I was amused that their breed is called Fancy Rats.
I've been doing my own investigation across numerous sites out there but I was wondering if we maybe had a rat expert here on BG. We'll start with the questions I have so far.
1) Anything I should know about rats in particular that sets them apart from the small animals I've owned?
2) I can already tell you that rat poop and pee have a distinct... smell even in the bedding. If I were to buy say like 7 different fleece sheets and swap it out daily would that reduce the odor and make it easy to clean while still being comfortable for the girls?
So to give you a background on my small animal history:
1 Hamster (Hated everything)
2 Chinchillas (Loved everything)
1 Ferret (Everything hated it--besides myself--it was blind and harmless)
2 "Female" Guinea Pigs (ended up having 3 babies a year later)
What I've done and noticed so far:
I made sure to buy everything necessary and extra unnecessary, some wood blocks to chew on, food, some really really expensive bedding (dust-free), a really big cage with lots of places to explore.
Cage picture:
Spoiler: show
They are different, one has a gray-brownish hood and the rest of her is pretty much white. The other has a speckled back and multi-colored tail. Temporary names (probably permanent) are Salt and Pepa since I'm not creative.
They won't hold still for a picture:
Spoiler: show
Pepa is a sweetheart, she immediately tried to climb on my hand and loves exploring a lot. The second my hand is in the cage she is trying to climb onto it. When I take her out of the cage she won't sit still but her heart doesn't beat rapidly. She does chatter her teeth while looking at me so I'm not sure if that's discomfort, happiness, or nervousness? She seems fine.
Salt might as well be the opposite. She hides in one corner of the cage and when my hand comes in she moves as far away as possible. I realize that I need to handle both of them equally so I make a point to try to hold her a little until she calms down. Unlike Pepa, her heart beats very rapidly and she doesn't try to move, she holds very still and squeeks when I touch her (like I'm going to hurt her). I guess she's really really really scared.
After I put them both back into the cage I give them a singular tiny sunflower seed treat which Pepa is very happy to take. Salt just runs to a corner and hides so I don't give her a treat Maybe she doesn't like the sunflower seeds from the pet store? She still explores around the cage but I would say that she doesn't like climbing the walls of the cage and she also doesn't like doing the risky things like jumping onto the hammock.
Neither of them have really taken a liking to the exercise dish. They had been actively playing on the metal running wheel at the pet store so maybe they haven't quite worked out the logistics of this dish. I figured the dish would be better for them than the metal wheel cause it looked so tiny...
Anyways! Any advice you can give to someone who is just surfing on google all day to read pet rat information will help me along.