Ballsy love: Boy Rats with Big Hearts

Boy rats (Bucks) are known for their large hearts. They make huge cuddle puddles and prefer to sleep on your lap than explore like their female counterparts (Does). They are also known for their large balls.

It seems that when it comes to choosing a gender for pet rats, rat balls can be a deciding factor. When I brought home my first pair of bucks my roommate noticed their large genitals and asked,"Is that its butt?" Her eyes widened in surprise when I told her it was his family jewels. When I asked another rat owner why she chose girls over boys she stated that the balls were a turn off.  In my opinion, they aren't that large. Maybe an inch and a half long, but that's an inch an a half more to love. When rat boys are juveniles the rat to nut sack ratio is small, but I assure you they grow into their genitals and you'll hardly notice it.

When you get passed the balls, you'll see how amazing bucks are as snuggle buddies. My Dewey, big blue dumbo male sweetie, will walk up to me and place his head onto my hand for attention. I pet him until he falls asleep. I am currently fostering a female rat, and she doesn't show much interest in me. When I pick her up for pets, she will quickly scuttle away. Definitely something I never experienced with my boys.

Courtesy of Carole Merando Littlefield

If you feel compelled to get rid of ratballs you have the option of neutering the poor male. Neutering, or castration, is the surgical removal of a male animal's testicles (testes). Neutering can serve to reduce male aggression because the testes is what produces sex hormones that control sexual and aggressive behavior. Males can get hormonal. I have one lil male who can be a little aggro, but I am holding off neutering to see if he will grow out of it when he is past his juvenile stage. I'll keep you posted on this. Another valid reason to neuter would be if you want to house males with females. Males need the snip snip if you don't want any unplanned litters. However, I feel that neutering for aesthetics is highly unnecessary and is too much trouble for the buck than it is worth.

My Rattie Story and Why Rats Make Good Pets

I have always been a fan of exotic pets and small animals. My first pet growing up was a praying mantis named Sam. Then followed my hoard of Jackson Chameleons and troop of guinea pigs. Keeping rats as pets never crossed my mind until I was doing research on them. 

Research, as in laboratory research. Yes, I was trained to inject rats with drugs and collect blood for quantification. No, I was not a cold blooded rat killer. I remember the first rat I euthanized during training. She was a small brown agouti and I wrapped her in a blanket and instantly bonded with her. My goggles became cloudy when it was time to euthanize her and I cried on the way home from work. After a year in research, I realized that this career path was not for me.  I appreciate and agree with the hard work done by researchers and the sacrifices rats do for human health, but it just was not for me. I love animals too much to be that person. I remember the lab coordinator talked up how great rats are as pets and how smart they are. He said that once he had one of his rats ride on his shoulders while doing lab tasks. The next day I adopted 2 baby rat boys and I fell in love with Rattus norvegicus. Here are some of the many reasons why I am in love with rats.