Selling or rehoming fancy rats.

Question
QUESTION: So I'm trying to sell my rats as fancy rats. Where can I sell them so they will most likely be taken care of as pets. I want to keep it local about a 50 mile area from Anadarko Oklahoma. Also where they would sale in a timely manner for a decent price. I have 3 females 2 males. I have them on Craigslist with the females being 10$ each and the males being 8$ each... Is there a better to put them up where they will sale as fancy rats for around that price or more???

ANSWER: Dear Jeannie,

Are you rehoming your pet rats, or trying to make money from breeding?

Breeding fancy rats should be left up to trained, educated, and mentored breeders. If you do not start with breeder stock with known pedigree, and have a firm control of genetics, with the goal of bettering every line you work on, and have a mentor to guide you around pitfalls, you are doing the rats of the world a disfavor. Shelters and rescues are absolutely brimming with wonderful both bred and pet store rats. If someone wants a rat without a pedigree, they should go to a shelter. There are so many sweet and loving rats waiting for homes. Breeding unpedigreed rats adds to this rat overpopulation.

The only way to breed ethically is to have the education and knowledge to improve genetics, because non pedigree breeders, from backyard breeders to rat mills, do nothing but reduce quality in the rat population. Breeding pedigreed rats is the only way to improve the genetics of the species.

There is no way to breed ethically and make money. It costs far too much to keep rats in a healthy situation than you can ask for. Breeders breed as a hobby. A very expensive and time- consuming hobby.

An ethical breeder also already has homes waiting for most of a litter before the parents are paired.

I have a rat site on Facebook Rats are Awesome, and when a member shows an interest in breeding, I can set them up with an experienced breeder to discuss the many aspects of ethical breeding. You may join and ask for a 'Pre-mentor.'

If you are trying to rehome your pets, it is ok to ask for an adoption fee of more than the price of feeders in your area. Of course if you end up using a shelter, you cannot ask for a price. The best thing to do may be to put up a beautiful flyer in a couple of places, such as the library, with photos and a description of what good pets they make. You must rehome them in pairs or triplets-- if someone wants one girl alone, they must already have females. The other two must go together. You also have the responsibility to explain to the new owner that they need a large wire cage, rat blocks to eat, and hammocks,

If you love rats, please take this seriously. Do not add to the world already full of unhomed and deserving rats.

Squeaks,

Natasha

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Well these are rats that I'm trying to regime ... I ordered some from a pet store because they didn't keep feeders or fancys and I had them order two males and I ended up with one female one male... And a nonrefundable payment... And I decided that since one of my males was older I would go ahead and get a baby from him... Well my boyfriend separated them when I was gone and he made a mistake and put one of them in with another male, not the daddy or the brother... Well I sold the other ones from the first litter and the other girl had gotten pregnant and and I knew it so I didn't want to burden anyone with them... Well I couldn't make myself sell them to pet store... But I have ten and I can't deal with that many... And I put them up for sale on Craigslist and yeah hopeing for the best...

Answer
Dear Jeannie,

You now have ten lives in your hands, completely dependent on you. Ten sweet, smart, affectionate, deserving little lives.

If you can sell the rats, the way to make sure they are pets is to ask for more than a fancy rat would cost. But please, if they don't sell, the answer is not to lower the price. The answer is to decide that their individual lives are worth more than $10, and do what it takes to rehome them, whether with friends, or through a shelter.  Trying to make money off of them is not as important as making sure they get loving forever homes.

There is a service called kijiji as well, though I am not positive it is in the US. You can Google it. There are also national pet placement websites. Petrinder.com is one- i am not sure it is still in use.

If you tell me where you are, I can help you to find shelters and rescues in your area. They may have ideas about adopters or at least fosters. If you send me photos-- even better, post them on Facebook on my group Rats are Awesome, friend me,  and tell me who you are-- I may be able to find them homes through my group. That would be 99% guaranteed pet owners (someone might slip through the cracks) and you would not receive any money.

If I get better info about petfinder/kijiji etc I will amend this answer. You would get a notification.

Find me on Facebook. I am the only Natasha Millikan on there.

Squeaks,

Natasha