Quality of Living To have happy, healthy rats, you need to give your rats a quality of life. How do you do this? Give them a safe, healthy, home. Give them a balanced diet. Have at least two rats so that they can socialize with one another. Give them your love. And last but certainly not least, challenge their minds. One day we were flipping trough the T.V. channels, and we came across a program that was about Alzheimer's disease and ways to combat it. On this program they showed a study which was done with rats. One group of rats never left their cage, and their only source of entertainment was an exercise wheel. The other group of rats were let out for one hour, each day, in a room filled with tons of stuff to explore and interact with. The result? The group let out each day lived much longer. What this proved to us is that it is very important to provide your rats with continual mental stimulation throughout their lives. You need to keep your rats' lives enriched. This involves providing toys, playing games, and challenging their minds. You can find information on how to accomplish these things within the "Reviews" section of this site. Your rats should come out for a half hour, or preferably an entire hour of play time at least once every day!