females, and sell the males. They said that they have fancy-eared, dumbos, rex, and hairless in a variety of colors and that they could sell me adults for 10 dollars each. That is far more variety than i expected to have a choice from, and I'm going to have trouble choosing, but I'm beyond excited!

 

Is there anything I should look out for health or behavior wise in the rats I choose?

 

I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that you're probably looking at a careless BYB. All domestic rats are known as 'fancy'. The opposite of 'dumbo' eared is 'standard' eared.
If they never sell their females, it sounds like they're keeping them as baby machines, and $10 sounds oddly low.
You're probably going to end up with rats that will be just as healthy as pet-store rats.
Does this person have a website or any credentials otherwise?

 

They actually said "top-eared", I just said fancy. I'm new to the rat thing. I will have to ask them. I don't know where else to go if this is a BYB. Rats aren't too popular here and I already have to drive 2 hours to the nearest pet store and that breeder.

 

I'd ask to see their facilities before you purchase any rats from them. I have to agree with A.ngelF.eatehrs on this one, the whole only males thing sounds awful shady.

A good breeder should have pedigrees, vet records, and should be registered with the major rat organizations. Oh, and most breeders only sell babies (6 weeks is normal) the only adults they have should be the breeders or personal pets.

I remember reading on another forum a while back that a man set up a breeding operation in his home town, he bashed PetSmart/PetCo saying their rats were unhealthy and inbreed (all true) and that his rats were breed for health and temperament. Long story short he would go to the neighboring town's pet store and buy litters of feeder rats for something like $5 each and then resell them himself for $40. The horrors of BYB.

I'm going to be adopting two new girls from this breeder when she plans her next litter, you can check out her site to see if your breeder is up to snuff: My Breeder's Link
In their FAQ section #15 they say what to look for in a breeder.

I'm not trying to be mean or tear your dreams down by any accounts, but I know there are a lot of people who pass themselves off as respectable breeders when all they care about is making a quick buck. Make sure you're getting the healthy, well bred rats you are paying for.

 

I'm not trying to be mean or tear your dreams down by any accounts, but I know there are a lot of people who pass themselves off as respectable breeders when all they care about is making a quick buck. Make sure you're getting the healthy, well bred rats you are paying for.

I'm not trying to discourage you either, because a responsible breeder really is the way to go. But I would hate for you to think that you're going to get rats that are healthy and well socialized, then end up with rats that are the same 'quality' as those from a petstore.

 

I am going to echo everything said here!

 

Don't worry, I'm grateful for your input. And I'm going to interogate this person a bit more, and the likelyhood of me buying from them is really low. I guess I'll keep looking. It's just kind of tough to find anything, seeing as we live in an isolated rural town 2 hours from any real civilization. And being a high school student, it's hard to convince my parents to go any further for rats. But I'll keep looking.

 

No offense Caroline, but your breeder has come under a lot of negative notice, for her practices and abandonment of her rats/adopters and a lot of her rats getting tumours reported by her adopters.

 

Really? D:
I formed a rather high opinion of that breeder. What a let down.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I've read that she has bred large quantities of rats to be used in school experiments. I can't seem to find where the webpage is now, so I can't completely sure of it.

 

maybe its different in Australia? I have gotten all four of my rats from a local pet store (three living, one passed naturally at the grand age of two and a half). yes, the rats are kept in small cages but they were clean, well fed and sociable. one day i went in to say hi and noticed one of the females had porphyrin on one eye. I mentioned it and they tended to her immediately. next time I went back she was sold!! where do pet stores get their rats from? when I asked at my local they said "their breeder" but what does that mean? have I just gotten very lucky? the boys i have now are great, happy little muffins that are tearing up their cage as i type.

 

Pet stores get their rats from mills, usually - horrible, barren warehouses crammed full with racks and racks and racks of tiny, filthy breeding boxes filled with pine shavings. There are usually multiple rats - mothers with litters and a breeding male in each box. Moms are impregnated while already nursing a litter. They are bred back to back until their little bodies can't take it any more. They are fed through bars in the top of the box. They are not handled and their cages are very rarely cleaned. It's not uncommon for a deceased rat to spend days in a breeder bin before they are discovered and removed. Babies are usually taken from their mothers around 3 weeks and shipped off to a pet store to sell. No thought is put into genetics or lineage - the rats are extremely inbred and bad traits (such as aggression, cancer, high white markings, etc.) are let multiply. It's a sick operation that is only concerned with maximizing profit, not animal welfare.

This post contains photographs from a rat mill. The mill in question is actually one of the better ones you'll find out there (although still horrifying). They get much, much worse.

The ones who don't buy from mills usually get them from what they'd call a "local breeder" or they breed their own - basically a small scale rat mill. Anyone who is selling their rats to a pet store is not someone that should be considered a "breeder". Breeders will have an application process to screen out potential adopters and they will continue to keep contact with those who do adopt. Selling rats to a pet store makes this impossible - anyone can walk in, buy a rat, and do whatever they want with it. It doesn't matter how much the store owners try to sugar coat it.

 

Oh dear. Those pictures are very upsetting. Basically, it's like buying a dog from a puppy farm then.

 

More or less.

 

What's a BYB?

 

BackYard Breeder-your basic irresponsible house breeder. This stuff is so sad to think about. I love my two adopted ratters (they probably came from mills too but their former owner must have loved them quite a bit, just had to move elsewhere).