1.05 Rat Fanciers Society

Formed in Melbourne in 1996, the Australian Rat Fanciers Society is the largest and oldest rodent club in Australia. They are an active, social, and family oriented club for owners of domesticated pet rats. Jackie is one of the committee members for ARFS.

You can find ARFS on Facebook and Instagram.

0:00:11 Jackie ARFS

I would have been about in primary school age, a friend had just a lone rat, a little girl, which we know at the time is actually, well, we know now, it's not best for rats to be alone, but back in the day, in the 90s, that's just pretty common. It wasn't until later in life where I was reintroduced to them. I was trying to find a pet for when I moved out of home because my home was not suitable to cats and dogs, so I explored into smaller pets like guinea pigs or rabbits. But then I came across a girl with a YouTube account all about her and her pet rats, and I just fell in love with them. And I think it was a couple of months after that I adopted my two boys.

0:01:12 Adam Walsh

Can you tell me a little bit more about the rats that you have at the moment about their personalities?

0:01:17 Jackie ARFS

I've had seven total, but each of them were just so different and so rich in personalities. My first girl, after my first two boys, one of them was just so independent and explorative, like she just wanted to look and climb over everything, whereas my other girl loved to just pig out and feed and just cuddle. A lot of my rats just had varying different personalities, despite all being in the same cage and environment.

0:01:47 Adam Walsh

Mice and rats, they're often bunched together in conversation and in medical research statistics, usually being referred to simply as rodents or vermin. It might sound like a really basic question, but what is the difference between a rat and a mouse?

0:02:05 Jackie ARFS

Yeah, I think because they just look similar they're usually lumped together, but they are quite different. Besides the size being a huge difference, mice are generally more independent, whereas pet rats, or fancy rats, like to be around humans and be social with one another, whereas mice don't really seem to care about being around humans. They're a bit indifferent to it. Both are really great pets if they suit your particular lifestyle, but rats tend to have more personality and quirks compared to pet mice.

I mean, mice aren't dull in any ways. They have their own routine and life, but rats are just like a smaller dog or cat. They're so compact and complex.

0:02:53 Adam Walsh

Most people have never met a rat, but they still hold quite strong opinions on them. What experiences have you had when introducing rats to people at your events?

0:03:05 Jackie ARFS

Yeah, most people are quite surprised. A lot of people still put them with the wild rats, which are completely different. They still think of New York rats for example or the plague. That's instantly what comes to people's minds. And they still think of them as vermin, as dirty. But when they come to meet the rats, say, at events or other people's pets, they usually are quite surprised and have a lot of questions and usually greater with curiosity because then they start to see them as more of, like, the guinea pig and rabbit side.

But I think a majority of population has never heard or seen rats as a pet. And at our events, we have lots of material and pictures, and we have our own rats displayed, and we just give them a quick education on why they're such fantastic creatures.

And a lot of people tend to come around and think, ‘Oh, yeah, that makes perfect sense.’

0:04:04 Adam Walsh

Do adults differ in their attitude towards rats than children do?

0:04:09 Jackie ARFS

Yeah, definitely. Just based off my experience. Children tend to come forward first because they see these cute little fluffy creatures and they see them very plaayful and they're very sweet. And most adults are very hesitant. They're like, ‘Oh, no, don't touch.' Or they get the hand sanitizer out immediately. I've had a few adults say, like, the rats just freak them out, particularly the tails. I'm not sure why that is, because it's one of my favorite things about them, but it just gives them, like, the ick or something like that.

But once they have a pat and they see their kids playing with them, they usually come around to it.

0:04:50 Adam Walsh

Why do you think adults have developed these thoughts about rats?

0:04:54 Jackie ARFS

I think it's mostly media, I reckon because they haven't been exposed to many people owning rats. They are a little bit obscure, so they kind of form these opinions very early based on their experience, perhaps with wild rats or mostly mice here in Australia, and they just fail to see the difference. I mean, rats and media, I've rarely come across any movie or TV show that shows, well, the pet rats as a good thing. I mean, they always portray the rats as a wild rat even though the rats they're using in the TV or movie is in fact a pet rat.

The third Indiana Jones movie, there's a scene where they're down in some tunnel and there's hundreds of what they call wild rats, or just rats in general, which we know that most rats used in film are pet rats. And there's a behind the scenes shot where Harrison Ford's actually holding a couple of the rats and patting them and just being very sweet with them. But in the movie, they're seen as horrible creatures and they get set alight by fire, and it's just like, very huge jarring.

That happens, I've noticed, a lot in horror movies. For example, they tend to have a lot of violence towards rats or mice, towards any other animal, I suppose. And it's just really jarring for someone like me who loves and owns rats compared to, I suppose, anyone else that just might see them as disposable because they're kind of lumped with spiders and snakes, which are also underappreciated and hated for unnecessary reasons. And that's why I think when people see them for the first time, they get a feeling of dread because they think it's a wild rat. Where wild rats do look slightly different from pet rats, they're usually bigger and more pointier and a lot more feral. Like, they would not tolerate to be around humans. They'll probably just try to run, whereas the rats you see in film, they are usually just sniffing around.

And the sounds they put in on the movies, like in all the squeaking and sniffling rats, just don't make those sounds. That's just put in for more effect, I suppose.

0:07:08 Adam Walsh

How do domestic rats differ from the wild rats that we hear so much about?

0:07:13 Jackie ARFS

Wild rats are very different to the ones that we have as pets. Like, we've had pet rats since a couple of hundred years at least, and we use the ones as pet rats in science. Like, we rarely would use wild rats because they're just so, well, wild.

It's very much like akin to dogs versus wolves. Like very similar ancestry, but very different in terms of health and temperament. And wild rats have more of a need for survival and defense, whereas pet rats are just like small puppies. They have feelings, they love, they play, they need to be with other rats, or they get very depressed, they get sad and frustrated, they mourn, they have deep feelings and great personalities. And wild rats simply just don't have those aspects.

0:08:03 Adam Walsh

That's a great comparison. I like the dogs and wolves, I think I might use that.

0:08:09 Jackie ARFS

It's a very helpful thing to explain to people in a very basic terms that they may look similar. Similar ancestries, but completely different nowadays.

0:08:18 Adam Walsh

When I started thinking about doing a podcast, one of the things I wanted to do was kind of talk a bit about underappreciated animals and [in my] advocating on behalf of animals in research, rats and mice is obviously something that comes up quite regularly.

0:08:32 Jackie ARFS

Yeah. Unfortunately, a lot of pet rats are used for what I consider unnecessary purposes, and unfortunately they are killed. We actually do adopt sometimes some ex lab rats, usually from local universities. If we make inquiries, we adopt them a lot of them tend to be the white with red eyes. But I hope that in the coming years that they no longer need to use them and breed them in such a manner, because I hope that one day they're going to see it's just like experimenting on dogs and cats, that it's just not favorable and it's just unnecessary.

And they're special in their own way because the red eyes, they tend not to see the best. But I've had two of them and they've just been so part of my heart. They're no different to the ones that are fully brown, that kind of look like wild rats, or the ones that have a black hood or anything like that. They all should just be treated exactly the same. I really feel for those rats in the science field because, as you said, it is unnecessary. It's just they deserve better.

They deserve a bigger voice.

0:09:39 Adam Walsh

What are the benefits of owning a rat?

0:09:42 Jackie ARFS

For me personally, my experience, they changed my life for the better. I just fell so in love with my group and I cared for them very tenderly and just adored being around them. Anytime I felt sad, I just have one of them on my shoulder and just watch TV with them and just their presence just makes your heart swell. You just come so enriched with their personalities and watching them interact with each other, with myself, with my partner and family, and you'll learn a lot about rats and having to deal with their aspect of their health and their temperament and how to deal with that. But I have absolutely fallen in love with them and would never turn back.

0:10:25 Adam Walsh

We often think of rats as very kind of simple creatures. So what would people need to consider in their home environment if they wanted to live with a rat as a companion?

0:10:36 Jackie ARFS

I think a lot of first time pet owners, or rat owners sorry, lump them together with guinea pigs and rabbits. Like, they just need a simple cage with some hay and food, water. But rats are a lot more complicated than that. They need to have a fairly large cage and enough beds, foods, litter boxes, because they can be litter box trained, and enrichment. And they must have companionships. Rats do need other rats to thrive and to live a happy life.

I know of people out there that only have one rat, just depending on the circumstances, but it's not recommended because you have to spend a lot of time with them just to give them a fulfilling emotional need. Because other rats, they like to pile on each other and sleep. They have a chain of command that they work out between each other. There's always like an alpha. They like to groom each other and it's just a very important aspect that I think a lot of people who are looking at pet rats for the first time just think, ‘I'll just get one’. But it's just not possible.

Well, it's not impossible, unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there with that, but it's definitely not recommended on what we know now. And not only with their cage, but they need some time out of their cage each day, which isn't too complicated. You just need to pop them on a couch in a bed, and they'll have an absolute ball of a time with it. Like, they'll watch TV with you. Some of them like to cuddle, some of them don't.

Mine personally loved cardboard boxes and tissue boxes and just make a whole day out of it. And mine also like to spend time in a bookcase while be working on the computer. Rats are just so clever. There's people out there that can train their rats to play basketball or to fetch keys and things like that. I never bothered to try to do that with mine just because it's just my time and effort. But rats are so easy to train. Probably quicker to pick up on skills like that than cats and dogs.

It's just amazing to watch their brains figure things out.

And in terms of diets, there's actually not that complicated. There's specialized rat food you can get at places like Pet Barn and whatever. It's not expensive, but you can pretty much feed them anything, really.

So they are both complicated and yet easy. Once you got it down pat and you got the basics, then it all comes pretty easy.

0:13:00 Adam Walsh

If you could suggest a small thing that someone could do to promote a better understanding of rats, what might you suggest to them?

0:13:09 Jackie ARFS

They are the best thing that you can love and care for. I think that they go very underrated. But anyone who's owned a pet rat or been around people who own pet rats come to really appreciate that, even though they're small creatures with such a short lifespan that they're so enriching. And they definitely underrated by any means.

But in our club, the Australian Rat Fanciers Society, our goal is to share and love and educate for the care of rats.

We run a rescue and adoption program. We go to community events so that we can show the public about these sweet little creatures. And we also have private events with each other. So we compete our rats against each other, as in, like the longest tail, the biggest boy. They have certain patterns that they all compete, and it's just a really good fun. It's also really good just for humans to be social, and the rats just love it. Lots of good things to smell and explore.

But all rats across wild and pet rats are incredibly adaptive. Like a lot of our rescues we get in are, sadly, from, well, not a majority, but a good lot of them are from either found out in the wild. Like recently, we bought in two rats to foster and adopt out who pet rats that were left in a plastic bag tied up at a tennis court. And they went into our foster program straight away to do some rehab to get better, and they were perfectly fine. They were beautiful two little boys, only very young, but they're just so adaptive.

One of my boys, actually, my last boy, Albie, he was found in the bushes. Some good citizen out there just happened to come across, and they thought it was strange because he was a white rat, so they managed to catch him and bought him straight in. And we don't know anything previously where he came from, if he was around other rat. But he went into our foster program, and he was just perfect. First time around other rats that we have all seen. I brought my group over to him, and he just straightaway went into cuddling them. And I really don't know what his background was and how long he'd been living outside for.

That's not to recommend your pet rats go outside by any means. That just shows how adaptive they can be.

Another thing to promote an understanding is that I found that over the recent year, that social media for rats have been really blowing up all over TikTok and Instagram and YouTube is how I originally found them.

A lot more responsible pet rat owners have been getting a really big following, and a lot of people being like, ‘Oh, that's amazing. I didn't know you could own rats.’ So I think that social media has both helped the understanding of rats as pets and how to properly care for them.

They really are underappreciated. Just looking into a face of my rats, I've had seven different ones. You could always see the depth of their souls in a way that they're just so sweet and caring, and you can just almost see what they're thinking and what they think of you, and you really develop, like, a great bond with them. And it's really one of the most amazing experiences I've had.

Transcribed with Deciphr.AI