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Rats and other animals.Have you ever wondered or hoped that your pet rat(s) could get along with any other animal you would consider keeping as a pet? We have. Initially we were pretty oblivious about it too (see "Do not assume that all body parts are permanently attached."). We learned pretty quickly that, yes, it's probably possible, but if any adults are involved, it's probably not likely. We've met some people who let their rats play around with their cats. Apparently they've been doing this (supervised of course) since they were kittens and rattlings, and the cats are scared of the rats! We've even had a friend's dog in our apartment and the dog looked like he was going to lose his mind because the rats unquestionably owned the place. The rats just went back to sleep in his presence, without a care or concern in the world. We then got a turtle. I wasn't too worried about the rats. After all, what could Fred, the box turtle, do to a quick little rat? Well, first of all, I forgot they weren't really always all that quick, but other than that, Fred was unquestionably harmless. So, I decided to see what would happen (supervised, of course) and used Slinky as bait since he was the gentlest of all our rats (and the easiest to catch). Well, Slinky liked Fred very much, and he instantaneously felt compelled to remove all of Fred's nubbies. Problem is that Fred, being a reptile as he is, has nubbies all over! Well, they never became friends, but despite Slinky's need to nibble on Fred, Fred never tucked his head inside his shell out of fear. I guess we'll never know. I've also read that some orphan mice have been cared for a raised by rat moms. I think this is kind of neat. I'm not a huge mouse fan though so I doubt I'll try it. There are some pet-intermingling no-no's though. Some dogs are genetically bred as hunting dogs. Don't put them with your rats!
 tip: When navigating through the RatTails, clicking on the image that looks like the image above will take you back to this table of contents!
Disclaimer: There are many non-sarcastic accounts and tips on the web regarding rat care. This is not
one of them. These are merely accounts of our experiences with rats, our perceptions of these experiences, where we've failed
and where we've succeeded. These accounts are here for two purposes:
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