Our Breeding Program and how it works

This will give you a chance to meet our own rats, not rats up for adoption. Keeping in mind we are a rattery that takes in rescues and helps coordinate a pet rat rescue network, we are a rattery first. Although we will not breed if we do not have room for all of the babies, if we can not afford to take in rescues, we will either not take them in, or will work to coordinate a foster to take them in as soon as quarentine is finished rather then keeping them here. This is one of 2 pages dedicated to our rats, but not all of the rats seen on these pages are in our breeding program. We chose our rats to breed by the following conditions and in this order.

#1 - Temperment. If we do not find a rat to have a good temperment, including intelligence, then it is not even a canidate to be in our breeding program. As temperment is easiest to determine, and the most inexpensive, we chose this as our first starting point. Please do not think that if a rat has a good temperment that it is then granted access to be bred, as this is not the case, but only the first thing we look at in determining if a rat is suitable to be a part of our program.

#2 - Health. Once we have determined that a rat has a good temperment, now we look at health. Are they know to carry any type of genetic disorder? If we discover they do, they are immediately removed from our program and retired, but will live out a life here, as a much beloved pet. Do they have a history of things like URIs or any other recurring health issues? If so, they are either not admitted to the breeding program or they are removed as soon as it is discovered. Do we vet check and Xray and have genetic testing done on all of our breeders before breeding? No, we do not, if we find no reason to have tests like this done on a rat, then we do not. We do not breed for show quality, we breed for loving pets. Tests like this could cost hundreds of dollars per rat and it would not be economical to do this for a pet that has a life expectancy of 2-3 years. To keep our costs down, we do not have unneeded tests and possibly invasive or painful tests performed on our rats.

#3 - Color and Markings. Once a rat has been determined to be of good temperment and in good health, we then evaluate color, markings and genes that the rat carries. If we find a rat that has a more unusual color, ect, then we may center things more around that rat and/or the genes that it carries. This is especially true for our boys, who we can breed more often than our girls. Currently we are working with our more unusual markings and colors, like our blues, himalayans and dumbos. As I find that these are currently more in demand than your more common rats, such as a black hooded, they have a better chance,not only of finding a home, but maybe turning someone who is not crazy abotu rats into a bonafide rat lover. Our goal is not just to help ppl find loving pets, but also to help educate the public as to the loving wonderful pets that rats can be. Most small furries do not come when called by name, but rats can be trained to do this, which is why we also look at the intelligence of a rat when we look at temperment.

If you are looking for a rat that is more on the unusual side, just let us know by sending an email to adoptions@socialrats.com with the subject line "Looking for a (insert color or marking here)" i.e. "Looking for a Blue Dumbo", this tells me that you want to be put on a waiting list, so I know that as soon as we have a rat that matches your request I can contact you and let you know. I will contact you with either a rat we bred or when a rescue comes in that matches what you are looking for with all of the information we have for it, unless you specify an age range and gender. Please include in the body of the email your contact information, what size cage you will be using, food you will be feeding and if you are a first time rat owner or, if not, how long you have owned rats in the past. This will help get the application process out of the way so when I do have a rat(s) that meets your requirements, we can set up an adoption quickly to get the ratty into your home and you can start spending time with your new friend.

Our guarentee - If you have any questions before adopting, or anytime afterwards (for the lifetime of your rats) feel free to contact me at adoptions@socialrats.com and I will do the best I can to offer help in the matter. We will also, no matter the situation, take back any rats that we adopt out. Just give us a call or email, let me know what's going on and we can set up a time for you to drop the rat back off. No hassles, no arguements. Just let me know what's going on and that you need to bring the rats back and I will more than gladly take them back in and find them a new home. We also offer a no bite guarentee as well. I am not talking about nips through the bars as this is just a normal thing for rats, especially if someone feeds treats or food through the bars, it will cause the rat to associate something coming through the bars with good food, which will cause the rats to nip or bite through the bars expecting it to be food. We do not feed through the bars and we do tend to put our fingers through the bars here so they do associate something coming through the bars with fingers and this can be continued easily once they come home with you. This is especially important training to keep up with if you have children under 12 in the home or adults who like to stick their fingers in the cages. I am a bad one with sticking fingers in the cages, so I make sure all of them here are used to it and when you take them home they will have been trained for this, so you will need to make sure you keep up with this training, which is easy, just stick your fingers through the bars on a daily basis.

Any questions or comments about or beliefs that are behind our rattery/rescue or about training, or just in general, feel free to email me at adoptions@socialrats.com

Thank you

Tami
Social Rats Rattery and Social Rats Adoption and Rescue.