After having owned guinea pigs (useless critters! <g>) and tropical fish, with some trepidation our family tried those unfashionable pets, domesticated lab rats!  We started with two females, and ended up buying seven more over the following two years.  They are smart, playful, each has a unique personality, but they are plagued by all-too-short life spans (2-3 years).  I'm all in favor of teaching my kids about "the circle of life", but losing three rats to tumors within a month was a bit of overload.  (Like losing three family dogs-- they'd bonded with us that much).

Our Rats in chronological order:

(italics denote deceased, underlining denotes still living)

Cocoa-- died unexpected in surgery at age 1.  One of our first pair of Christmas rats, she won our hearts and made "rat lovers" of a skeptical family

Snowball-- lived 2 1/2 years.  Loved to give us rattie kisses. Died of kidney failure, we believe.

Daisy-- a "rescued rat" who was a physical and spiritual clone of the adventurous Cocoa, and who lived a full life of ~3 1/2 years.

Cindy-- one of our "Ocean City" duo.  Sweet tempered and petite in stature.  Liked to stash food more than eat it, and to groom our eyelashes!  Died mysteriously of what we believe were complications of mycoplasmosis.

Tina-- a valiant rat, who was cheerful even when fighting a massive tumor--her second-- which eventually grew so large that I had to euthanize her.

Belle-- our "blue rat".  Initially skittish, she became a sweet rat after being nursed through a bout of pneumonia.  Euthanized when a mammary tumor grew so large that it impaired her breathing.

Dollie-- our second white rat (like Snowball).  Euthanized when her quality of life deteriorated too far.

Susie--aka "the teddy bear".  Waged a valiant fight against a large internal tumor but maintained a sweet disposition to the bitter end.  Probably one of our most affectionate girls.

Noelle, aka "Baby".  Our one skittish people hater, and the only dud of the bunch--including being our only "biter".  Of course, being the youngest, she'll be the last one standing.   There will be no more Richberg female rats for now-- it's just too sad losing them so fast to tumors. 

3/30/2006 UPDATE: we may try male rats for a change.  I understand they are more sedentary than the females (more "snuggler" than "romper"), but have less than 1/10th the likelihood of developing tumors.  Stay tuned...

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APRIL 2006:  After two weeks of being bitten by Noelle at every opportunity, and watching her become withdrawn and depressed at being all alone, we found a "rat rescue" that would take her (and house her with more females), and in turn we took SIX young males from their over-stocked cage.  These males have been hand-raised, and are the most friendly rodents we have owned yet.    Male rats have the reputation for being more lethargic than the females.  While this is true during some parts of the day, when they are awake these boys are MUCH more interested in socializing and interacting with us than any of our nine females ever were!  The only "downside" to this litter is that they all have a particularly virulent form of the respiratory disease mycoplasmosis, which virtually all rats suffer from to one degree or another.  I've have these guys on four different types of antibiotics thus far with limited results.

These six male rats are:

Curious George, a black and white hooded with "Dumbo" ears

Oreo, a black and white hooded with Dumbo ears and bedraggled ears and whiskers

Puck, a tan and white hooded rat, and our most adventurous boy

Biscuit, a virtual clone of Puck in appearance

Pumpkin, a solid tan sweet tempered boy with Dumbo ears

Mouse, a jet black infant from a younger litter than the others, he was so small that he looked closer to mouse-sized than like a rat.  He was also a "biter" (nipper) for the first two weeks, until we socialized him.  Update:  Mouse unexpectedly died in Nov '06.  He was the youngest and one of the healthiest healthiest of this mycoplasmosis-plagued bunch.  He was healthy, then dead when we looked in the cage two hours later.  A stroke or heart attack???

Here is an image of the "rat palace" I built a few years ago.  (Putting that ATM skill to other --and my family would argue, more constructive-- uses... ;-)                      

The "Rat Palace"

All six in a lineup                                                 Another lineup

Rat aerobics (sway to the Right!)

Curious George             Puck and Curious George in their cage