Stacked babies!

"Best" is relative, but I guess the most wholesome is when I once forgot to lock the cage properly and went to sleep. One of my rats went straight to the bed and proceeded to cuddle, instead of wrecking havoc. It's not that common for rat girls, but she did it anyway, my little champ. She spent all the night there. It was truly a bonding moment, especially since she was a very small ratto at a time and being a kid she's supposed to rather eat the shit out of everything in the room (since socialization is often based on making them not destroy things with teeth)

I've easily made my girls piss and poop into a litterbox, it really helps. But it requires some patience.

Female rats are way less likely to do that, ime though, they're also way less "chill" and are bundles of energy, so it's a bit of a trade-off

You know, it has an upside, though. For a rat it does matter not whether they live for 2 or 10 years, it's their entire life. You know, a happy and content one. And if they unfortunately pass away, you could always give another one a chance to have a nice life too.

I've currently got three of them, they are named Kiara (which is the one on my profile pic), Skye and Afum. They have diametrally different characters and behaviours at large, making quite a special team of three rodents. I did, in fact, teach them a few tricks like spinning, fetching and coming over when called by name, although I had no time to dedicate to make them do tricks. I've got a friend though, and he's currently training a rat to open wallets and take money from the inside, which is frankly hilarious if you ask me.

That's actually amazing!

I wish a breeder would focus on domesticating and shrinking gambian pouched rats.

They don't seem far off.

True. The way I see it, though, is it's their entire life for them. It doesn't really matter. And one rat dying is an opportunity to provide a better life for another one. It's morally correct and utilitarian, I think!

Pet/fancy rats have gone through some breeding selection to try and weed out aggressive behavior (or at least bites). With that said, a wildie can be just as friendly, but you'll want to be extra careful to try and curb negative behaviors.

You can raise a baby rat (although it doesn't need to be a baby, too) found in the wild, because they are virtually the same as domesticated ones. At least here in Europe, where I live.

The type of a rat you're looking for is a "Norwegian Rat" or "Brown Rat", which is the most common type in the wild.

Generally speaking, there's a saying that animal you rescued will try to pay that back in love.