This page will be updated soon.

We usually only take in owner surrenders, although we may not always have room, so you will need to contact me to find out who has room, depending on your location. You always have the option to email me, Tami, at rescue@socialrats.com as I am the one who co-ordinates everything. I can check to see if I have a foster in your area and see if they have room, if I do not. Most often, however, they will come to me first for an evaluation to see if they need foster care, by our standards and, if so, I well set them up with the proper foster home.

When you first contact me, I will need to know the following information:
Age
Gender
Name(s) of the rats you need to surrender to us.
I also need to know any health or behavioral issues that they may have now, or in the past.
For females I need to know if she or they are or could be pregnant.
If you can include pictures, this would be helpful as well.
I also like to know WHY you need to rehome your rat(s).
Is the rat aggressive or a fear biter
Is it on meds or has it been in the past?
What you got the rat(s) and how long you have had them?
How many you need to surrender?
If they are hairless or tailless?(There my be special set ups that I have to have ready)
What type of bedding you are using?
What you are feeding them?
What supplies come with them?
If you are willing to travel to the south side of Chicago to drop them off. If we have to pick up, we will have to charge a surrender fee to cover our time and fuel costs.

We need to know how social they are, how much interaction they are getting currently, do they bite or nip through the bars, do they give kisses, anything about them that you can provide would be appreciated.

We reserve the right to refuse to accept a rat, even when we meet them, we reserve the right to take it in, if we feel that you have lied when contacting one of us, we reserve the right to refuse to take them in, even if you drove over 100 miles to bring them to us.

So, best policy, be honest with us. Just because a rat MAY be pregnant or MAY be ill, does not mean we will NOT take them, but this is information we need before taking them in. If they are ill, if we are able to, it would be nice to make arrangements for them to be assessed for medical treatment the day they come into our care.

If they are or may be pregnant, we need to have a special cage ready for them. If I take in a rescue of 4 females and find out after they are here that all 4 of them are pregnant, it may make it hard to find them foster homes so fast, but if I know this before they arrive, I can make arrangements. I can not stress this enough.

We are not here to just dump a rat to, we are here to help find them homes, doing what needs to be done to find them homes, be it help a shy rat trust humans again, or help a mother rat through her litter, or helping a sick rat become healthy again, but we can not do this unless you, the owner, is honest with us about the temperment and condition of the rat.

If you have 20 rats that need to be taken in, a heads up is nice, instead of just showing up saying you need me to take 2 and should up with 10 times this amount. We are willing to help, but we need your honesty to do this.

We are also not here to clean up someone else's mess. If you decide to "rescue" a rat from a pet store or animal show and find that it bites or will not socialize, please do not ask us to clean up your mess. We are here to help ppl and rats in  genuine need, not to clear up after someone else. I have had a few ppl do this to me, including a friend, so I want to make sure that ppl are aware that we are no longer doing this.

The more supplies we get with a rat, the more rats we are able to care for. If you feel that you are not able to care for your rat the way that you should, please contact me now, rather than 3-4 months from now, when the rats has had little human interaction for a few months. This can and will reduce the socialization level and it could take months to get it back.

If you have a mother rats that is pregnant or has babies and you are planning to surrender her as well as the babies, I ask that this is done sooner rather than later, so that I may raise the babies as an experienced breeder. I will make sure that mom is socialized and that the babies are very well socialized. Raising rats in NOT the same as raising hamsters and if you try to raise rats like hamsters, you will be hurting them in the long run. If you have promised some of the babies to friends, please let me know so that I can arrange for your friends to pick them up from me. As long as this information is given when they are surrendered, the adoption fee will be significantly lowered just to cover the cost of food for the baby until it ready to leave it's mom at 5 weeks of age, however this information needs to be given at the time of surrender.

If your rat is aggressive, we may be willing to take it in, as we do now have a couple of fosters willing to work with aggressive rats, however, please keep in mind that if we determine that the aggression is not something that can be dealt with, we may choose to euthanize. You agree that, by surrendering your rat to us, that this is a possibility. If this is not acceptable to you, you can contact Beth with Critter Camp at beth@crittercamp.biz to see if she has room to offer your rat sanctuary. Beth is located in Germantown, IL. She is more willing to work with aggressive rats that have little to no chance of becoming pets.

Please keep in mind when surrendering a rat to us, that we do adopt to families that have young children, as quie a few of our fosters have children or young children in their homes as well, this includes my own home. Please be honest with us about the temperament of the rat as you have had them the longest and can tell us what sets off bad reactions or attacks if aggressive.