually a nickname xD

I had a rat that was like that a while ago...but although they're agressive sometimes, they're still really cute~

Fuel is very photogenic ^^

haha, he is! I got a few good shots of him, but unfortunately they were blurry ;_;

D: why do blurry pictures always gotta ruin everything?

Eee!
I boop his nose! :D

x3

AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE CUTE!

x3 He is! Especially when he calms down a bit and gets cozy somewhere. x3

You have the best ratties in the world.

xD Well I tend to think so, but I am biased.

He looks like an interesting little fellow.

He is, and he's learning an annoying habit right now. He grinds his teeth on the bars of his cage, then I go over and pet him to make him stop, and as soon as I settle back down...he does it again.

He just wants attention lol.

Maybe you should replace that habit with another... Pavlov made his dogs drool at the sound of a bell.

xD Pavlov also did a few terrible things to his doggies... or so I hear. Maybe I can train Fuel to bring me cookies.

I haven't gotten the chance to read all of the case files. I wouldn't have brought it up if I knew of anything cruel. I'll be looking into that more now.

Your plan sounds nice though.

I didn't know about it either, I had mentioned Pavlov's dogs to my friend at work, and she told me about it. Apparently it's pretty bad. I never knew! I always thought his experiments were...harmless.

It's a wonderful idea, but I know rats, and the cookie would not make it to its intended destination.

In the age when he was working, very few experiments were harmless, even in psychology. Some of the experiments I've read about in the past were downright brutal, but without them, we wouldn't know what we do today. I don't like that animals were used for such things, but I cannot change the past either. All that can be done now is to learn from it and hope that no one is cruel enough to repeat it.

Most information online is skimming over his experiments, but I did find one article that went over his research on the body's response to pain. It doesn't go into much detail though. In that case it doesn't have to.

Maybe if you taught him to carry a container and eventually loaded it with a cookie or two.

well, I'm not against animal testing anymore (within reason). I used to be, but someone made a good point -- Rats need cures for cancer, too! x3 very true. One day maybe I can have a rat live for 5 years instead of only 2-3.

I think as soon as the scent of cookie wafted to the little rat nose, all training would be overridden by the need to nom.

You would probably have found most of those old experiments to be barbaric. Rats do need a cure for cancer too, and cats need one for feline leukemia.

There's a simple solution to the scent problem. A screw on metal lid.

You're actually rewarding him for gnawing on the bars. Ignore him! That's the only way to make him stop c:

lol I know, and that's exactly what I did, I ignored him, and he stopped xD

god my rat mixie moo does that, shes sooo bad! >.< she stoped over time cause i stopped showing her afection when she did it and scolded her with a firm but not to loud " Mixie . . no!" and shes kinda caught on . . now the new girl rose its picking it up XD

EEEEEEEEEEEEEE *steals him*

xD Gimme back my Fuel!

*hides him in my muzzle and puts my arms up like IDK where he is*

xD Why your cheeks are moving?

I have Parkinson's!

oh I see! Well then, good day to you, sir.

*rat jumps out of my muzzle all sticky and slimy with husky drool*

FUEL. Where have you been? *Scolds the rat*


...*Then gives him pumpkin cookies*

*drools* I want some pumpkin cookies

*Also gives pumkin cookies to the Husk-pup*

EEEEEEEEEEEEE *noms them*

:3 I hope so, I think he's a beautiful rat!

It sure has that face.
"Hey, who are you looking at? >=0

xD yeah...The other shots I got were funny too, he always looked like a mob boss or something. x3

Aww :3

I want to know... Where did you get your rats? I heard to never buy them from a pet store... but I came SUPER close to buying this rat from Pet Smart. He looked sickly... But I've heard pet store rats hate people from never being socialized... I mean I would have totally dealt with whatever crap my parents gave me for buying him. I wanted to help him out so bad.

Haha, well I have bought rats from PetSmart before, there is nothing wrong with that. A good idea, though, is to check www.petfinder.com ! There are many rats on there that need homes. :3 A good forum for that, too, is www.goosemoose.com

One reason you might not want to buy from a store like PetSmart, though, is because you would not be sure of the bloodline of the rat, it may be inbred, etc., so another option is to look for a reputable breeder in your area, I have bought rats from breeders before. They would be able to offer you pedigrees and, if the breeder is awesome enough, they will give you a percentage of inbreeding in that rat's line (for example, my rat Benny is only 4.5% inbred, not bad!)

Anywhere you get a rat from, though, they have different personalities -- I got my most loving rat ever from PetSmart! But I have also seen rats come from the same PetSmart that have severe social problems. So if you are looking to get a rat, you should check several stores in your area and "meet" all the rats until you decide on one. x3

Yeah, I always like to check Petfinder but all the ones I ever see are hours away- same with breeders (the nearest breeder is in Birmingham... I am in Mobile.)

I guess PetSmart is the best bet. They don't have many (which I guess is good; if you have a B&B you'll see that their rat tanks are so full that there's not enough space on the ground for them so they're walking on each other, and they leave dead ones in the tank for a long time... It's soooo sad... ) and they seem to take good care of them, keeping the boys seperate from the 1 girl and such. But that one just looked... sick, obviously sick.

Awww...yeah I have seen sick ones at PetSmart too... but it's good that they kept the boys and girls separate...some places don't, and then people who buy the girls might end up with many babies @_@

Yup, that's what happened to my friend who bought two "male" hamsters

LOL oops. x3

Is he a wild rat or something? My rat hasn't ever bitten me. O_o

No, I adopted him from a lady whose rats had an accidental litter. The girls of the litter were really sweet, but him and his brother were very anti-social. x3 He's never bitten me, but he picks fights with one of my other rats too often, he really hates him for some reason, so I separated them.

aww so cute and i dont usaually call things that, but im a rat lover

What a cutie! ^_^

x3 He was a handsome rat! That's for sure! Thanks!

You're welcome, friend!