Rats make GREAT pets. My rats would tell you this themselves.

The downsides are that they usually only live about 2 and a half years, they need a very veriegated diet (Not bad for me though, since I love preparing their meals), the very expensive health care, most rats (even some females) will pee on absolutley anything (I have stains all over my clothes ), they need lots of out of cage time, and they will get sick very very easily and almost all rats do get sick at some point.

It's true that females are generally more hyper and excitable than males, but there are your exceptions. My Frisco, for example. Little bum likes to drive me crazy.