What do you guys think of people rehoming their pet rats?

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Racholo

Member
Joined
May 10, 2019
Messages
5
Location
New Zealand
I've noticed a lot of people rehome their pet rats in advertisements.
What do you guys think of this?

My personal opinion is I think it's pretty horrible. Pets are a lifetime commitment and I could never imagine giving up my children or my pets for convenience.
The only ad I did have understanding of was a lady who literally had to give up her pet because she had an aggressive cancer and was physically unable to look after her pet, and would spend large amounts of time in hospital - but from her ad this was devastating for her to have to do that.
 
I definitely agree with most of what you're saying, however I'd love to give another perspective. I'm not attacking you, just trying to stand in the place of people who had to give up their animals. I do agree with being too medically ill to keep the animal. I know people who have chronic illnesses and just can't keep up with their animals, but some can. It's up to the person, honestly.

Things I can MAYBE agree with:
  • Moving and can't take animal with.
While people can generally find townhomes/rentals/ or apartments that allow cats and dogs fairly easily, once you get anything beyond that it becomes increasingly more difficult. I have a bird and rats and those two things usually require a lot of searching to find places that are okay with them, especially a bird. Where I live, there are a ton of apartments that allow all types of animals with no limit. Sometimes people don't have enough time to search for a pet-friendly home or a place that could foster them. Where I live, the nearest rat rescue is over 100 miles away and I don't even know if they allow fostering. I don't even know a lot of places around me equipped enough to care for rats. And I don't want to ask random people to foster, because I don't trust people and I am afraid I'd never see that animal again.
We can't expect my friends or family to take our pets when something goes wrong. Animals are lifetime commitments, yes, but it's not fair to expect anyone else in your life to take them when things go wrong.
Would I ever move without my animals willingly? No. Never.

While there a lot of options for people to keep their pets when they move, there sometimes just isn't an option and they have no choice but to move into places that don't allow pets, thus ending them in rehoming their pets. I just took two rats yesterday from a situation like that. Extremely sweet, social, great rats, but their caretaker didn't want rats in the first place (a friend dumped them on her), but she accepted them, but had to move anyways because life happened and her sister did not want rats (they did stink). I definitely don't like that her friend just dumped them on her-- that's awful.
Moves happen suddenly. Following my grandmother's kidney transplant, she had to give up her job in daycare and we had to sell the house, otherwise we'd lose it. This happened in a two-month period. We had to suddenly get our house ready to sell. We searched for six months and there were a lot of tears shed on my part when my grandmother kept saying "We can't find a place to live because no one wants birds or rats!" Thankfully, we roomed in my aunt's until we found a place, but the stress and tears was definitely enough to give a 20-year-old their dose of grey hairs. My aunt definitely did not like my screaming bird or how my rat cage stunk (this was before I got a bigger, better cage with a ton more litter boxes).


What I don't condone when people rehome their animals:
  • "Wasn't what I expected." / "It's a lot more work than I thought." - You should be able to partly expect what taking care of animals is like. It's your responsibility to research the animal before you take it home.
  • "Behavior problems" - Most of the behavior problems we see in pets can be trained out if the human changes their lifestyle. It's often the human's fault that a behavior developed, most people just don't like to hear that and refuse to accept it.
  • "The animal smells." - You cage set up and care routine is wrong. I house six, soon to be eight, unaltered male rats in a cage and it never stinks. The only time I've had stinky cages is when the cage is crap, not ideal, or I'm not giving enough litterboxes.
  • My favorite: "I lost interest." - If your interests change so much that you lose interest in another living, breathing creature, you shouldn't have animals.

I feel like I forgot something, so don't be afraid to add to the list or debate.
 
Pets are a life time commitment, but sometimes circumstances change and people need to rehome their pets - examples might include: illness, hospitalization, poverty, job loss, homelessness, inability to provide vet care, death, divorce, accidental litters, and other unforeseen circumstances. Sometimes people need to rehome their pets for the wellbeing and safety of the animals. In those unusual situations when circumstances change it takes a responsible pet owner to make this difficult decision.

Rats have short life spans so in most cases people should normally be able to make a commitment for 2.5 to 3 years. Moving is not usually a good reason for rehoming pets.
There are few places you can move where you could not take your pet rats - such as moving overseas, moving to Alberta, or moving somewhere that does not have vets (such as an isolated northern community). In my experience most apartments will allow small caged pets like "hamsters", even tho they may not allow cats or dogs. - however people in government subsided apartments or seniors apartments are often not allowed to have any pets

I think that many people get pets with the intention of getting rid of them in a few months when for example they move at the end of the school year, the kids get bored etc. Many people see pets as disposable. Other people buy animals on impulse and do not do enough research - so time, cost, the responsibility, cage takes up too much space, etc are given as reasons. In my experience, these are the types of reasons that most people give for rehoming pet rats :(

That said, when a good rat rescue or shelter adopts out an animal, it is done with the written agreement that the animal must be returned for any reason if the person is unable to care for the animal ….. this is done for the protection of the animals. Just one more reason why adopting animals is better then buying animals
 
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Great replies.

Perhaps I should have worded my post a little bit less strongly as agree on the change on circumstance ones :)

More meaning people who lose interest or as SQ said, treat them as disposable. It's so sad to see pet rats being given away because they suddenly decided it wasn't for them, or they lost interest.

All my animals are my babies.
 
I hate that disposable attitude people have towards animals. Any time a movie with a specific breed of dog comes out, the amount of puppies being sold for that breed skyrockets. Huskies are the most recent example that I know of, thanks to Game of Thrones.

Apparently the amount of bunnies sold around Easter skyrockets, but so does the amount of bunnies being given up to shelters up to a month later.

I hate how people view animals as something you lose interest in or whatever. Or for those unprepared because they saw something on TV and wanted it SO bad, but didn't research. It's awful.
 
Unfortunately, many people get their pet rats from unscrupulous pet shops and the "loving, cute, cuddly" rats they thought they were getting turn out to be "mean, aggressive, skittish, unsocialized, biting rodents" which the pet lover never anticipated or "signed up for". To this I say it would be acceptable to re-home them, as it isn't fair to the person, and the rats will only end up living lonely, isolated, and often neglected lives. I know cuz I foster and many of the rats I get are these "unwanted, unadoptable, and unloved" ratties which I take in and love regardless of how badly they bite me
 
Unfortunately, many people get their pet rats from unscrupulous pet shops and the "loving, cute, cuddly" rats they thought they were getting turn out to be "mean, aggressive, skittish, unsocialized, biting rodents" which the pet lover never anticipated or "signed up for". To this I say it would be acceptable to re-home them, as it isn't fair to the person, and the rats will only end up living lonely, isolated, and often neglected lives. I know cuz I foster and many of the rats I get are these "unwanted, unadoptable, and unloved" ratties which I take in and love regardless of how badly they bite me
Definitely can agree with this sentiment. If you're way out of your league and realize it, it's best that the rats find a new and experienced home. It'd break my heart to do that, but if I can't help them, then I should find them a new home.

However, people getting socialized, healthy rats (or any animal really) and then getting bored with them, saying they stink, they're loud, not what they expected, etc. annoys me.
I took two unsocialized and fear-based aggressive boys home. It took almost a year, but now they at least me tolerate them giving them head scratches and transporting them from their main cage to a temporary one for cleaning.
I'm also that sort of person whose happy to provide care and love to an animal like my Owen and Peter. I'll say hi to them, give them treats, love them, but if they don't want to be touched to held, that's okay too.
 
Definitely can agree with this sentiment. If you're way out of your league and realize it, it's best that the rats find a new and experienced home. It'd break my heart to do that, but if I can't help them, then I should find them a new home.

However, people getting socialized, healthy rats (or any animal really) and then getting bored with them, saying they stink, they're loud, not what they expected, etc. annoys me.
I took two unsocialized and fear-based aggressive boys home. It took almost a year, but now they at least me tolerate them giving them head scratches and transporting them from their main cage to a temporary one for cleaning.
I'm also that sort of person whose happy to provide care and love to an animal like my Owen and Peter. I'll say hi to them, give them treats, love them, but if they don't want to be touched to held, that's okay too.
Agree %
 
Unfortunately, many people get their pet rats from unscrupulous pet shops and the "loving, cute, cuddly" rats they thought they were getting turn out to be "mean, aggressive, skittish, unsocialized, biting rodents" which the pet lover never anticipated or "signed up for". To this I say it would be acceptable to re-home them, as it isn't fair to the person, and the rats will only end up living lonely, isolated, and often neglected lives. I know cuz I foster and many of the rats I get are these "unwanted, unadoptable, and unloved" ratties which I take in and love regardless of how badly they bite me

Definitely agree with this. If one of my boys became aggressive and a neuter didn't fix it I would have to re-home.
Not because I wasn't willing to work with the rat but because I have young children who put their fingers to the cage all the time, and the neighbors children who just walk into my house, and my daughters friends come over.
I freaked out recently with this - my boys are petshop boys who haven't had much socialization - but when I saw them and the shop assistant said they'd been there over three weeks I couldn't say no - and they are more work then my previous ratties but I love them, my heart would be so broken if I had to rehome one. So understand this case for it.
 
I agree with people rehoming due to bad circumstances and rehoming when you get bored of the pet. I’m not saying that being bored of a pet is right, I’m just saying it’s better for the pet’s well-being.
Some of you mentioned rehoming due to aggression and I can relate. When I first got Jack he was a sweet loving boy who could do no wrong but then he started biting and scratching me. I have since figured out he’s food aggressive and if you stop him from going where he wants to (usually somewhere dangerous) a lot he’ll get angry and bite. I was going to get him neutered because I finally saved up enough but I spent most of it on his vet appointment and doxy. Even though he scared me when he bit me I tried to stay positive because I knew he didn’t do as much damage as he could have, and I thanked him later for going easy on me. And he always apologizes right after. By apologize I mean he’ll waddle up to me and lick the closest appendage to him (fingers, arms, toes). Now that I know his triggers I avoid them as mush as possible. I actually never seriously considered rehoming for him because of that. He’s also not big on cuddling but if I lay down next to the cage he’ll lay against the wall closest to me and boggle.
 
For me, rehoming based on aggression is a case-by-case situation. As mentioned before, fear-based aggression isn't pleasant by any means, but I don't see myself rehoming these aggressive rats. I don't know of a lot of experienced rat owners around me. Sure, some claim to be, but these are the people keeping two or three male rats in a cage barely big enough to fit a budgie and refuse to listen to advice, claiming their rats are "Just fine the way they are. They're eating, drinking, and happy to see me!"

Personally, I'd still end up keeping the aggressive rat. If I got rid of Grumpy because he bit me for a whole year, I would've never seen him make a turn around and suddenly become my lovebug. If I had gotten rid of Owen and Peter after numerous bloody bites, I know wouldn't have a rat who lets me scratch his head with zero protesting. Even if Owen stayed aggressive until the end of his days, I'll give him a home. I don't trust people to love and cherish him even when he's "mean."

Children are a different aspect. As a person who never plans to have human children (only fur and feather babies), I would just make it a teaching moment, I'd also keep the rats out of their reach, but sometimes easier said than done. And if nothing helped, then the animal would get a new home.


Obviously, this goes without saying-- if this rat is not happy in my care, even when getting minimal attention and lots of care from me, and having a friend, and I'm way over my head, I will find a home for the rat, even if it's a rat rescue 100 miles away.
 
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