How much will a rat cost? In both time and money?

Question

Ok, so I want a pet rat, and I want to convince my parents that its a way better pet than a cat. So heres the thing: Im off for summer break for 3 months(after I get my rat), and then I am going to be super busy in school. But my grandpa can take care of it(not cleaning the cage, but feeding, handling and stuff like that). So I was wondering how much time was needed to spend on the rat, and how much money it would cost.

I put it in a chartlike thinger

TIME

Time needed to put in for the first 3 months:

Time needed after that:

Also how long would it take to clean the cage?

MONEY

Initial amount:

monthly charge:

How much would a vet cost? Would you reccomend getting insurance for the rat? How much would the bedding and food be?

THANKS!!!

(please no "eeeew u want a rat" awnsers, cause rats are AWESOME)

(Wait...rats will take less time and $$$ than a cat, right?)

Answer 1

may be i dont know you better get a dog in stead then arat there just so gross$$$$$#$$$$$$$

Answer 2

Ok here is the truthful, no c**p breakdown.  

You have to get more than one rat, period.  They cannot be kept alone.  So depending on where you get them that will cost you anywhere from 5-20$

You will need food, I'd say thats about 6$ a bag

You will need a decent size cage, I got mine on ebay for about 60$ including shipping which is an awesome price.

  (email me if you want the link to the person I got it from)

You need bedding for the cage (rats can't be on wire floors they need to have direct contact with thier bedding)  about 8$

Toys and thing are optional and could be about 10$ or you could make some out of things around your house

So that is about 84$ average you will have to pay right away.  BUT after that all you will be doing is paying for food and bedding about once or twice a month.  so maybe 15$ a month or so.  

This will convince your parents :  Rats do not need vaccines.

This means absolutely no vet costs unless your rat gets sick.  I would take the rats to the vet to make sure they are healthy but after that all you need to do is be very observant of your rats and make sure they are not getting sick.  

One vet visit with a cat will cost more than all of the costs of a rat rolled up together.  

Now as for time, Rats are very social animals.  You should play with it at least once a day, but if you get two it isn't as important to spend tons of time with them because they will have eachother.

Cleaning the cage would take about 20 mins probably.

I wouldn't get insurance for the rat considering they only live to be about 2 years old.

Hope I covered everything for you haha good luck!

Answer 3

Please dont get a rat. You obviously know nothing about them yet because you can NEVER get one rat. You ALWAYS need to get 2. They are very social and NEED another rat partener. And why would you get TWO and then go away for 3 months? Thanks not really smart.

Answer 4

I don't know the cost of buying one, but your local petshop will tell you that. They are wonderful pets, much more sensitive and intelligent than cats.

They like variety with food - mine used to refuse to eat if I fed them the same food more than a couple of times.  They can sometimes share your food - I used to give them porridge (without sugar) in winter sometimes (let it cool first), friends at work often gave me left over bits of cheese sarnies.  I always had some regular pet food available, as they do need something hard to eat - their teeth never stop growing and regular pet food helps to grind them down. At the time I was vegan, so they liked most of my food.

I used to keep a shoe box lid in the corner of their cage (a rabbit hutch), then put newspaper on it and they used that for pooing on - I didn't even need to train them, they just liked to poo in one place. So it didn't take much time to clean - mainly I just had to replace the newspaper and once in a while I'd clean out the whole cage - obviously I'd clean up dropped food whenever I saw it.

I used to let them run around at night though, as they really do hate being in a cage.  They ate through a lot of things - in particular electric cables are a problem.  They were always good at going back in the morning to sleep in their cage.  If my bf stayed, he wanted them locked up and the poor things used to sit on their hind legs shaking the bars with their paws like innocent and angry prisoners.

You will find that vets won't be able to operate on such small creatures, so you'll only be visiting to have their teeth sanded down or to have them put to sleep. They live for about two years. I doubt that insurance will be worth it.

Good luck!

Answer 5

Okay well maybe you should wait a little before you should get a rat. But you asked a question so I'm going to answer it for you.

I do agree rats are AWESOME!

Rats cost between 6-20 dollers.

The sarter cage would cost: 20-100 dollers.

Time: 2 hours at the least.