Rats are great pets. I've had several over the years. I rescued entire rat families from school science labs. They are cleaner and less temperamental than hamsters, have more intelligence than other rodent pets and are fun to startle elderly relatives with. I slept with Max & King, two rats I loved especially.
Suggestibly cat pee can act as a deterrent, however I'm not sure you really going to want to start spraying cat pee around your house. The reason it's suppose to work is due to cats being the natural predators of rodents. Theoretically Rodents are more sensative to Smells and Sounds than we are, so there is the potential to use that as an advantage if you can find things that repulse them. I'm sure there are some sites on the net if you search "Rat control" or something similar, (I found one that would suggest getting a snake as a pet lol)
Predator excrement does not work. People use lion poo to repel deer and after seeing the same poo for a couple of days the deer figure it out. And rats are far more intelligent than deer.
About as long as dogs. Dog longevity record: 29. Average lifespan: 8-20 years, depending on size (smaller dogs live longer). Cat longevity record: 34 years. Average lifespan: 14-20 years. They get lazy and their teeth fall out.
The only things that work are traps. Make sure your garbage bins lock tightly, you have no bushes etc planted close to the house, Keep no junk in the yard or outside the house, etc. If you use compost, make sure there are no animal products in it. If you have a pet, make sure you remove any food it does not eat, don't use a garbage disposal as far as possible, clean out your kitchen sink once a month (use a cup of bleach and rinse out with boiling water), don't throw any grease down your drain. Can't think of any morePlease Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
They do have a kind of "sweaty" odor if their cage isn't cleaned. My rats were litter trained and cleaned themselves.
My favorite one from the batch I killed last summer Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Oh well, its just a cute white rat with extra long whiskers, peering out at me after I called him to the door of the cage so I could take a picture. This was the day before I guillotined him, so it might be considered obscene.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zPzsMNctBxQ Dr. House versus the rat Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I'm at work. I have no pc. I work at a grade school. These things block everything from MySpace to the Nation of Islam to any kind of site the board considers obscene. It covers alotta turf.
