I’m still looking for a place that sells pet rats. Maybe I should go hang out in Snake Alley to see if they’re using any as snake feed?
If you spot any rats in a pet shop or anywhere else, please let me know the address.
Thank you!
Maybe you and TNT can get together and start a business at his place!
The horror!
I found that pet shop street in Hoping W. Road, sec 3…they sell rabbits, pigs, hamsters, African Greys, anything that crawl, bite or fly. But no rats…the guy showed me the rats I wanted in a book and said:
Bah! Nobody wants them!
They’ll be eating the little darlings next, I tell you!
Don’t you just love when people in Taiwan say, “Nobody wants them!” And you are inquiring about the item… I find that most interesting and rude…
Well good luck to you, maybe you can open up your own shop?
Check the pet street stand on EMei street in HsiMenTing next to the HsiMenting Eslite bookstore building. It’s hiding behind some food stalls there at the entrance of alleyway near the entrance of a movie theater. Someone tells me they have pet rats there. White ones black ones…enjoy.
What are you going to do with this rat?
They are eating rats’ balls. Perhaps you could ask the rats’ ball suppliers to give you a couple of rats after their gonads have been harvested. They must have plenty of female rats to spare, too.
Nobody wants them of course. UGLY they are. I use to have pet hamsters, gerbils and guinea pig when I was about 10 years old, but I would never have considered having a rat. I think humans have an innate disgust for harmful critters like rats, spiders and snakes.
I used to have one when I was younger but I lost him at a Slits concert.
Rats have a quite different character from those other animals. My neighbour in London used to have a hamster. After the hamster died, he got a rat. When I went into his room, the hamster would scuttle under the bed, but the rat would come over to investigate, like a dog. Rats are intelligent and inquisitive. One night, the rat found a way to get through from my neighbour’s room to mine. It jumped on my face in the middle of the night, while I was sleeping. Gave me a hell of a fright, but it was only being friendly. The downside to rats is that they pee everywhere to mark their territory, like dogs. They will climb inside your clothes and pee there. That’s not very pleasant.
Juba, that’s disgusting, you forgot to mention how they also chew up your clothes to make beds and chew on your CD and DVD collection as teething toys…
Why anyone would keep vermin as pets is beyond me. But each to his own.
Little boys are strange. I also had an ant farm and a snake, turtles, lizards, salamanders and even a stray bat, but I had to set it free when my mother found out.
Mom made me keep most of the pets outside. The vermin were in a cage and never escaped.
My rat didn’t pee in my clothes. There again, I seldom washed in those days, so maybe he did and I just thought it was me…
Hamsters, gerbils and g pigs just aren’t as social and intelligent. You can go shopping with your rats on your shoulder, and if you go to the park with them, they’ll actually follow you around!
And you can teach them not to pee on you actually…
And they’re the cutest little things on Earth…almost like Brad Pitt with fangs…just wanna hug them, and kiss them, and cuddle them, and…
A friend of mine in Taipei has a pet rat. If you PM me next week, I’ll ask her where she got it from and get back to you… 
Cheers,
The Big Babou (in Oz)
I saw plenty of rats near the footpath in the evening between Taipei city hall MRT and Warner village. I stepped on one there last week! Maybe you could go catch one!
I now have some guinea pigs…a bit disappointing after getting used to rats as companions, but unbelievably cute they are…
So I’ve been wandering around trying to find a place to have the male neutered, but no luck so far…these little pet shop joints mostly only do cats and dogs.
Somebody suggested to me that I should try some animal medical facility that they’ve apparently got at Taida (National Taiwan University?). Does anybody know anything about this place? I also heard that there’s some hospital that specializes in small animals, but have no idea how to go about finding this place.
I hate keeping him separate now, but if I bring him near the female she attacks him and starts biting the poor thing. And then there’s the unfortunate humping attempts…
Help!
Only tried to use it once but we just missed the surgery hours and had to go elsewhere. Its on Jilung Rd, north of the Taipower offices by about two blocks or so. I’m trying to call the wife to get the address, but she’s not home right now. I’ll try and post again tomorrow.
Really though, why bother – after all, they’ll be big enough to eat in just a few weeks. Deep fried cavey, Mmmmmmmm!
I found a short-tailed mouse abandoned in a park. Apparently this breed is called “hamu sanlang” in Chinese. I spent NT$600 on a nice 2-storey cage for it and the shop threw in some bedding for free. Unfortunately there was something wrong with the mouse - It kept turning round in circles and rolling over. The poor little bugger passed away last week. The cage is now available free to a good home.
There’s a very nice vet’s that deals with rodents by kuting MRT station, take the lift at exit 1, and you’re right outside it, I took my hamster there to get her teeth clipped. Clean and bright and actually looks like a professional vets.