Rats are one of the sweetest creatures you could ever be owned by (you don't own a rat, they own you!). I've had rats for quite a number of years. With proper cage care, they aren't smelly. Rats are really clean animals. My rat, Cleo is almost obsessive compulsive when it comes to being clean! Store rats tend to smell worse because they are in really cramped quarters and realistically the cages don't get the attention they need just because there isn't time for it.

Rats for the most part aren't biters. Cleo (my rat baby) will defend herself if the cats are being obnoxious but she has never bitten me or anyone else. I had one female that was really skittish and was quick to bite but she was the runt of the litter and was always picked on. With gentle handling and patience, she became a lot more mellow. Rats are creatures with boundries (they are really intelegent after all) and of course there will be some that require work in order to become sociable. The trick is to start young and to make sure you handle them frequently. A single rat will bond with people a lot easier than if you had multiple rats, as they tend to bond with each other.

There is a downside of course. Rats don't live very long, and their intelegence makes it very easy to bond with them. It hurt quite a bit each time I lost a rat due to old age. I've noticed that rats are prone to resporatory infections (at least in my local area, I'm not sure about other places but the weather here is hard on them). Think about the ammount of time you have to dedicate to a rats care. They are social creatures, and if they arent handled frequently, they could turn into real pains. If you don't plan on having your rat out for extended periods of time, concider getting two. Two females is the best. Males can be housed together, but I've noticed that unless they've grown up together, they tend to fight once they get older. Of course, don't house a male and a female together in the same cage. Having a male and a female seperated with supervised play time works pretty well but again you have to have the time to let them out to play. (my roomate has a male rat, Skyre and he and Cleo do like each other) Two females though, might still not work out as some rats like to have a home to themselves.

I hope I gave you some useful information! There are a lot of good rat websites out there. Go to google.com and search for Rat Care. There is a lot of pages dedicated to dispelling the myths about rats.

Good luck!