Whose Rat is This Anyway?
We get a lot of adoption applications from parents who are adopting with the intent of their children owning the rats. There are a few things to note when adopting with children in the home.
1. We do not recommend rats for homes of children under the age of 5 years old. We do not withhold approvals based on the age of children in the home because all families are different and some toddlers do have the ability to be very gentle with pets. Parents have the ultimate discretion and knowledge on their own children's behavior and skills. We have found, however, that rats are generally too small and fragile an animal for most families of toddlers. The rats lose in this. A rat, especially a baby one, can easily die from even a slight squeeze. Children under 5 are still gaining the ability to control their muscles and accidents can happen without any fault to the child. Young children also often smell very much like food, like to feed rats through cage bars, and make a lot of sudden loud sounds and movements that might be stressful on rats. Overall, we recommend waiting until all children are over 5 years old.
2. Children have varying levels of ability to care for a pet on their own and are NEVER considered to be the primary caretakers for our rats. Our application specifically states that we do not adopt to minors under the age of 18. We love to have children enjoy our rats and participate in their care, but they just don't have the resources, or sometimes responsibility, to be fully in charge of a pet.
Here are a few guidelines to help parents decide if their children may be ready to take on a new pet:
Those are all basic guidelines. We fully understand that children mature at different rates and your particular child may not fall into the categories set above. As a parent, if you are uncertain of where you child is in readiness level for a pet, please let us know. We can often give some tips or ideas on how to best approach a new pet or first pet scenario.
3. If you adopt a rat for a particular family member, the rat may not get the memo. Rats have varying personalities, just like their humans. It may turn out that the rat you get for little Suzy ends up liking little Jack a lot more. It does not happen often, but I have had parents report in that their children have swapped rats a few months down the road because the rats simply preferred one child over the other. It has even been reported (and happened here among my own children) that one child ends up with ALL the rats because their own personality and temperament is well-suited to animal care and trust building. If you have children that may take this sort of turn of events particularly hard emotionally, you may want to hold off on adopting or approach the adoption with care. Announcing the new rats as a "family pet" is better than if they are a personal pet. That way, the rats can naturally choose a favorite without causing hurt or offense to a child. Rats do tend to love the human who spends the most time with them the most. Therefore, encouraging your children to spend as much time as possible with their personal rat can also fix any preference issues. Warning: this is not limited to children. I've heard that significant others will steal ratty affection as well - even if they do not live in the same home!
1. We do not recommend rats for homes of children under the age of 5 years old. We do not withhold approvals based on the age of children in the home because all families are different and some toddlers do have the ability to be very gentle with pets. Parents have the ultimate discretion and knowledge on their own children's behavior and skills. We have found, however, that rats are generally too small and fragile an animal for most families of toddlers. The rats lose in this. A rat, especially a baby one, can easily die from even a slight squeeze. Children under 5 are still gaining the ability to control their muscles and accidents can happen without any fault to the child. Young children also often smell very much like food, like to feed rats through cage bars, and make a lot of sudden loud sounds and movements that might be stressful on rats. Overall, we recommend waiting until all children are over 5 years old.
2. Children have varying levels of ability to care for a pet on their own and are NEVER considered to be the primary caretakers for our rats. Our application specifically states that we do not adopt to minors under the age of 18. We love to have children enjoy our rats and participate in their care, but they just don't have the resources, or sometimes responsibility, to be fully in charge of a pet.
Here are a few guidelines to help parents decide if their children may be ready to take on a new pet:
- Age 8 or under: 100% of the care will fall on the parent. Children often do not have the attention span, physical strength, or discipline to provide even an adequate amount of attention and love to a rat, let alone provide the physical needs in a reliable way daily for it's lifetime.
- Age 8-12: Children can provide about 20% of the rats needs. At this age children often will flock to a pet as a way of showing love and receiving love. They build friendships with their pets quickly and very strongly. This age group will be able to give an adequate amount of attention to their new rats on an almost daily basis. They can also assist with feeding and watering of the pet daily with parents monitoring to make sure that they don't forget any days or that they are not over/under feeding. Cage cleaning ability will vary, and cage size plays a part. This age group likely will have minimal duties in this area, however, as they often do not have the discipline or strength needed to clean the cage often enough to keep it sanitary and healthy for the rats. This age group cannot earn money or drive, so supplies needed and veterinary care will fall to parents 100%.
- Age 13-15: Children can provide approximately 40% of the rat's needs. Depending on their schedule for school or extracurricular activities, this age group can often provide an equal amount of love and attention to their rats as they did from 8-12. They can also now provide many of the daily cleaning and feeding duties for the rats with much less supervision or instruction from their parent. The primary needs that fall to parents are still more related to their inability to earn money or travel for the items their rats need on a daily basis or provide for any veterinary care that may be needed. Parents will likely still need to supervise and check in on the care being provided for the rats to ensure no feedings are missed or the cage does not go too long without cleaning.
- Age 16-18: Children can provide approximately 75% of the rat's needs. Your child's schedule will play a vital role in how much they can do for their pet. If your child has a rich social life outside the home, they likely will not have enough time to help with their pets daily. At this age children are physically capable of caring for all the daily or weekly needs of their pets. Many may have jobs and transportation of their own to take over even the shopping and transporting of their pet to a vet if needed. Parents will need to still look out for the rats to ensure they are being provided for daily and not neglected or forgotten if other priorities come up. This age is often full of fun events and parents may need to "rat-sit" while their child enjoys them.
Those are all basic guidelines. We fully understand that children mature at different rates and your particular child may not fall into the categories set above. As a parent, if you are uncertain of where you child is in readiness level for a pet, please let us know. We can often give some tips or ideas on how to best approach a new pet or first pet scenario.
3. If you adopt a rat for a particular family member, the rat may not get the memo. Rats have varying personalities, just like their humans. It may turn out that the rat you get for little Suzy ends up liking little Jack a lot more. It does not happen often, but I have had parents report in that their children have swapped rats a few months down the road because the rats simply preferred one child over the other. It has even been reported (and happened here among my own children) that one child ends up with ALL the rats because their own personality and temperament is well-suited to animal care and trust building. If you have children that may take this sort of turn of events particularly hard emotionally, you may want to hold off on adopting or approach the adoption with care. Announcing the new rats as a "family pet" is better than if they are a personal pet. That way, the rats can naturally choose a favorite without causing hurt or offense to a child. Rats do tend to love the human who spends the most time with them the most. Therefore, encouraging your children to spend as much time as possible with their personal rat can also fix any preference issues. Warning: this is not limited to children. I've heard that significant others will steal ratty affection as well - even if they do not live in the same home!
Last Updated: 4/24/2021 (c) 2021 Squeakin' Pups All rights reserved. Do not copy, share, or distribute without written permission.