Photo: Supplied / A Rats Tail
Smelly, dirty and diseased, just some of the words associated with rats, but a rat lover is hoping to turn all that around.
Auckland woman Belinda Clarke breeds pet rats.
And she loves them so much that she has around 100 in her home, which doubles as the Rat's Tail Rattery.
This weekend Clarke will host a stall at the Auckland Pet Expo, with hopes of convincing some visitors to consider getting a rat as their next pet.
"Everyone sees rats as these vicious, disgusting, aggressive animals.
"They are actually quite sweet, they have sweet little individual personalities. They're essentially like small puppies."
Clarke's love for rats was obvious as she described her passion.
Belinda Clarke has about 100 rats. Photo: RNZ
She was wearing a snuggle scarf around her neck, inside it a rare white rat poked his whiskers out from a pouch.
"His name is Odin, he actually has two different colour eyes, that's another random mutation. He's just over two years old"
Clarke said rats like Odin were very sought after due to their fluffiness.
She had 350 people on her waiting list, each looking into buying a $40 domesticated rat.
Their life expectancy was around two to three years, making them ideal pets.
"Their lifespans are quite short, but they grow into their personalities very quickly.
"[The short life span] is unfortunately the sad part about having rats, but at least if you're not sure about a pet or you might be moving or things like that it's great for a shorter commitment."
Photo: Supplied / A Rats Tail
At this weekend's expo visitors will be be able to interact with her rats, which Clarke assured did not carry diseases.
"They don't bite unless they're incredibly scared or hurt, which is like any other pet essentially.
"They don't smell if you clean their cage. If you're going to leave any animal in a room, for instance a dog, and you're not cleaning up the poop and that kind of thing, it is going to smell. You can litter train rats as well so they can poop in a specific litter box that you can empty out."
The rat enthusiast even enjoyed the scent of the polarising pets.
"Sometimes my boys tend to smell like tacos. Sometimes they have quite a nice smell at certain times of the year. It's really weird," she said, laughing.
Her eyes lit up when talking about her love for rats, and the people involved.
"The rat community is amazing. There's a couple of Facebook groups where people go ask questions, share pictures, that kind of thing. I'm going to say all of my best friends are also rat owners as well. I think rat people all have quite open minds, we're very accepting, and we're all super easy to get along with."
The Auckland Pet Expo runs Saturday and Sunday at the Auckland showgrounds.
