Quoted By:
I prefers males, myself. Males are very sweet, lazy, cuddly, in general. Females are more ADD, hyper, OMG MUST EXPLORE WHAT'S THIS HEY WHAT'S THAT I'M GOING OVER HERE NOW SEEYA. The males are just chill little fat dudes that want to be with you all the time.
Keep their cage clean. No, like, super clean. It's essential for good health. They get respiratory problems very easily.
Spend a lot of time with them, handle them a lot, let them ride around on your shoulder, in your pockets, inside your shirt. Especially if you get them young, do this from the beginning (give them a few days to settle in, though). They will bond to you and love the shit out of you, and it's quite nice.
Litter box train them. Get a low container of some sort, fill it with something like Yesterday's News or corncob bedding or whatever (something different than what you use in the rest of the cage). Every time they poop, move the poop in the litter box. Do this a lot. They will eventually get the idea. Several of my rats were trained within a couple of days, some took longer.
Once you get them litter trained, you can leave their cage open and let them run around on the floor without worrying about stepping on stray turds all the time. They will run back to the cage and use their box. It's great.
Use their names a lot. They will come when you call them.
