I actually stopped drinking tonight to post this. - after my dad died, my rat I never really got totally along with saw me moping during free range, stopped, and came to snuggle. He hates physical contact. It was 100% for my benefit. They have extremely high empathy and social intelligence.

Oh very! They are friendly, mine liked sitting on my shoulder as I walked around my house, or playing on my desk as I worked. They are gentle enough that my mentally handicapped/autistic brother could handle them and enjoy them. They are smart, so good clasps are needed on their cage, or they might escape. They learn their names, and react every time you enter the room and try to get your attention.

They sleep a good bit of the day, but are pretty active in the early morning, then they sleep and get up around 4 and then are active the rest of the evening/night. They don't eat much, I gave mine a mix of pet food, raw oats and raw trail mix. They are very clean, if you only have one rat, then you only need to clean their cage once a week.

Boy rats live a bit longer then girls, so 4 years or so for them, and around 3 for the girls. If the girls have babies, even just once, they live longer.

But yeah, they are fun, friendly, easy inside pets.

Rats are amazing pets and my favourite pet, the only down side is that they have such short lives.

You get so attached to them and then have to say good bye in what seems like a moment in hindsight.

They each have their own personality - it has been said that they are the fifth smartest animal just in front of dogs.

They are cute when they eat because they use their hands that look like ours.

They sleep a lot which is nice - they can look after themselves easily - just water and really good food always.

They need friends always - it is hard when one dies because the others miss them. They do get sick easily with things like upper respiratory infections.

They cost the same at vets as dogs but you normally need to go a lot more but I guess that balances out because dogs live 14+ years and rats are lucky for 3-4 with a maximum of 7 but that is probably just lab rats which are breed for that.

They are absolutely amazing pets and they make you understand animals so well and appreciate wildlife as they really are similar to everything from birds to ants.

Yes. Affectionate and intelligent.

Mine could get out of his cage but didn't run away. He used to like sitting on my shoulder.