Rats, although small, are VERY active and need lots of room to play and run. So keeping a Rat in a small 3 gallon tank just will not do and is pretty much animal abuse.
A Rat can be placed in a 10 gallon tank or a smaller cage for the first 3 to 4 months of its life. After that it will just be too big to keep there.
For every 10 days of a Rat's life, it is like a year to a human, so you can see, they grow very quickly.
A 10 gallon tank and cage space is pushing it, but CAN be done with ONE Rat as long as they have a lot of time each day to play outside their cage/tank.
Anything under a 20 gallon tank and cage-space is too little and anything 20 gal. and above is okay for a Rat.
Be aware that every time you put a new Rat in a cage or tank that already has Rats in it, you should probably not only steralize everything, but probably get a bigger cage/tank. The more room they have, the healthier they will be and the more they will love you.
I personally have a 2 month old Rat who is currently in a 10 gallon tank, and a 7 month old Rat that is in a 20 gallon tank. They are both doing just fine, and love me very much. |