Breeding for Temperament

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.

Future Litters Planned

I wanted to let everyone know our plans for the litters we have planned for the rest of this year.

These are my current plans for future litters. Please note that pairings may change.

Dates are not finalized until very soon before they are paired. I wait until females are around 5-6 months and close to 300g. 

These dates are when I will pair the does & bucks, not when the babies will be born or available.
When will babies be expected after a pairing?
The doe & buck are paired together around 10 days. Mating has to happen when the female is in heat and may take multiple attempts.
The pregnancy lasts around 21-23 days usually.
Babies are available to go to their new homes after they are 6 weeks old.

If you are interested in a specific line please jump on the wait list and be first in line to reserve the babies you want!

OUAM Charlie X OUAM Max
Expecting Colors: Blue Markings: Variegated/Bareback Coats: Standard Ears: Possible Dumbos/Standards Size: Standard Pairing in May ********************************************
HTG Widow X GRST Alucard
Expecting Colors: Black/Silvermane Markings: Berkshire Coats: Standard/Silvermane Ears: Dumbos Size: Standard Pairing in August or September ********************************************
HTG Esme X GRST Crowley
Expecting Colors: Mink/Black Markings: Berkshire/Blaze Coats: Standard (Harley Carriers) Ears: Dumbos Size: Standard(Dwarf Carriers) Pairing in August or September ********************************************
OUAM Bella X GRST Castiel
Expecting Variety: Siamese Coats: Standard Ears: Dumbos Size: Standard (Dwarf Carriers) Pairing in September or October ********************************************

My Lines/Plans:

Blue Variegated
Coat: Standard
Size: Standard
Ears: Standard/Dumbo
Coat: Standard

Siamese 
Coat: Standard
Size: Standard- working towards all dwarf Siamese
Ears: Dumbo
Coat: Standard
More info

Silvermane
Coat: Standard
Size: Standard
Ears: Dumbo
Coat: Standard
More Info




Dwarf Line:
I am planning on merging my Siamese lines to all dwarfs.
All dwarfs will be dumbo with standard fur.
The earliest pairings that will result in some dwarf babies would be in 2017. 
Dwarf babies will be limited. If you are interested please get on my wait list asap!

Dwarfs are a variety of rat that are quite small. An average standard female rat will weigh 350-450g, and an average male will weigh 450-650g. Dwarfs as adults weigh a total of 80-100g (some lines getting up to 120g). Dwarf Info

Harley Line:
I am very excited to be adding harley's. Harely's are long haired rats. They are adorable little fluff balls!
I am planning on pairing my harley female around August/September. Harley will need to be crossed with my harley carriers so I will not have any available until 2017. Currently my harleys are mink and black.

As always check out my nursery for updates!

If you are interested in babies please fill out my application to be put on my waitlist!

Ethical Breeding aka Red Flags

Recently in a rat breeders group I am in the topic of ethics came up in relation on judging other breeders.

In the rat world there can be alot of judgement towards other breeders who do things different than you.

I think judgement often comes from a good intent...we care about the rats and want them to be cared for and not abused nor neglected. But I think we also have to be open minded and not just pass judgement blindly. Someone may do something different then us, we should atleast attempt to learn the reasoning behind it.

We should also be able to separate our standards from our ethics. For example: what brand of food you feed is not often an ethical choice. We have different opinions. And even if someone is feeding a less than ideal or cheap brand that doesn't really make them unethical IMO. But on the flip side... if someone knew that the food was unhealthy or harmful or were not even attempting to give them a good diet (i.e. feeding nothing but crackers or bird seed or cat food) then I do feel that touches on ethics.

Things are not always so cut and dry or black and white.


I am quite an opinionated person. I try not to be annoyingly so. :) I do draw some hard lines where I admit I would say I don't think X is ethical or responsible. But... I also know I can't force my ethics on everyone. I don't mind giving my opinion but unless someone is seriously neglecting or abusing their animals, they gotta do it their way. I can choose to not support them and even suggest others do not as well.

I also think it is important to judge each person individually and not just make a wide blanket statement that all ppl who do X is wrong. 

In the end I'm not a perfect person. I am sure I don't do things how others would like and I may sometimes be too judgy. I try not to keep an open mind.


That being said I do have hard lines where I draw the line ethically. Things some breeders do that I would consider BYB and not ethical or responsible.

• Obviously any abuse or neglect situations. If the animals are living in dirty conditions, not having food or water, are being injured. I also think over crowding, where the animals do not have their own space or worse when it leads to fights and they just let them stay like that.

• I fully support and push rescuing animals. I do not support BYBs or mills or pet shops that sell animals.
  
I think responsible breeding is important to make better/healthier/sweeter animals. I am really adamant on only breeding for a good purpose. Breeding to better and improve the animal- be it for show, health, temperament.

But I do think it is wrong for people to just breed because they can. Just throwing any two animals together, because they wanna play with cute babies or raise them from a baby, because they think little fluffy won't be happy unless they mate or have one litter, someone who has a nice pretty rat and wants to clone it through breeding (that is not how it works people!) lol, or people just want to make money. Alot of animals are in need of homes, don't just bring more into the world just because you can.

• It bothers me when people sell babies too young. I see so many people on groups say they just got this little baby from a breeder & it is just 2-3-4 weeks old. I have seen breeders say they have to sell so young because their customers want the baby experience.
  
  I think as a pet breeder there is just zero reason to sell babies that young. Babies need their mom for both nutrition and to learn proper social behaviors. On top of it rehoming young is dangerous- it can lead to under socialized babies that do not properly speak rat, making it harder to introduce them to other rats in the future. In homes that already have rats, it can put them at risk of injury or death from fighting just on size alone.
  
  Im a bit judgy here, but to me it speaks of just wanting to hurry and pass them off probably to save room/expense. It has nothing to do with the animals best interest.

• Along with that I really do not like the idea of people who breed their does nonstop. You see some people just keep them with the male forever and have them just nonstop tossing out babies. That is in no way good for the mom. Even just having one or a few back to back litters is not good.
  
  Moms need time to rest and recover between litters. Having and nursing babies is hard on their body. They need time to gain back weight and be strong again. Breeding a mother not in good strong health is only going to make weak unhealthy babies. I prefer waiting atleast 30 days between the time the babies are weaned to remate her, at the earliest.
  
  I think in some cases experienced breeders may rebreed sooner than ideal, I wouldn't necessarily knock someone for that in itself. You are working within time frames, being able to judge how a mom is doing and if she is ok can be done.
  
  The same goes for breeding too young or too old. Babies should not be having babies. A doe needs to grow and develop before being mated. The same way an older doe should be retired. Either too young or too old, the doe will not be in the healthiest conditions. Meaning you are putting her and the babies at risk and lowering the chance for truly healthy babies. That isn't putting the animals well being first and IMO unethical. IMO a female should not be bred younger than 5 months, with 6 being better (though it goes off her weight as well) and I prefer to retire females at 10 months old, some go to a year.  I will say that for experienced breeders sometimes breeding outside those ages is possible. It should be a case by case choice and done so with good reason and care.

• People who do stupid things like remove their babies tails because "it freaks out people". That really happened. Someone cut the tails off their little baby rats to have an easier time selling them to homes who didn't like tails...
  
  Also those who pretend to have something special & unique when it is not. I do not mean people who do have a newer or more rare variety or even a variety that isn't as common in their area. I think pushing that is fine. But I mean more people who make stuff up to make it sound better. Kindof like the designer dogs. Your dog is a mutt. I have seen someone trying to sell rats as manx when they clearly were just injured- type of thing. Or people making up a variety or calling one thing something else to make it sound cooler.

• Rescue/breeding I don't think works well together but I really think breeding said rescues is unethical.
  
  I knew someone (wont name them) who ran both a rattery and rescue. There were some obvious questions about like quarantine methods. But they would "rescue" rats that were just being rehomed on like craigslist, buy babies from accidental litters, even the whole saving feeders thing. Most of the rats they had no way of knowing their history or even age. Yet they bred their rescues.... Just so many things wrong with that IMO.
  
  Like first of all when you rescue an animal it should really be given a good happy life, retire it and love it. Not put it to work. They clearly were not trying to better anything that way but were only breeding cute colors/markings. I do not think it is quite safe to be breeding unknown rats all the time, I think again there are some cases where experienced rat breeders could but not like that situation.

• Not letting animals suffer. Like people who would just let their injured or sick rat suffer and die without treating it themselves or seeking a vet. At the very least euthanize it.

There are definitely other things I would like to see or prefer myself. But those are my definite hard lines that I would be comfortable saying no that breeder is not being ethical.

Babies soon!

Always an exciting time when babies are expected. Any day now our Meg is likely to pop!

Weighed her today and she has gained 96g! She is huge.

How many babies will there be?? Her mom & sister have started a family tradition with litters of 9. Will she continue it? I am guessing 10, nice even number lol. We will soon see.

My poor girl is not happy at all about being in the maternity cage. She has been pouting :( Time will fly by after the babies are born and they will keep her busy but the waiting is always rough.

Meg preggers

Meg big baby tummy!! <3

Posted by Once Upon a Mischief Rattery on Wednesday, December 30, 2015

An awesome duo

So I am pretty excited to announce that today begins my pairing of Meg (siamese dumbo female) with Malygos (Russian Blue Hooded male standard ear).

These two rats have the absolute best temperaments out of any rat I've seen. They both are sweet, calm, and all about love and affection.

This is Meg's first litter, she did help with the babies when her sister Charlie had a litter and possessed excellent motherly skills.

This will also be Maly's first babies. He was paired once before with my girl Sansa but it did not work out. He has such a laid back attitude and she was too much for him I think. I decided to remove her from breeding.

As soon as I put them together they both acted perfectly fine with it as if they had always been together! That is a good sign.

But I admit I am slightly worried about Maly's flirting skills. lol Is he going to be able to make it happen? Only time will tell... I am hoping that with Meg's calm attitude she will be a perfect match for him.

*Praying for babies*

Meg begging to be released from the baby making bin cage

Should I Breed?

I hear this question all the time. People having some interest in breeding and wondering if they should or not.

Honestly my answer is always going to be no. If you have to ask, then you are probably in no way ready or prepared to undertake it. Breeding is not something that should be done on a whim or because someone online told you it is a good idea. It requires more then just throwing two animals together. If you want to be a responsible pet owner and breeder you need to really think about it, consider every option, study and research until you are beyond qualified.

The difference between a responsible breeder vs a back yard breeder (BYB):

This subject is up for endless debates. What makes a responsible breeder? There are definitely things that I feel are important but IMO the most basic differences are:

1.) The reasoning behind breeding. There are tons of animals out there needing homes. There is no lack of rats. Choosing to bring more pets into this world deserves a very good reason beyond, I just wanted to.

IMO breeding should be at its core for the betterment of the animal/line. Because of mills, pet stores, accidental litters and BYBs rats have alot of health issues and some are just really badly bred in temperament and colors/variety. This can all be helped with good legit breeders. But doing so requires more then just throwing two rats together. if you are not doing things with care, knowledge and research you are part of the problem not the solution.

I am not saying fun colors, varieties and such are not part of it but bettering the rats should be the most important purpose.

Responsible Breeder: Breeds with knowledge to better the animal and its lines at the core.

BYB: Breeds for any other reason

2.) The animals care. Keeping a good amount of animals is not easy. It requires alot of time/effort in cleaning and handling. It costs alot of money in cages, supplies and food.

There is definitely a line drawn between people who give 100% and those who cut every corner they can. 

Responsible Breeder: are going to put the animals health, well being- physically, mentally, emotionally ahead of all else. They give proper vet care, they feed food that they feel is truly good quality not just because of the price (this doesnt always mean they feed the best/most expensive, but that they believe that it is quality food that will benefit them), they give them proper space, they keep a clean rattery, they have healthy animals, their animals are of good temperament and well handled.

BYB: Puts money first, are often using very cheap food, cages, over crowding, no vet care, dirty, doesn't give their animals the proper time or care.

3.) Have a severe lack of knowledge of the animals they are dealing with. No one is perfect and knowing that you need to be continually learning and growing as a breeder. But one should have a grasp on basic genetics and understand the lines they are working with.

Red flags often include- not understanding how to sex rats, not understanding proper terms, not understanding the basics of mating, pregnancy, and labor. Not knowing recessive vs dominant genes- more so of what they are working with. Not knowing the colors they are working with.

Responsible Breeder: Learns the basics before they begin. Is patient. Has a good working knowledge of the lines and of the animal itself. This also includes things like breeding rats at the correct age/weight, retiring their rats at a good age, not over breeding.

BYB: Doesn't understand the basics. Gives sketchy info or refuses to give info. Is not open to learning. Doesn't know its own lines.  

4.) Responsible placement. As said, when choosing to breed you are making the choice to bring these little lives into the world. What happens to them is on you.

Responsible Breeders: Choosy about the placement of their babies. Doesn't sell babies too young, doesn't sell sick animals. Takes effort to find them the best homes. Does not overbreed, Weans correctly, is prepared to keep any rats that do not sell.

BYB: Sells for profit above all else, sells to anyone willing to buy. Overbreeds- too many females than they can handle, back to back litters. Breeds rats too young or not healthy or too old. Weans too young, sells too young. Refuses to keep rats that do not sell- sells to pet shops, as feeders (this ofcourse is directed at those who are projecting themselves as pet breeders), or worse releases/kills leftover rats.
 







I often see three main reasons for wanting to breed:

1. OMG Babies! Babies are adorable. You have to be a heartless monster to not agree that babies are cute little angels. People want to play with babies, see babies, watch them grow and experience that.

2. "My rat has such an awesome temperament, great color, markings, or is just so amazing that it MUST be passed down" They enjoy their rat and think it is special and should continue on or just do not want to lose their rat and think having its child will keep a piece of it alive.

3. $$ Money! Ooo let me breed and have an easy get rich quick scheme that just allows me to play with pets all day, count me in!

Why these reasons do not work:

• Babies are cute, but they are also a ton of work. Raising a well adjusted amazing baby takes effort. They need to be handled often, exposed to different things. Sometimes litters can be huge on average 8-12 but upwards of 20 or more! Juggling so many curious wiggly babies is not an easy task! Babies begin to explore their cage fully after 2 weeks. They are all over the place from then on!

• Bringing any life into this world makes it your responsibility. It didn't ask to exist, you made that choice. So that life is on you! If you do not know basic genetics and the history of your rats you may be breeding fatal health issues. What happens if that baby is born with something like megacolon and then has to suffer in pain? What happens if the mother dies, can you feed 20 babies all day every day? What happens if injuries occur? What will happen to these babies when they grow up? Will they go to a loving, responsible forever home or will they end up with a flipper, abused, neglected or worse?

• Babies are cute but can you also handle the heartbreak? Alot of truly tragic events can occur. Nature can be a harsh bitch. Babies die. Mothers die. It is possible for moms to refuse to feed their young, kill their young, eat their young. I read a post once by a breeder who had just a mom with some issues & she not only killer her entire litter but the scene would be appropriate for the worst horror movies... Can you handle that? Could you walk in expecting cute babies and instead have to deal with cleaning a cage full of blood, guts, bones? Can you still handle the mom after that? If the answer is no... then perhaps breeding is not for you.

• Can you make tough decisions?  If a baby is struggling and in pain could you kill it?

• It is an emotional rollercoaster. I dealt with having a runt, she was tiny & every day I expected her to not survive. Several others had litters at the same time as me with runts and all of their runts died. It is heartbreaking, you will fall in love with the sick/injured/hopeless ones the most.

• No matter how lovely, cute, sweet your rat is that doesn't mean it's babies will be anything like that. That is not how breeding works. It isn't cloning lol. It depends on their line- their parents, grandparents just as much. When you breed you are not just mixing what you see the parents have but also what they carry in their lines. Which could be fatal or things that are not good at all. Perhaps their entire line all die young, are prone to tumors, etc... You basically fated that onto the babies. Colors are also not so simple. It is very possible to breed two blues and get blacks! 

• If you do not know their history, then you have no idea what you will get! 

• What if your sweet, loving heart rat dies from complications during pregnancy or labor? Even humans with all of our wonderful expensive doctors can still have issues, complications and death. Are you willing to lose her?

• The babies may be nothing like the rat you own in temperament or personality. We all may understand wanting a piece of your rat to stay alive but that is not a good enough reason. 

• Money? Hahahahahaha...nope. While some may think of rats as inexpensive pets that is very much not true and breeding is going to raise that expensive by alot. But even the very best bred rats are probably going to be sold for less than $35, most by far are going to go for around $10-$15. And you will have people complain that it is still too high. 

• Cages are very expensive. You need a cage(s) for all your pet rats to live. A cage for the male and female to breed. A cage for the mother to give birth and raise her babies. A cage for the young boys to be separated into before they are old enough to be sold. A cage for any rats you keep. A cage for any rats that you can not find homes for, travel cages, etc... And space for all of those cages.

•  High quality food is expensive. Even cheap food adds up when you are feeding alot of rats. Once babies hit 3 weeks old they are eating food. They are growing babies and by the time they are just 4,5,6 weeks old they are eating alot, multiply that by how large a litter you have! You will be shocked at how much food you go through with babies. 

• You will not make money breeding rats responsibly. You may not even make anything breeding irresponsible either. 

• Vet care is expensive for rats. Just getting in the door you are looking at a fairly high fee in most cases. Many times when treating rats you may need to treat the entire colony. Medicine is not cheap and if you have alot of rats it is going to add up. 

Other issues to consider:

1.) Quarantine. This is a very important step in rat care. You will need to bring in new rats and even getting them from responsible sources you should still quarantine them. Do you have a place to do a proper (different air space) quarantine? If not you could put your entire colony at risk and lose all of your lines, risk their health- perhaps making them unsafe to breed.

2.) Space. Rats take up alot of space lol

3.) Time/Energy. I think this is what hits many people. It is hard to really guess how much is really required. And if you have family/work/fun it can be hard to juggle it all. Cleaning takes time, feeding and caring for a large amount of rats takes time, handling babies takes time. It can be alot to deal with. And you really have to be careful to pace yourself. Don't start off with a million different varieties. Start small. It is easy to become overwhelmed.

4.) Money is a huge factor. Food is expensive, cages are expensive. Vets are super expensive.

5.) You have to deal with people. People will need to talk to you in order to sell them rats. You should practice some good business & social practices, replying to people in a quick and polite way for example. You will get alot of people asking you absurd questions, people who are not good homes and you will have to tell them no and perhaps deal with them being upset, people who show 110% interest and then change their mind or disappear at the last minute. Some breeders get known for being not very people friendly lol but it is just because of dealing with some nut jobs out there. Also sometimes there are people who are crazy against breeding and will attack you. There is also some drama in the rat breeder community that you may end up dealing with.

Most breeders at some point will get someone telling them that they shouldn't breed and also someone telling them that they charge too much- even at $10... Be prepared.

6.) Your location vs demand. If you live in a large city it is going to be much easier to find homes but you may have to deal with other breeders as well. But as a breeder you really should be able and willing to travel quite a distance to find homes. Not everyone is going to be able to come to you. And there may be little prospects within your own town. This is something I think alot of people do not consider. But most breeders have to travel some distance to meet buyers. You can charge a gas/travel fee but you also have to realize some people think of rats as cheap pets and don't expect to spend alot.


If you have read through all of this and still want to breed...

1. Step one. Stop and truly think about your reasons why and define your ethics.
IMO this is the most important first step. Is this a whim or is it something true? What is your purpose?

What ethics will you have? This may change overtime as you learn but it is an important thing to consider. Alot will come up and it is better to be prepared.Write it all down as if you were explaining it to someone. It will truly help. I found it helpful to just google rat breeders and read over all of their ethics and policies. What did I agree with? What did I disagree with? And why?

If you can not do this then you are surely not ready to begin.

2. Step two. Start studying genetics. It may seem scary or overwhelming at first but the basics are not that difficult. Start small, learn the very basics- recessive/dominant. Start with your own lines you are interested in.

You should have the very basics understood before you begin.

3. Step Three. Figure out what lines you are interested in, start small. Yes a million different varieties look awesome and you will want them all. But start with like one or two and leave room to grow!

4. Step Four. Join the community and make friends with local breeders. If you can find a mentor that is great though I dont think it is as important these days when you have access to so many people online. But join all the rat breeder groups you can. You will learn a ton just from reading posts but do not be afraid to ask questions.

Also yes find other breeders who live near you and make friends. You will need rats from a breeder to start off with and you will want access to different lines in the future, and in order to get them you will need to be friendly with these people. Many breeders will not just give up rats to just anyone.

5. Step Five. Learn all you can about the actual acts of mating, breeding, all the maternity stuff and sexing.

6. Step Six. Set yourself up as a professional business. Get a website or at the least a facebook page. Business cards are nice. An email address that people can reach you at. Make yourself as professional as possible IMO.


IMO 1-2 years of studying and preparing is a good time frame. Again don't rush.

if you have any questions or where to find good websites or facebook breeder groups feel free to ask!!