i used to have rats and have some lovely pics of them somewhere... i had a black male like your one there and his name was rizla! i rescued him, and apparently he used to go into ashtrays and eat butt ends!!! lol...
i trained him to do lots, he used to sit on the hoover while i pulled it about, he used to jump from his cage onto my chest to retrieve a bit of biscuit from my mouth, the distance was short to start with but i got him eventually to fly about 5 foot through the air and land on my chest... he was a star! i also had a black and white one called mother, another rescued rat that was pregnant when i got her and had 16babies!!! (thats why i called her mother!) all survived except the one which she ate... yuk! have had about 6 others too, but those pair were my favourite!!! and sadly both died of tumours, rizla was operated on and survived the anasthetic but died 3 days later.. vet reckon it was shock...... i loved them to bits...
i have two gerbils now as they are as close to the rats as i can get... but take up less space!!! my rat cages were huge and lots of fun to watch them!!! especially the babies, sooo active, but needless to say had to seperate them quickly... and one or two have gotten pregnant...grr.. cos i didnt notice the sex soon enough!!!
so all in all have bred about 50 of them, but my two rescued ones were MINE... beautiful playful gentle creatures.. and very intelligent!!
enjoy them.... aww i want some more
Lisee xx