"If you're a breeder, why do you never have rats available?" - C. Crouch
I have a very small rattery,
What is an ethical breeder?
I don't breed rats to out-compete other breeders, or simply to collect for the novelty of their colors. Nor is there any glamour in keeping more rats in cages than one can properly provide exercise and enrichment for. RodI breed rats for what *I can give them -- not for what they can give me. Rats are rodents being creatures tiny and easy to exploit and manipulate, they frequently become the focus of mental health addictions and collecting disorders to fuel people's cravings for variety and novelty, colors and patterns. Just 4 cages of rats is going to entail at least 4 hours of monitoring per day, not to mention cleaning, re-ordering the cages, feeding, watering, and medicating. Unsupervised out-time isn't good enough. Active participation is needed to monitor health and behavior patterns which determine each rat's fitness to breed. If they're going to spend their lives in cages, then it's a paradox to claim to breed family pets, because one doesn't get the chance to know them, nor were they ever considered part of the family at all. Food and vet care costs $$, and a full time is job is required to keep them to the same standards preached to adoptors.
How do I know you're a good breeder?
-I test all my rats for diseases *before they join my rattery at Idexx Labs inToronto
-I bred and kept, and studied all my rats (49 in total) for 3 years before I adopted out the first baby, to be sure they were 90% free of health and genetic defects. Mutations do occur, and 3 of those 49 got tumors, but none of their siblings, parents or grandparents ever did. One of the three (Opal) got a mammary tumor after age 3 (being seen by a vet), and despite that being a year past the rat average lifespan, her line is being monitored.
-In the 3 years while I was developing my line (2014-2017), I invested heavily in two dozen rats adopted from MSPCA. The benchmark of a true breeder is how they treat their sick and helpless. A proper breeder is as much invested in the health and welfare of their breed (including rescue) as a species, as they are in breeding for profit or the sake of breeding.
-Ask before you buy!
What is the optimal number of rats to adopt?
3 is best, as two rats will always get into squabbles and pick on each other like an "old married couple" (In reality they're just releasing their pent-up energy and frustrations of cage life). Every rat group has an arbitrator, and a 3rd rat will rarely choose to join in but watch from a location where he often steps in and practices an entertaining rat mannerism by raising himself to his full height and physically holding the brawlers apart. In larger groups such as mine, all non-participants will stand around in a circle, watching with concern.
What age do you adopt out rats?
It depends on the person, but the answer is generally I like to monitor how they grow and develop for a while, physically and psychologically. I may adopt them out at 8 weeks if I'm comfortable, but sometimes wait until a year.
What do you do with physically unfit or mentally unbalanced rats?
Nothing. They stay here for life. I do not adopt them out, or feed them to snakes like most rat breeders today who have fancy rats but lack one of two qualities of a trustworthy breeder (and human being) -- compassion. I currently have 2 cages of rats of imperfect temperament, about 12 rats--rats, or parents of rats that were unselected to continue the line, 6 are between 2 and 3, 3 are between 1-2, and that are over 3 years old (Rachael and Louise) and
Why do some rats cost more or less than others?.
The price tag for for a rat reflects the amount of investment put into the rat. For example if I need to travel 20 hours to import rats from an ethical breeder, the investment would be a lot higher. Additionally, the Harley variety is still rare, delicate and difficult to breed.
Cost breakdown:
Year 1: spent getting to know my foundation rats Moe and Gus, finding their strengths and weaknesses, and training them to do tricks and stunts. Rent:$500
Year 2: same. the Moe x Nefertari and Moe x Saab (1st) generations are born. 2 more cages purchased to separate the sexes. Bigger apartment with a 22 foot playroom for the rats, a pool, and a climbing range. Rent now $1600. Maternal cages purchased. Breeding cage purchased. Feed, toys and habitat enrichment purchased (hammocks, toys, ball pit) = $$. No babies are sold, in order to collect data on the health and behavior of rats. Spent = $: $; Income = $0
Year 3. The KRAKENx four sisters (2nd) generation is born, plus the Cherokee x sister. 2 more cages purchased to further separate the sexes. No babies are sold, in order to collect data on the health and behavior of the rats. Cherokee and one sister's removed from breeding program.due to temperament concerns No offspring adopted out.
Year 4: The Rainbow (3rd) generation is born. Babies are now selected based on the health of their grandparents
Isn't inbreeding bad?
Year 5: The
NO. That's just one of the more pervasive urban legends which no one really believes anymore. All wild rat (and pretty much all) wild animal populations are inbred Lab Rats are inbred 20-30 generations before considering them a "strain." Likewise is careful inbreeding (aka linebreeding) to best imitate Natural Selection and select for the hardiest traits. It works like this: if originating animals carry negative traits (eg. mammary tumors, pituitary tumors, aggression) --inbreeding will magnify them. However if your animals carry exceptional traits (eg. long lifespans *not colors or coat types), it will magnify them as well. In my first "Zen Rattery" 2001 I started out with 2 year lifespans, and by 2007 had increased that to 3-4 years from careful linebreeding.
See AFRMA:Inbreeding, by Nicole Royer
MATING STRATEGY & BREEDING SCIENCE
How do you know your line is tumor-resistant?
In the beginnings of the line, I did not feed my rats anything special such as the rat mash endorsed on my website.. I wanted to see how they would fare with other diets, such as petstore diets such as adoptors might feed them.
What's the difference between a breeder and a petstore rat?
It HIGHLY depends. In Canada as yet there are no ways to regulate who calls themselves a breeder and by what standards. It pays to do your homework, ask LOTS of questions ref: Canadian Rat Society Code of Ethics. Anyone can put two interesting rats together, make a first class website and register as "a Breeder" but would you want to? This article by one of our members outlines the difference:
An open Letter to Someone who wants to Breed their Rat. By Paddington Burn, Canadian Rat Society Breeder
I have a very small rattery,
What is an ethical breeder?
I don't breed rats to out-compete other breeders, or simply to collect for the novelty of their colors. Nor is there any glamour in keeping more rats in cages than one can properly provide exercise and enrichment for. RodI breed rats for what *I can give them -- not for what they can give me. Rats are rodents being creatures tiny and easy to exploit and manipulate, they frequently become the focus of mental health addictions and collecting disorders to fuel people's cravings for variety and novelty, colors and patterns. Just 4 cages of rats is going to entail at least 4 hours of monitoring per day, not to mention cleaning, re-ordering the cages, feeding, watering, and medicating. Unsupervised out-time isn't good enough. Active participation is needed to monitor health and behavior patterns which determine each rat's fitness to breed. If they're going to spend their lives in cages, then it's a paradox to claim to breed family pets, because one doesn't get the chance to know them, nor were they ever considered part of the family at all. Food and vet care costs $$, and a full time is job is required to keep them to the same standards preached to adoptors.
How do I know you're a good breeder?
-I test all my rats for diseases *before they join my rattery at Idexx Labs inToronto
-I bred and kept, and studied all my rats (49 in total) for 3 years before I adopted out the first baby, to be sure they were 90% free of health and genetic defects. Mutations do occur, and 3 of those 49 got tumors, but none of their siblings, parents or grandparents ever did. One of the three (Opal) got a mammary tumor after age 3 (being seen by a vet), and despite that being a year past the rat average lifespan, her line is being monitored.
-In the 3 years while I was developing my line (2014-2017), I invested heavily in two dozen rats adopted from MSPCA. The benchmark of a true breeder is how they treat their sick and helpless. A proper breeder is as much invested in the health and welfare of their breed (including rescue) as a species, as they are in breeding for profit or the sake of breeding.
-Ask before you buy!
What is the optimal number of rats to adopt?
3 is best, as two rats will always get into squabbles and pick on each other like an "old married couple" (In reality they're just releasing their pent-up energy and frustrations of cage life). Every rat group has an arbitrator, and a 3rd rat will rarely choose to join in but watch from a location where he often steps in and practices an entertaining rat mannerism by raising himself to his full height and physically holding the brawlers apart. In larger groups such as mine, all non-participants will stand around in a circle, watching with concern.
What age do you adopt out rats?
It depends on the person, but the answer is generally I like to monitor how they grow and develop for a while, physically and psychologically. I may adopt them out at 8 weeks if I'm comfortable, but sometimes wait until a year.
What do you do with physically unfit or mentally unbalanced rats?
Nothing. They stay here for life. I do not adopt them out, or feed them to snakes like most rat breeders today who have fancy rats but lack one of two qualities of a trustworthy breeder (and human being) -- compassion. I currently have 2 cages of rats of imperfect temperament, about 12 rats--rats, or parents of rats that were unselected to continue the line, 6 are between 2 and 3, 3 are between 1-2, and that are over 3 years old (Rachael and Louise) and
Why do some rats cost more or less than others?.
The price tag for for a rat reflects the amount of investment put into the rat. For example if I need to travel 20 hours to import rats from an ethical breeder, the investment would be a lot higher. Additionally, the Harley variety is still rare, delicate and difficult to breed.
Cost breakdown:
Year 1: spent getting to know my foundation rats Moe and Gus, finding their strengths and weaknesses, and training them to do tricks and stunts. Rent:$500
Year 2: same. the Moe x Nefertari and Moe x Saab (1st) generations are born. 2 more cages purchased to separate the sexes. Bigger apartment with a 22 foot playroom for the rats, a pool, and a climbing range. Rent now $1600. Maternal cages purchased. Breeding cage purchased. Feed, toys and habitat enrichment purchased (hammocks, toys, ball pit) = $$. No babies are sold, in order to collect data on the health and behavior of rats. Spent = $: $; Income = $0
Year 3. The KRAKENx four sisters (2nd) generation is born, plus the Cherokee x sister. 2 more cages purchased to further separate the sexes. No babies are sold, in order to collect data on the health and behavior of the rats. Cherokee and one sister's removed from breeding program.due to temperament concerns No offspring adopted out.
Year 4: The Rainbow (3rd) generation is born. Babies are now selected based on the health of their grandparents
Isn't inbreeding bad?
Year 5: The
NO. That's just one of the more pervasive urban legends which no one really believes anymore. All wild rat (and pretty much all) wild animal populations are inbred Lab Rats are inbred 20-30 generations before considering them a "strain." Likewise is careful inbreeding (aka linebreeding) to best imitate Natural Selection and select for the hardiest traits. It works like this: if originating animals carry negative traits (eg. mammary tumors, pituitary tumors, aggression) --inbreeding will magnify them. However if your animals carry exceptional traits (eg. long lifespans *not colors or coat types), it will magnify them as well. In my first "Zen Rattery" 2001 I started out with 2 year lifespans, and by 2007 had increased that to 3-4 years from careful linebreeding.
See AFRMA:Inbreeding, by Nicole Royer
MATING STRATEGY & BREEDING SCIENCE
How do you know your line is tumor-resistant?
In the beginnings of the line, I did not feed my rats anything special such as the rat mash endorsed on my website.. I wanted to see how they would fare with other diets, such as petstore diets such as adoptors might feed them.
What's the difference between a breeder and a petstore rat?
It HIGHLY depends. In Canada as yet there are no ways to regulate who calls themselves a breeder and by what standards. It pays to do your homework, ask LOTS of questions ref: Canadian Rat Society Code of Ethics. Anyone can put two interesting rats together, make a first class website and register as "a Breeder" but would you want to? This article by one of our members outlines the difference:
An open Letter to Someone who wants to Breed their Rat. By Paddington Burn, Canadian Rat Society Breeder