Claudette Brown is fostering 32 pet rats until they can be adopted by approved homes.
DIANE MCCARTNEY. The Wichita Eagle
Claudette Brown loves pet rats.
She loves the way they wiggle their tiny noses and ears, the way they like to snuggle, the way they enjoy riding on her shoulder.
"I think they're sweet," she said.
Brown, who got her first pet rat when she was 12, owns three rats and jumped at the chance to foster 35 more that ended up at the Wichita Animal Shelter after a home eviction.
The three female rats that were picked up by animal control six weeks ago were pregnant and gave birth to a total of 50 babies among them. Twelve died, six went to another foster home, and the rest went to Brown.
She plans to keep the mothers, whom she has named Brianna, Celeste and Dorothy. ("I've named them all," she said. "I'm so goofy.")
The rest of the rats -- 13 females and 19 males -- are available for adoption to approved homes through Pals Animal Rescue.
"Approved homes" means those that intend to keep the rats as pets, not to feed them to snakes.
"These guys have so much to give," Brown said. "They're not food."
Rats are clean, quiet and intelligent, Brown said.
"I think if a person had one as a pet and got to see its personality, they would associate it a lot with the intelligence of a dog," she said.
Brown thinks rats make better pets than hamsters or gerbils for two reasons: "They're not as hyper, and they bond more to people," she said.
For that important bonding to occur, baby rats must be handled and played with starting at about 2 weeks of age.
"They're born tame," Brown said, "but what you want to do is socialize them as soon as these little guys have their eyes open."
Brown is preparing her rat pack to be good pets by handling and playing with each one every day.
After working a full day as a closer at the Mortgage Centre in Wichita, Brown comes home, eats dinner, does some housework, and "then it's rat playtime."
She'll move a few of the boys -- Billy Bob, Jimmy John, Socrates and Ben -- from their cage to a playpen, then later replace them with, say, One Spot, Two Spots and Twinkles.
"I spend several minutes with each one, holding them," Brown said. "They like being cuddled."
Some people think rats don't need the attention that a dog or cat needs, but that's not true, Brown said. "They get bored. They need stimulation."
She recommends getting two pet rats -- of the opposite sex, since they can reproduce when they are as young as 5 weeks -- so they will have someone to interact with, Brown said.
That way, "if you can't play with the rat that day, you don't have that guilty feeling," she said.
Brown feeds the rats a combination of frozen mixed vegetables cooked in the microwave, soybeans, a seed mixture and a processed "lab block" daily, and a fruit and nut mix every other day.
Their expected life span is only two to three years, but "that two or three years is like a full 60 or 70 to us," Brown said. "They're fulfilled. They don't feel like they got ripped off."
Brown has three pet rats that she rescued in October from the "feeder box" at a pet store, where they were being offered for sale as snacks for snakes. "These were called 'jumbo,' " she said. "That just breaks my heart."
She has been trying to talk her co-workers into adopting some of the baby rats -- which are free -- but hasn't had any luck yet.
She even e-mailed cute pictures of them but says, "I can't get anybody to be the least bit interested in one of these guys."
She wishes people were more open-minded about rats.
"Don't judge them until you own one and you see that little personality come out," she said.
"When you come home from work and see these little guys with their noses through the bars of the cage, they will make your night."
TO ADOPT A RAT
Pet rats are available for adoption at no charge to approved homes through Pals Animal Rescue. Call 316-990-3647.
...do a good deed and provide a good home for a rattie :-)
