Hi Ania! I loooooooooooooove rats!!!! And they are so easy to train because they are smart and food-motivated.
For my first 2 rats, Sam & Benny (both lab rats, died at age 2, almost to the day) I had built a big agility course that included jumps, hoops, stairs made from books, a balance beam, a tunnel of taped together cardboard toilet paper rolls, a slide and lots of other fun toys. They had a blast!!!!
My third rat was bred by a friend of mine whose boyfriend was a biologist. He had gone to Greece, caught some wild rats, smuggled them back home and bred them. I had high hopes that Speedy would live longer. Unfortunately that was not the case, she also passed away at 2 years old. Since she was only the 3rd generation in captivity she was extremely shy, lightning fast when she ran and she never was as tame as my other rats.
My last rat was an orphaned wild Florida Wood Rat who I found when she was 4 days old. (Since rat babies open their eyes when they are 14 days old, it was easy to calculate when she was born.) She lived FIVE years!!!! I don't know if she just had better genes as a wild rat or if the food that I gave her made a difference. Maybe a bit of both!
She was also extremely shy, extremely fast and very aloof but in this case she was totally tame with me since I raised her.
I do have a recipe for an incredible food mix recipe for rats, pm me if you're interested. You can freeze it and add fresh fruit, veggies, nuts and other treats.
Good luck with Igor and Tinto, they are both gorgeous!!!!!!!!!