At one time Lee & I had 2 pet rat girls. Alice had given them to us, complete with a beautiful cage and water bottle, etc. She was a student at the time and got the girls and the equipment from the school lab. They were very smart, a little aggressive with each other, but really good with us. They were fun, but their lifespan was very short.
That’s interesting. I’ve heard that rats are good pets, but never actually have had any. Sadly, rodents tend to not live a long time, but they can be lovely.
Our vet told us many rats have short lives because their genetic line was bred for cancer experiments, so those rats will be cancer-prone. That is criminal.