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are intelligent, clean, and exceptionally playful and entertaining
can be very loving, and often form profound personal attachments to individual humans and/or other pets
are as bold and nutty as monkeys
are fascinatingly agile
have an extraordinarily varied vocal range
are very strong and hardy and are rarely ill
land on their feet if dropped
are attractive, unusual and historically interesting
are brave and bold
are cheap to feed
have small litters
produce dry droppings and very little urine, and so need cleaning out less often than almost any other animal
have only a mild bite
don't live very long
have quite a strong smell
have an extraordinarily loud vocal range: and a passion for things that rattle and twang
are flighty and excitable and prone to fads in which they e.g. pretend not to know you
are willfully naughty and bloody-minded wind-up merchants, and play you up just for the fun of making you run about trying to catch them
are unbelievably fast, and can run straight up embossed wallpaper
are often determined escape-artists, both from their cage and from the room/house, and are extremely hard to catch if they decide they don't want you to
chew things
are usually very nocturnal: you may not see much before 11pm except a ball of scruffy fur rolled up in the corner of the nest
require very large, therefore expensive cages (expect to pay £70-£120)
have a tendency just to give up and die if they do become seriously ill, probably due to their lack of fat reserves; whereas a Norway rat would fight to live and would probably win
tend to be very difficult to breed from
make nervy mothers who may eat their babies if disturbed
can be startlingly aggressive, especially towards same-sex members of other pet species, and can develop profound personal dislikes for individual humans and/or other pets