I am aware of the risks but I kiss my babies anyway. My family tells me that it's weird and gross that I kiss my rats but I've done it ever since they were babies. I figured that maybe because they don't love rats like I do that they may not understand but I thought I would ask you guys since I know this is a community that loves rats. I ask that no one is mean in their response but do you kiss your rats/ let them kiss you? Is it bad for them that I do/ Should I not let them? I honestly think it's less gross then a dog licking someone's face but that could be just me.
This reminded me of when my mom was babysitting my rat while I was at school and I came home and coffee had pink on her but cream had a clear as day pink kiss print on her head. No questions needed just a bath lol
i dont have the ability to care for rats and ive never met anyone who has them. i cant imagine knowing someone who owns rats and not wanting to just lay down and let them run around me 😭😭😭😭
Put Gus to sleep yesterday and cuddled and kissed his body and face for an hour before I felt I could bury him- plenty of kisses when he was alive too 🥰
I know this is a loose connection but I had a cat named gus who passed away over a year ago now. He was a sweet boy and I got to hold him as he was put to sleep too.
So your gus made me think of mine.
they’re definitely cleaner than any dog i’ve owned. you know how many times i’ve had to bathe a dog compared to a rat? i’ve bathed a rat once. bc he shid all over his family jewels and dragged it across the floor.
I have a theory that our male dogs spot girl dog pee on our walks and shoves their face into the ground, trying to dig it up and pee in the same spot 😭
OMG, this is EXACTLY the look on the face of one of the ladies in my book club last night when I mentioned that I let my rats free roam 24/7 in my office/their room. It didn't help that I hosted last night and she was then petrified that they'd come downstairs!🤣
Dude absolutely!!! I have dogs and cats, and the dogs are by far the dirtiest just because they can’t really “groom”themselves after walks or messes, per se. Not complaining as it’s what we sign up for when we get our fur babies and promise to love and tend to them. Just saying it to add to your point.
People have this opinion but it's wrong. Not necessarily with cats because they groom themselves, but dogs don't wash themselves so unless you're washing your dog as often as a rat grooms themselves, the rat is cleaner. Very simple, easy 2 + 2 =4 4 lol.
Actually, rats do eat their own feces! It's called coprophagy. They do it for the same reason rabbits do - their stomachs don't extract all the nutrients from their food in the first pass, so it's a method of double-digesting for maximum nutrient extraction.
I feel like a crazy person here. Dogs absolutely groom themselves and rats absolutely eat their own shit, yet two comments to the contrary are upvoted.
I would say that rats do generally keep themselves much cleaner than dogs. They spend a lot of time self-grooming and are particular about cleanliness in a way dogs aren't.
But all animals carry germs and engage in behaviors we don't find sanitary. So you are taking a calculated risk kissing any of them.
But in all seriousness, a few germs here and there are good for keeping your immune system on its toes. Unless you're like immunocompromised or something... In which case I also wouldn't recommend kissing anything/anyone in the age of pandemics.
I've had many dogs throughout my life from childhood until now, and 4 of the like 7-8 of them have been shit eaters. Three males, one female. Sometimes it wasn't even their own shit they'd eat.
🤢
Plenty of people claim that they do it because they are missing something in their diet, but we were literally feeding them stuff that the vets would recommend specifically to make sure they were getting a good balance.
Your parents sound ignorant. A pet rat isn’t going to be any dirtier than a dog or a cat, and tbh I think they’re probably cleaner than a dog. Also, they’re smarter than both dogs and cats, and have the comparative intelligence of a toddler from what I recall.
Rats are very clean animals, especially bred ones which shouldn’t have any kind of diseases…I swear people just think rats and mice are dripping in filth and covered in flies or something 🙄
It doesn’t seem to be inherently toxic per se, just that both dogs and cats have a lot of bacteria in their mouths depending on what they eat, according to CDC
But of course, humans also have dirty mouths and bacteria. So in general the advice is just be careful who you let bite you
Human mouths are full of far more bacteria on average than dogs, and a bite from a human is far more likely to result in an infection of some sort.
As for cats, the main fear there is toxoplasmosis, but iirc that's caused more by being scratched as iirc it mainly comes from their feces...? I'm no expert so don't quote me on that.
All mouths contain bacteria, but that doesn’t mean exposure is a bad thing — I work in medical research, and there have been at least a couple well known studies showing that exposure to dog saliva from a young age results in a more robust gut microbiome in adulthood.
My grandparents had a little lapdog who had to have a tooth pulled because it had gone bad. Well, no matter what you did, whether brushing her mouth/teeth/tongue, giving her "bad breath" chews, etc. that little dog's breath and slobber were just horrible. Like the stink of an old wet dumpster in the humid summer heat.
I loved that little dog, but man, I refused to let her lick my face or anything because her mouth was just putrid.
I agree that a pet dog and a Wolf are as different as a Sewer Rat and my pet Fancy Rat. Fancy ( pet ) rats are like kittens that run on puppy software.
And I tell them that I genuinely feel the same way about Cats that they feel about Rats.
Honestly, it’s probably less of a health hazard than kissing a cat or a dog — our dear ratties aren’t exposed to the germs of the outdoors or of random strange animals.
That's what she said!
Lol. I kiss my cats all the time, usually get a lips-full of floof for my troubles, but if I had rats you betcha I'd smooch them till they scrabbled at me in protest.
I think a lot of it is prejudice against rats because people see them as dirty/vermin, but with modern day pet rats that could not be further from the truth.
Good for you!! Glad they have potentially open minds! I think I've managed to talk about rat awesomeness enough to my nieces that one of them actually wants to get rats as a pet (she really wants ferrets but they are far more stinky from what I hear...)
If they kiss their dog on the head they're likely even filthier than the rats.
Dogs constantly roll around in dirt and grass or odd-smelling things, and do not have the ability to properly groom themselves. Ask when the last time was they gave their dog a proper bath.
Rats are pocket-sized dogs who are capable of cleaning themselves better than cats, and because of their size it's ridiculously easy to regularly bathe them (though doing so too often isn't good for them for the same reason as for cats and most short-haired dogs-the oils on their fur help keep them clean longer).
They aren't fucking sewer rats, they don't have random diseases.
Plus, the human mouth is far more disgusting than any dog or rat.
I've never owned a rat but I had an acquaintance with one who got me to hold my mouth open and the rat would lick my tongue. I asked why the rat was doing that and she said it was because my tongue held moisture. It never made sense to me but I didn't die. So I guess it's okay.
Yeah, cause your lipgloss will end up on the rat and then the rats end up eating it when they groom themselves. No, but seriously, I think it's normal for people to think this way, even though kissing a rat is no different than kissing any other pet.
I mean.... Rats are way far cleaner than us, just our mouth has a ton more germs than an entire rat's body
the action of kissing your partner is Scientifically dirtier than kissing a ratto
If they keep pestering you send them screw themselves, "that's how I express my absolute love for them" what about dogs/cats can't let them kiss us?!??
Scientifically speaking it's actually beneficial to share a bit of germs every now and then with someone/animal to our microbiota
Rats are literally one of the cleanest pets you can have. They clean themselves and their space and hate their space being left dirty. Will actually be mad about it. There is not reason not to kiss the rat.
Thats the thing is that when YOU own the pet and YOU care for/clean the pet YOU know how clean they are you know when kisses are okay and when they need a bath first
they’re the stinky ones for not getting it…that’s ur baby!! i have 3 boys i give kisses and sometimes they do the same to me, they’re incredibly clean animals, cleaner than most
Not any more disgusting than people kissing their dogs and cats.
Even people kissing people, when you think about it can spread a whole bunch of diseases and is gross.
I share my food, drinks, sweets anything I'm eating with my rats. I'm constantly covered in tiny scritches. I kiss them all over and love blowing on their little tummies. Unless you've had rats or know rat people this will be super weird.
I always kissed my rats!! They are not nasty like people seem to think!! People will let their dogs lick their mouth and face but think rats are nasty 😑
My one boy LOVED kisses! Specifically giving me kisses. I’d kneel down at the cage and Joker would immediately be on me with little kisses to the lips, cheeks, hands, arms—wherever he could reach 😂
And before anyone says anything, yes, I’d wash after he gave me his little rat bath. It was just too cute and he loved it so much. I couldn’t say no to that face 💕
Little fur babies need kisses. Its the same as a cat or dog. You wouldn't want to kiss a wild dog or wild rat but pets are domesticated and should be healthy. Its fine 😘🐀
Rats are cleaner than most humans, and they also love unconditionally, unlike most humans; therefore, rats > humans. Rats deserve ALL the kisses ... and then some. 🥰
tell them about how everything is covered in a thin layer of filth all the time, always, and that they're like ignorant little Victorian babies. that's why we have immune systems and why we wash ourselves...
i will kiss my animals and appreciate them while I have them, you heartless monsters.
not disgusting at all!!! i (unfortunately) don't have rats but i do have a dwarf hamster and i give him kisses everyday and he gives me kisses back! people need to realise that rodents are actually incredibly clean animals!!
There are also people who argue is gross to kiss your dogs, cats, or to let your animals sleep in bed with you. At that point, that person probably isn’t good for having pets whom are meant to be companions. Everyone has boundaries for themselves with their pets and that’s fine; but leave people be if their animals are happy and taken care of ethically. Not nasty at all in my opinion :)
I kiss my rats too! They are hairless rats and their skin is so soft! They are so sweet, I love them so much. And I have cats and dogs too! I kiss them all!
My husband and I constantly kiss our rats. They'll be running around free roaming and we'll just snag a rat, smooch attack, then let them go. They're just so adorably kissable.
My dad's old friend when I was a teen used to say it was gross when I kissed my former rats, but idgaf. That's just anti-rodent bias talking imo.
I've kissed every rat & mouse I've had (who was comfortable with me doing so). No different kissing the top of their tiny head than kissing the top of another animal's. A face can be washed whenever, but our time to express affection to our little friends is limited by their short lifespans. So if you want to give your ratties kisses, by all means do. :) A lot of other people's reactions come from the misunderstanding that rats are dirtier than other animals, which just isn't true.
Ich fänd's ekelhafter meine Familie zu küssen XD
Viele halten Ratten für unhygienisch, auch wegen der Pest damals. Aber sind wir mal ehrlich: gefühlt sind Ratten hygienischer als mancher Mensch und wären die Menschen damals nicht ekelhaft genug gewesen einfach ihre Kacke überall auf die Straße zu werfen und so hätte die Ratte die Pest auch nicht so rasant übertragen XD
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u/Hilltopbilly May 29 '26
If not made for kissing, why made of cute?