my friend owns rats and she has had them for about 5 yrs now (well the oldest one is) i myself have two two toned mice (black and white) they are not a lot of work they basically eat anything and they are good wen u have small children that drop food that the dogs or cats wont eat. they usually all they need is like a house (mine prefer a reptile rock) but a paper roll or a cut up box something, a water dish, and depending on how many u have a wheel. i had ferrets and they were not that hard to take care of the prefer food ur suppose to feed them is kitten chow and that is alot cheaper then the ferret food and if u train them all u have to have is a litter box and depending on how many u have depends on their cage size....if ur looking for ferrets or want to find anything else out about them reply to this message or send me one