Dogs And Cats Are Out – Pet Rats Are Where It’s At
A website that helps you pick the “right pet” did a study that found young children get more satisfaction out of owning a pet rat rather than a dog or cat.
By DAVID on August 29, 2018
Ask children these days if they want a pet, and many of them with get bright-eyed and tell you they want a rat. At least that’s what some research is saying now. Youngins these days just prefer rats over cats or dogs.
The research was done by the website Rightpet.com. They looked through more than 60,000 pieces of feedback from pet owners and built a massive database of results. All sorts of pets were covered, dogs, cats, spiders, fish, horses, just about everything. They found that in general, younger people, so age 10-17, preferred pet rats. Specifically, that age group got more “satisfaction” out of having a pet rat rather than a cat or dog.
There was a relation to pet satisfaction compared to age though. They found that while children were most satisfied with rats, that satisfaction decreased with age. However, with cats and dogs, as people got older, satisfaction increased. So cat and dog owners are more satisfied with their pet as adults than as children. One theory is that as far as caring for the animals, rats don’t need much. So I suppose children get more “fun” out of having a rat than having to scoop dropping out of a box or grass. Whatever the case, it’s an interesting look into a pet that many would never even consider looking at.
