About the Rattery
We have been breeding rats for about 3
years,
however we have owned and loved them for many years. We like
to keep as low a number of rats as possible, because more rats means less time
for each rat. That is why we will occasionally have retired ratties up for
adoption. Below you will find out more information about the rattery and how we
raise and care for our rats!
How
we choose our breeding stock
We only breed rats that are healthy
and have good temperaments in hopes that they will be passed on to the babies
and they almost always are. How do we define good health and temperament? Easy,
we want a rat that is friendly, loving, stays close by and doesn't run off, a rat
this isn't jumpy or skittish, a rat that you can take anywhere with you. Health
is mostly by observation, we are not going to breed a rat this is constantly
sneezing or has porphyrin stained eyes or nose! We will look at their parents
and research their
pedigree to make sure they are from a tumor free, healthy, well tempered line.
How
we raise our babies
We handle the babies everyday from day 1,
this makes them more accepting to humans and more friendlier, we also introduce
them to various sounds, tastes, animals, people etc. We have 6 people in our
household so needless to say the babies get over socialized! Because we handle
the babies so much, they learn early on not to piddle or poo on people, and they
won't as long as you don't keep them out to long ;) Babies are born in my room, then
when they reach 2 weeks I move them into a bigger cage and into the living room
where they are surrounded by the sounds and sites of every day life. We allow babies to go to there new homes around 5-6 weeks and no earlier.
Housings
Currently our rattery consists of
4 main cages, 2 are
for girls and 2 are for the boys, we also have many small and medium cages for pregnant/nursing
moms, for when the babies get bigger, emergencies, etc. The cages
we use are either Martin cages or our home made cages. Each cage has a hammock
and lots of toys.
We only use Kaytee Aspen bedding for our rats
litter pans and highly recommend it.
Diet
Our rats main diet is
Mazuri Lab Blocks, they also get fresh/frozen fruits/veggies, oatmeal, home made
grain mix
and many other things weekly as well as treats, got to have those! Pregnant and
nursing does are feed a diet higher in protein.
No rat mill!
We do
not over breed our girls, most girls have an average of 1-3 litters then they
are retired. We usually breed 1-2 does at a time and then if there is interest
in other litter we will wait till those babies are 3-4 weeks old to place
another pair together, that way when they are born the other litter will be in
there new homes and we won't be juggling several litters. We feel it is very
important to do that so each litter gets the most handling as possible, we spend
a LOT of time with each baby from each litter and it shows! We simply do not breed rats to sell,
we breed
them to better the rats themselves for future generations.
When
you get a rat from us, you get...
Well first of all you get us for life, any questions or
concerns we are here to help! We
will also provide a care packet, info on quarantine, pedigree, pictures of
parents and food they are currently on. If you are getting a hairless or double
rex we will provide a care sheet for them as well.
Our main goal is to provide people with an affectionate, loving, well tempered, healthy rat, truly :)
About the Owners
We are located in Elk Grove, California (about
20 mins south of Sacramento) The 2 people who mainly run the
rattery is *me* Sandy and my mom Tina. *I* (Sandy) am in charge of the web page.
We have enjoyed the companionship of
ratties for many years and just love them.
I am home schooled which I just love, it gives
me much more time with my animals! In addition to the rats we have: Several dogs
(German Shepherds, 1 Great Dane), 2 cats and a cockatiel. I do
different sports with my dogs, which I really enjoy doing, I am working on titling
1 in AKC obedience and working on starting one in threapy work for the elderly. I love
the German Shepherd breed :)
I also enjoy making web pages, watching movies, listening to music, watching TV
especially BtVS, singing, acting, the internet, training my dogs, reading, learning as much as I can
about rat genetics as well as German Shepherd genetics and many other things!
My mom owns an antique shop in Downtown Sacramento and I work there on the weekends and almost always bring an animal with me. I love to bring the rats to show people what wonderful pets they make :)