You want to avoid any
breeder/rattery that...
-
Lets you into their
rattery area without asking when was the last
time you had contact with your own or any
other rats.
Some breeders may even request you take
special precautions before visiting, they may
limit where you are ale to go in their home,
or they may ask to meet you somewhere close to
their home. This is ok ONLY if the breeder can
offer you valid reasons for doing so, and can
offer some other reasonable method of
accurately representing their rattery
conditions to you (such as pictures, video,
etc).
-
Didn't screen or grill
you at all for the adoption of a baby.
They just let you reserve one because
you wanted one. This includes asking about
current rats, caging, diet, quarantine, vet
care, etc.
-
Transports (to an
off-site meeting or pickup) rats in a
mixed-sex group.
Female rats can get pregnant by males over 5
weeks of age by the age of only 3.5 weeks.
This is why litters are separated by the time
they are 5 weeks old. Young females (any age)
kept with older males is unacceptable.
-
Uses no adoption
contract of any sort.
They just take your money, hand you a rat, and
you could be using it to breed feeders - or AS
a feeder - and they don't know – or care! A
good breeder would never let their rats go
this way.
-
Won’t show you a
pedigree (or more information on the parents
and ancestors) beforehand, or
won’t offer one at the time of sale.
It’s very unlikely you will get one
following the adoption, if you weren’t able
to get one initially. You want to make sure
that the breeder is breeding what they say
they are, and while pedigrees can be
falsified, a full pedigree more often than not
ensures that a breeder is paying attention to
what they are doing, and isn’t breeding
un-pedigreed or pet store rats.
-
Changes pricing often.
Or tells you one thing and then says
something else. Unless the price is lower the
second time, this is a serious red flag.
-
Can’t refer you to a
good local rat vet.
If they don’t know of one
themselves, chances are they don’t seek
veterinary care for their rats.
-
Doesn’t offer
contact information other than e-mail after an
adoption.
An adopter should be able to get a hold of the
original breeder by some means other than
e-mail. E-mail addresses change, get deleted,
etc, so secondary contact information such as
an address and phone number is essential.
Having only an e-mail address prior to
adoption is somewhat standard practice, but
not afterwards.
-
Seems to have little
knowledge or interest in rats as pets.
This really signifies someone is breeding for
numbers, either for sale at pet stores or as
feeders, not for the joy of having rats or the
well being of the rats themselves.
-
Keeps rats in
inadequate caging.
Aquariums as long-term housing are inadequate
(they hold so few rats and have such lousy
ventilation) and any rats kept in Rubbermaid
or Sterlite containers long-term is an even
bigger flag. Such caging for ill or nursing
rats is fine, but all other rats should be
housed in appropriate sized wire cages.
-
Keeps their rats on
bad beddings.
Avoid breeders who use materials such as cedar, pine, or
torn-up newsprint or if the bedding is dirty or the smell strong.
Good breeders should be knowledgeable about
what is appropriate for use with rats,
and should also keep their cages clean and
well maintained.
-
Doesn’t feed their
rats appropriate food.
Examples are feeding food intended
for another species, such as hamster or gerbil
food, and even in some cases, livestock feed.
The “gold standard” rat food is lab
blocks, and while some breeders do
successfully use their own food mixes they mix
themselves, if a breeder is not feeding lab
blocks as the primary diet, you should find
out what they are feeding, and why, as well as
any credentials they have that support the use
of such a diet.
-
Has a lot of sneezing
and wheezing from animals who don't look old.
Sometimes older rats may experience
scarring of their respiratory systems, and as
such can seem “stuffy” or sneezy, this can
be normal, but too many rats sneezing,
especially young rats, is a HUGE cause for
concern. It could signify poor husbandry, or a
virus infection such as SDA.
-
Can't name/doesn't
know all of their rats.
It is very bad if a breeder doesn't even know
his or her own stock well enough to say who
they are at a glance... how do they know they
are breeding well-tempered and healthy animals
if they don't know them well enough to
recognize them at first glace?
-
Has rats with lice,
mites or any other parasites that are visible
in the fur.
Sometimes this happens, but the breeder should
have already brought it up, warned you, and
probably given you some ivermectin to take
home with you. Bad scabs or scratches around
the head and shoulders can also indicate
parasites such as mites.
-
Has many rats are
bony, thin, puffy or dehydrated.
A few sick or elderly animals are one thing,
however having a lot of rats who look ill is a
huge red flag.
-
Has no older rats or
retired breeders.
Breeders can’t know the long-term health of
their breeding program if they are not
watching their breeding rats into old age.
-
Keeps many rats
off-site.
If the breeder has more rats than they have
room for or can properly care for, that’s a
bad thing!
-
Doesn’t handle the
rats appropriately.
Will pick them up by tails, etc,
acting overly cautious about handling some
rats – some rats do have temperament
problems, but if that is the case, they
typically should not have been bred.
-
Breeding more than 3
litters at once.
Or has more than about 12 litters per
year. Even 12 litters in a year is a lot, but
much over that number, and it’s next to
impossible to properly handle and socialize
all of the babies, especially considering that
most breeders also have other full time jobs
(even those who are “stay at home moms”
have full time jobs watching their kids!).
It’s also hard for “most” breeders to
place that many babies. This is especially
true if the breeder is in an area with more
than a couple other breeders. A majority
probably end up a pet stores.
-
Has too many seemingly
“small” litters.
Sometimes small litters do happen, but more
than a couple in the course of a year is
somewhat unusual. If the litter appears to be
all one color, marking, or ear type other than
what the parents are, this is also suspect..
for example a litter of just a few dumbos from
two carrier (standard eared) parents could be
a cause for concern.
-
Breeds more than 2
species of animals at the same time.
It's very hard to do a spectacular job caring
just for rats – add breeding colonies of
guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, spiny mice,
fancy mice, rabbits, etc... and it becomes
very difficult to pay proper attention to any
of them or keeping track of the genetics.
Having several other species as pets is not
generally a concern; many ratteries do have
dogs or cats in the house, and occasionally
other small pets as well.
-
Constantly has new rats coming in
(or other small animals).
It's hard enough to quarantine normally only
bringing in new rats a few times a year; you
should be leery of breeders who have a lot
of new rats coming in every few months or
even more often. This greatly increases the
odds that a rattery could be harboring an
asymptomatic infection of some kind, such as
SDA, that could possibly be missed with a
standard 3 week quarantine.
-
Is also a rescue.
Rescues are generally wonderful but they are
exposed to many more illnesses and parasites
than a normal rattery getting new stock only
once or twice a year would be. Rescuing and
breeding can also be somewhat of a conflict
of interest. They are not mutually
exclusive, but are very difficult to manage
together.
-
Doesn’t list much
information about their rats.
They just have a picture and a name
on their website. Some information about
health and temperament is essential, and a
pedigree is nice, but most good breeders who
don’t offer pedigrees online are happy to
share one via e-mail, so don’t be afraid to
ask if you don’t see it.
-
Puts their own rattery
initials on pet store rats.
Or rats who otherwise have no known
ancestry (this includes rescues, etc) or
adopts many rats from breeders that no one is
aware of, or doesn’t describe where rats
with unknown initials come from.
-
Will place rats for
breeding to anyone who wants them.
They have little regard for what will
happen to the rats or to their offspring –
good breeders breed to improve their rats, and
are very particular about where breeding rats
end up.
If any breeder you are
considering adopting rats from meets more than a
couple of the "red flags" on this list
you should seriously question their motives for
breeding or specifically address the items which
cause you concern.
