Rats: Practical Advice from the Expert (CompanionHouse Books) Choosing Your Pet, First Aid, Fun Activities, Tricks, Training Tips, Diet, Nutrition, Communication, and More (Complete Care Made Easy)

Your complete guide to the remarkable rat!

• Choosing your pet, with tips on how to pick out a healthy, curious rat
• Home essentials including litter, bedding, furnishings, and rat-proofing your home
• Health care concerns, from finding a vet and doing home health exams to dental care, parasites, and more
• Fun activities to do with your rat, from simple games and bond-building interactions to amazing tricks
• Rat history including its symbolism around the world, its natural history, and its domestication
• Showing rats, breeding rats, rat communication, the rat life cycle, and more

Did you know that rats are the most intelligent of the rodents? Did you also know that rats love to play games? Thanks to Rats you'll know all this and more!

Filled with invaluable information, health care, training tips, and insight into a rat's personality, this book helps rat owners keep their pets healthy, happy, and living longer. Some of the helpful information you'll find inside includes fascinating historical facts, tips on choosing the right pet, a helpful resource guide, emergency first-aid tips, fun activities and tricks you can teach, simple training tips, diet and nutrition, communicating with your pet rat, and much more, with 100 full-color photos.

An excellent introduction to the remarkable rat, written by the world-famous Rat Lady, Debbie Ducommun, Rats offers expert advice to all keepers of these popular fancy pets. Held in high regard in Ancient Egypt, major Asian societies, and discriminating homes in America, rats are the most intelligent rodent on the planet and enjoy playing games with their keepers.

This 176-page resource from the Complete Care Made Easy series offers information about selecting the right pets from good sources and acquiring all the home essentials rats need, like a cage, toys, bedding, and furnishings. The book discusses food options and the importance of feeding a rat a healthy, low-calorie, low-fat diet based on fruits, veggies, and legumes, plus recipes and menu tips. The author also covers the important considerations of rat-proofing the home for keepers who opt to give their pets free run of their dwellings.

The chapter "Beginning Your Friendship" discusses rat socialization, handling, grooming, cleaning, and interactions with children and other pets. The health of a pet rat is covered in the "Health Care" chapter that includes choosing a veterinarian, the first vet visit, spaying/neutering, the weekly home health exam, plus handling common rat maladies and dealing parasites and emergencies.

The real fun begins in the chapter "Fun Activities," in which you can learn how to train your rat to walk on a leash, enrich your rat's life with entertaining games, and learn party tricks to impress visitors!

Serious rat lovers will enjoy taking their rats to shows—just like dog shows—to show off your rat's conformation and natural beauty. The chapter "Show Time" offers advice on preparing for shows, classes at shows, and competing for ribbons. The final chapter on breeding offers rat enthusiasts advice about reproduction, the birthing process, and handling pups. A glossary, appendices, and comprehensive index are all included.

Learn everything you need to know to keep your pet rat healthy and happy, with Rats: Practical Advice from the Expert!

Debbie Ducommun is the world's foremost authority on pet rats. Known as "The Rat Lady", Ducommun is the founder of The Pat Fan Club and has rescued more than 80 rats.