Rats do make really cool pets - like someone said before its a variotation on the old cat lady thing.
I had loads of rats as a kid, as I was a bit older I bred 2 litters of about 25 kittens (yhea there called kittens) each. The parents are really good
with them, and they really get on with people much much better than a pet rat from a pet shop. But young adult males will try to mate with the kids
from the age of about 2 weeks, and all the females could be pregnent by something like 6 weeks old if your not carefull. (although as adult males get
older and wiser they grow out of it and undersupervision it great to watch em with the kids)
Adults should be seperated at the birth and kids sepeated at the right time as their growing up - Or else!! I think gestation is 6 weeks, so 15
females born on January 1st could easily be 450 by the end of March
Rats make wicked pets for kids tho, just keep males with males and females with femails. Only breed if you have enough different accomadition (more
than just girls and boys - 25-30 rats is a handfull!) and have homes for em all to go to!
[edit on 20/6/2007 by Now_Then]