My First Girls

I've always had male rats. Not intentionally but they always seemed more accessible. The stores always had males or somehow I'd end up with caring for males. So when I came upon having my first female I was not sure what to expect. We acquired Milly Through a friend of my boyfriend. After knowing we had rats he had brought up to him that they had 3 female rats and 2 of them had past on from old age. This led to the idea that maybe we would take the girl, he had offered her to us because they weren't planning on getting anymore and maybe we could give her a better home. Well of course when my boyfriend came home with this news the guilt trip set in and I was a gonner. At this time we had quite a few male rats and none of them were fixed. Problem? yes. So my original idea was to find a way to get her fixed. Of course we live in an area with no small animal vet, just one that comes in to the dog and cat hospital 1 day per week. The next closest would be Ottawa and that is 2 hours away. With no car and unwilling particepents this turned into a no go. SO.. I finally came to the conclusion that we had to get milly her own special friend. After a while of searching on my rat forum I use http://www.ratshackforum.com/ I came across a female rat also in need, I did not want to buy from a store when there are so many already in need of homes. Plans were made after much stress and finding a way to Ottawa and we picked up our girl Maggie who was about the same age as Milly. Introducing the two girls didnt take too long but there was some small fights I had to break up. They seemed to have a hard time establishing which one was going to be the boss. I noticed very quickly that milly's personality became more outgoing with Maggie around and they both seemed generally happier. Reason number 1 why you should always get more then one rat. So here I was now, with my first 2 female rats and I did in fact see a difference between them and all the boys I've had. The females deffinatly seem to be on average more active and willing to explore. It's easier to get the females worked up and hyper and I find with females you have to keep an eye on them more closely then the boys. I was shocked the things my girls started getting into lol. I found Milly once climbing up the kitchen table by the leg shimmieing her self up. I've found them trying to climb tall shelves by jumping high in the air hooking their little paws onto the levels and also trying to venture inside the garbage cans, crazy girls! Of course the temperment of females is a bit lower as all males tend to be more aggressive but the agression is only shown to eachother, not towards us. The girls seem to be less willing to snuggle then the boys were but many say as the females age they start to feel the need and I have noticed with Maggie and Milly getting closer to a year and a half now they are showing hints of wanting to snuggle. Even if it is only for 5 minutes and then they gallop back down the hallway lol. In the end I dont really prefer one over the other, it just depends on what you are in the mood for. So I suppose having a colony of both males and females would be the most satisfying. You can have the lazy boys snuggle with you and you can watch the girls with all their crazy shananigans =P