How can I convince my parents to get RATS?

I really want 2 rats, but my parents say "NO" every time. I know we already have 7 pets, a dog, 4 hermit crabs, a parakeet, and a fish. I have given my mom persuasive notes about how responsible I am and I will feed every animal morning and night. She has already had several rats in her life and she and my dad love them. I've held rats before and am very good with them. I would pay for everything including the vet visits. I would clean the cage and give the rats a bath once a week. She says I am not getting a rat until we don't have the dog anymore. And it will take like 18 years until we don't have the dog anymore, but I still love Rocco (the dog). I really love rats but it will be years before I get them. I have tried almost everything I can try to get rats. I love rats sooo much and I really want them. There was once an incident that we were babysitting a guinea pig and me and my friend were in the basement and Rocco got upstairs and when we found him he had the guinea pig in his mouth and was shaking it and throwing it up in the air forcing in to flop onto the ground. And repeat, and repeat. That's why we are not getting rats. Can someone please suggest something for me to do so my parents will let me get rats? I have done all of my research to have rats and I know to bring them to the vet if they have runny eyes, nose, tumors, and/or noisy breathing. No bad comments or answers, please. Thx! P.S. I keep my parakeet in my room where Rocco can't get to it, and I would put the rats in my room if the bird wasn't there because rats can eat birds. Rocco is almost never upstairs and I can't keep the rats in a bathroom or my brother's room or my parents' room or downstairs cuz downstairs is where Rocco is. Thx, again!

I know how you feel. When I figured out I wanted a rat, my parents replied with the same old NO!So I did this, and they are going to get me one when school is done.Get A BUT LOAD of Research. Find examples, experiments, info and instincts,etc. Get some pictures of what your writing and turn it into a report/essay. Tell them how Intelligent and interesting they are.Hope this helped!

At this point, if nothing is working the answer remains no. They are your parents and they own the house therefore you must obey their rules. Be grateful for your 7 other pets. It doesn't sound like the rats would have proper housing locked in a bedroom. They love exploring and sitting on your shoulder. Something they can't do if your dog is going to try and hurt them. Wait until you're older to get a pair, you'll have to wait but at least they would be well cared for. You haven't done enough research, if you did you would know that you rarely ever have to bath them, they only need one maybe twice in their lifetime. Bathing them every week would cause damage to their skin. You should also know they need an hour out of cage time at least, so I suppose you'll have to figure out, how to keep your dog away during that hour.You could always try writing a detailed report along with cost care and ways to keep your dog away from them. But it sounds as if you don't have it figured out where you would put the cage.

I went through the exact same thingWhenever I brought up the word rats my parents just cringed and say noAll they could think of is sewer ratsEveryday I'd explain to them all the statitics about rats like they don't pass on diseases tohumans theyre clean animals and they don't bite I told them they weren't expensive to keep and I'd pay for everything and keep the cage cleanI got my mother on board and she went with me to the pet shop and we bought a cage for them first My dad saw the cage and got angry but calmed downA few weeks later me and mum went out to a breeder and got 2 male ratsBut I never told my dad and kept him away from my room sinceHe still doesn't know and I got them at the start of January !!I'm pretty sure he knows though but isn't saying anything so it's al good :)But yeah Just explain what you'll do to take care of them and stuffGood luck