Dude, rats are awesome. I had 4 of them until about a year ago when my mom made me get rid of them. They are really loyal and smart, but you have to be careful because they WILL try to get out of where ever you're keeping them. I got tired of hearing them jumping and hitting the top of their cage or coming home and finding them out of their cage (I have no idea how they did this, I even had a weight on the top), so I just let them roam around my room. If you do this make sure that you put them back in a closed area every few hours to eat, or they will try to eat ur stuff