Besides health, temperament is the most important aspect in breeding. The ultimate goal is to have confident, curious, relaxed, calm and very friendly rats that do not just tolerate people but actively seek people out for attention and love.
So how do you get there?
Breeding for temperament is not insanely difficult but it is not a simple matter either. Temperament is very much ruled by genetics for the most part.
Things like hormones where you get males that become hormonal aggressive. Or females who become hormonal. This can cause major behavior changes in rats often leading to aggression towards other rats, power grooming, or even attacking people. Mother rats that get stressed or anxious and attack. etc...
Anxiety is a huge temperament issue. This often leads to fear or biting or just stressed out rats. And it is important to note that stress can lead to illness such as myco flair ups.
I've actually seen many people say how friendly their average pet store rat is but I think if they met a well bred rat who was bred for temperament they would be in awe & mouth dropping shocked!
I'll show you two examples.
You may be in rat groups and see it all so often, someone brought home a new pet rat and it is hiding in the corner. It is nervous, fearful, won't come out, won't come to the person, may have fear poops, etc... Oh no worries everyone says, it takes a few days to adjust to the new home. Which is true. After a few days or a week or so the rat should adjust and get used to you. Maybe they will suggest some type of bonding training, trust training or immersion.Though sometimes you end up with rats that may require huge effort, patience and time to come around.
VS
I got a rat from an amazing breeder. The very first day I got him he was confident, curious and friendly. New home, new scents, cats & dogs, children (my niece & nephew were visiting) lots of loud noises. He is not even attempting to hide. He is active and outgoing. He calmly sits on my shoulder giving himself a bath. Calmly hops over to someone else when they offer their hand. When he goes into his cage, I can open the door he comes right to my hand. I can pick him up, carry him without him trying to get away.
This is the difference we strive for.
I want rats that would never even imagine biting anyone, like the thought of biting would never occur to them. I want rats that can be picked up, examined if needed or held. I want moms that I can reach into her nest, touch her babies, take her babies without stressing her out or making her upset or want to bite me. I want rats that have no hormonal aggression, they can be housed in large groups or meet new rats and never fight or attack one another.
Nature VS Nurture.
You often see some breeders saying they handle babies daily and socialize them. I actually say that as well. But it is important to note that by far the genetics behind the babies is what is most important.
There are amazing breeders out there who actually never ever handle their babies beyond checking them over. They let them grow up and judge temperament without any outside influence and their babies do have some of the very best temperaments out there.
I personally feel nurture does play some role in babies. Maybe it is 90% nature & 10% nurture idk...
I do prefer to handle my babies. Well one, omg babies! I won't even lie. I love babies. I love playing with them and snuggling them. My rats are my pets first and foremost and I want to interact with them.
I still firmly believe that I can not only properly test for temperament but be able to judge one rat from another. I think if properly done one can still very much judge temperament even with the influence of handling. Handling the babies daily with intense focus on them lets me see all their little quirks.
On the topic of nurture, there is this
wonderful study done by the University of Utah, on how "Highly nurtured rat pups tend to grow up to be calm adults, while rat
pups who receive little nurturing tend to grow up to be anxious."
What it basically says is that a calm nonanxious momma rat, will be more nurturing to her babies. She will spend more time relaxed, which in turns means more time to fuss over her babies, more time spent nursing, more time spent licking and grooming the babies.
"The nurturing behavior of a mother rat during the first week of life
shapes her pups' epigenomes. And the epigenetic pattern that mom
establishes tends to stay put, even after the pups become adults."
The extra licking & grooming actually activates genes (that will likely stay that way for life) that help them deal with stress better.
Definitely take a look at the link
HERE. It even lets you play a little game where you are a mommy rat who gets to lick her baby!
So what does that mean?
Well IMO, I think having really amazing rats with great temperament are going to mean they are much more relaxed and calm and amazing more tentative mothers.
Having babies puts animals in a vulnerable position, not only for them but also for their babies. You want the mom to feel safe, not be anxious, not be stressed. This goes back to me saying that you should be able to handle the babies and mom with no fear of being bit or stressing her out. Genetics do play a role in this as well with hormones. The same way males can potentially have hormonal aggression, females can be overly hormonal as mothers which leads to stress and anxiety.
On the positive side though I think that handling babies (when you have a calm mother that is ok with it) can do nothing but good for the babies. Holding, petting, lovingly giving attention to the babies could potentially have the same positive reactions as them being licked/groomed from their moms.
Testing for temperament
Judging the temperament can sometimes be quite subtle. We want to hold back and breed the best of the best. Very rarely is it going to be as obvious of an aggressive, biting, super afraid rat.
There are several things I look for and I do begin testing as itty bitty babies.
1. Flipping a rat on their back.
With most animals showing their belly is a vulnerable situation. If a rat can easily be held on their back with no fuss it is a really great sign. Again it is important to note that I am not looking to train the babies to be ok with this, I am looking for it to be there naturally.
2. Scruffing.
Scruffing is when you hold a rat by the extra skin on the back of their neck. In most cases it is not a good idea to be picking your rat up in this way. But it can be a useful way to hold them to check them over, even more so their teeth.
Alot of other breeders discussed using scruffing as a temperament test and I started using it as well.
You want to look for them to be calm, relaxed and go limp. And you definitely want to see the foot curl.
3. Non-Squirmy
I want babies that I can handle and hold. I want to be able to pick them up and not have them twisting and turning and fighting to get away. There is of a curve on this. Babies are full of energy, I like active hyper little babies. I want them to be active & there is definitely a window where babies are like ugh mom I wanna go play lol. There is a definite difference though between fighting to get away and being hyper & playful.
4. Want & seek attention
If I open a cage or sit down on the floor, I want to be swarmed. I want rats to come right to me. Those who seek out attention are always the best.
5. Obviously no biting
The only situation where I can imagine a pet biting is if they are hurt or injured. And even then I would hope they wouldn't, but I can understand. I have absolute no tolerance for biting.
Hormonal Aggression & Rat Social Behaviors...
To prevent genetic aggression from cropping up I never breed rats that show any signs of aggression. I generally wait to breed males after 7-8 months old. That is a very key time in the males life where hormonal aggression may pop up. Waiting to breed males until after that point means you can properly watch for hormonal aggression and remove those males who have it from your lines.
I also feel strongly that learning social behaviors is very important for babies. Learning how to speak rat, what is acceptable vs what is not. Babies learn some of it very young such as wrestling with their siblings they learn not to be too rough.
But there is a wealth of social behaviors they really need to learn to become well rounded adults.
To ensure this I have several important steps I follow.
1. I keep my babies with their mom until the proper age. I do not separate my boys until 5 weeks old, the girls stay with mom, and the babies are not sold until after 6 weeks. Babies get so much from mom beyond just food. She teaches them how to be rats.
2. I introduce my babies to adult rats. After about 3 weeks old my babies do get introduced to my adult rats.
During playtime to my adult males. My males are all sweet and calm with lovely temperaments so this is safe. I do supervise.
All the babies get tons of playtime with all of my adult females. They visit the females cage. I select a few females to put in my babies cage. By 4 weeks they are free ranging right along with all my females (in my secure rat room).
All the females are again awesome in the temperament department and are used to babies. But they teach them proper rat social graces. They get to learn from a rather large group of girls which is really helpful. It takes a village... lol
When my boys are 5 weeks old they often go into one of my males cages or have free range time with them.
I think it strongly helps prepare them for meeting new rats. I think it sets them up for the future. If you get new rats it should make for easy intros.
I think it works very well, I have very easy intros with all of my rats.
In conclusion...
I want the very best rats imaginable. I strive for excellent pets that want to be with you and bond deeply with you. All of my rats are pets first and I only want the most loving best pets possible, whether they are for me or going to a new home.
