You can find lots of great info online about the difference between fancy rats and wild rats. Plus their cages are harder the break out of than Hamster cages and they smarter, they will eventually come back home for food!
Let me be the one you call
If you jump i'll break your fall
Lift you up and fly away with you into the night
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn YOU'RE NOT ALONE
Rats are great pets. They do smell, yes, but so do hamsters and you may be able to talk her round to having female ones as they don't smell as much. They're also very clean animals (like most rodents) and pet rats aren't the diseased, dirty animals that a lot of people think they are. And most won't smell out the house.
They can be quite a big commitment as they need handling a lotdue to their intelligence but it'll be well worth it.
Learn as much as you can about them, show this knowledge to your mum and she'll think you're better able to copewith looking after them (because it doesn't seem like she'd want to help) and then you might be able to win her round easier
Rats are great pets, they're clever, affectionate, small and cuddly and not that hard to look after.
Before you get rats, make sure you do loads of research. Seeing you put time into researching will not only convince your mother that you're responsible enough to keep them, it will also mean that your rats can have the best life possible.
Don't just rely on books for researching, as lots of out-dated, and only give one person's opinion (and just because it's in a book, doesn't mean it's always right). Find information on webistes, if you know anyone with rats, ask them about things you're concerned about, and I also found it very helpful to join a rat forum (Fancy Rats) and the website also has information articles and product reviews which are useful. I learnt more about rats on the forum than from the millions of books I read before getting them.
You mentioned about your hamsters and how your mum thinks these are enough, but does she have a point? Although rats are easy to look after, you do have to spend a lot of time with them, they need at least 20 mins handling time a day, and you should also let them out of their cage daily (time depends on the rat, but normally an hour or two). Are you able to give 2 rats (minimum) and the hamsters all the attention they need every day? I'm not saying you can't, I know people who have 20+ rats, along with hamsters, mice, gerbils, it's just something you'll need to consider.
Make sure you spend time with your hamsters even if/when you get rats.
Rats have a kind of 'ratty' smell (I'm great with descriptions, I know) but if you clean them regularly, it's not over powering, and I like the smell of rats anyway (their fur and general smell, not unclean cage smell). I've never had boys, but I know they wee more, so they'd probably smell more than girls. Girls don't really smell, and if they do it's their litter tray or hammocks that need cleaning because they wee there a lot, so hammocks and litter tray often need cleaning more than the whole cage (everyday sometimes), but if you do that then they don't really smell.
Make sure you get at least 2 rats. Rats aren't happy living by themselves, I find it really upsetting when people get one rat and try to convince me that they're happier like that, it's not true, they need company. Don't get rats from pet shops. Although this may seem like the most obvious place to get rats, please don't get them from here. The breeding females are over-bred so they end up exhausted and ill, and the breeding lines aren't healthy, so the rats end up with more health problems when they're older. The babies are taken away from their mothers too young so they look 'cuter' in the shops, and most pet shops keep them in glass tanks with sawdust/wood shavings as bedding which is incredibly unhealthy and most wood is also poisonous to rats. Wood causes respirartory diseases in rats, so use paper or cardboard bedding instead (if using paper cat litter, check that it is 100% paper, not just paper based).
You can find rats in rescues, there are also rescues dedicated to just rodents, owners/rescues looks to rehome their rats (Rehoming Section) and breeders (NFRS website has somebody you can email to ask for a list of breeders).
Rats are also prone to respiratory problems such as myco (which often requires meds quite a few times) and tumors, which, depending on where you live, can cost between £50-100 to be removed. Vet bills can add up quickly with rats, so make sure you will have enoguh to pay for them.
After you show your mum that you have researched how to look after rats and maybe show her some info about how undiseased pet rats are, she'll consider letting you have them.
If she's worried about them escaping, you can put small locks on the cage doors (I had to do this with one of the doors oen time, I came down one morning to find only one rat in the cage) and your mum might feel a bit better about having them knowing that they can't escape. (Rats can't chew threw bars, although if you have chewers they may chew through plastic cage bases).
If you have any more questions or anything, feel free to ask on here or PM me.
Ratties make great pets, although they are a bit more work than hamsters. My girlies went to the vet today for some Anti-Biotics, that cost £30. My other rat had to be put to sleep last week after I'd spent over £100 on treatment. Just keep this in mind.
Please, please don't go to a pet shop - they buy their animals from breeders who use their animals as baby machines to make money. My vet said today that the most unhealthy rats he sees are from pet shops - says it all really!
Get the biggest cage possible, if you don't have room/money for a big cage then don't get rats, they need space. My cage can fit 5-7 rats but I only have 2 so my girls have lots of space. Get plenty of toys, hammocks, ropes, ladders etc for them to use.
Also, please please don't use woodchips or wood pellets as these release 'Phenols' which are harmful to ratties.
Make sure you get 2 girls or 2 boys - you don't want to be another case of 'Buy 2, get 10 free'!
Tell your Mum that rats make AMAZING pets, they are tame, trainable, sociable & they love people, they are fascinating to watch.
Anyway, as Ghost said, join Fancy rats - loads of good advice there.
I've always wanted Rats, they're great pets, can't say much more then .ghost has, but living at home, i was never allowed them, but they are great pets.
On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
just buy them ,
she'll have no choice but to love them ,
and let u keep them,
thats what i did
Not a good idea at all sorry. I'm glad your mum let you keep yours, but that's not always the case.
I've seen so many people do this before, and have been made to take the rats back to the petshop, passed onto somebody else who doesn't have a clue how to care for them, or even worse, set free to fend for themselves (they never survive).
Also, if you're going to do that, you'd have to buy from a petshop (as breeders and rescues would never just let a minor take the animals), and it's been mentioned above that you really shouldn't buy rats form pet shops.
