buying pet rats

Question
Hello again Sandra,
Two of my husband's female rats passed away within a week of each other a little over 2 months ago...His third, olive is doing great although she does seem to be slowing down a little bit..(the vet says she's very healthy)She's just over 2 years old...The other two were just under 2 when they died..Everyone says not to buy rats from pet stores, my question is why?

Answer


There a few reasons why its not good to buy from pet stores and a few reasons why it can be good, too.


For starters, (this doesnt apply to every pet store, esp ones that are privately owned) some pet stores, esp large chains, will have a tank of rats sold as feeders for snakes and large lizards. They are usually white or black or brown.  In another area of the store they will have a tank of rats that are more fancy, such as having a white body and a black hood or a solid gray one that they refer to as BLUE rats. They refer to them as fancy rats or pet rats. Truth is, they are related to the poor little rats left in the feeder tanks, and the store owners picked out the more interesting looking rats and plopped them in the pet rat tank. No difference at all in rats. The bigger problem is, they were bred at a huge breeder mill that does not care about the health of the rat, has no idea about their back grounds etc... so you have no clue what your getting. You could be getting a rat that comes from a line of rats that are prone to illness, cancers, even aggression.  They also do not take care in keeping males from females, often sending a female home to someone that is pregnant.  The pet store employees are also pretty clueless about rat care. Lets face it, they are often teenagers who work just to pay for their car insurance and gasoline for their car and do not really know one thing about the animals they are supposed to know about...it cracks me up when I go in these large stores and their tags say SMALL ANIMAL SPECIALIST.  They dont even know rats can get pregnant at 5 to 6 weeks old and keep the males and females together until they are a few months old, again, resulting in the new rat owner taking home a pregnant rat.  They also are clueless about their care, pushing litter like pine or cedar or corn cob to use on the rats cage which are very dangerous to their health. They also sell you seed mixes for rats and mice, not knowing they are the worst types of foods to use.  I can go on and on. Also, I do not believe in live feeding either. its cruel and it is far from being NATURAL since snakes like to hunt their food, not have it handed to them. I believe in using humanely pre killed frozen instead, and most vets agree this is better esp because the snake may not eat and the rat ends up going crazy on the snake, killing the snake. Yes it happens alot more than you know!  

...... So this is why its not always good....but on the other hand, some small privately owned pet stores take great pride in the little critters they sell, often breeding them carefully at the store, having the parents on premises, knowing about their genetics etc... and know alot about proper care.  Sad thing is, this is not real common and small stores like this struggle to stay in business, esp they way the economy is now.

I also prefer to check shelters and the dog pound, but again your taking the chance that these rats are not healthy, so it depends on what you are prepared for. Some people want to rescue the rats regardless and I can see their point, I have done it many times, from rescuing lab rats that were going to be put to sleep and even finding two great older boys from the dog pound nobody wanted because they were fully grown, and they lived to be 3.5 years and 4 years of age!


I have had many rats over the years: pet store rats, both large chain and small privately owned stores, rescues, dog pound rats and rats from so called reputable breeders that have a hobby rattery.  I have used breeders three times. The first time the boys were awesome and were healthy and lived to be over 2.5 years old. The second time, the breeder, who claimed she was the best in the south, sold me four boys. Two were aggressive and needed neutered right away, and also one of the aggressive boys had not one but two masses on him that needed removed, and they were benign tumors.  The other two boys were healthy.  Two of them died before reaching two years old and the other two lived to be 2.5 years old and the last of that litter left me this past June, breaking my heart, since he was the last of all of my rats. He was 2 years and 9 months old.
I have three new babies now and they came from a breeder who really knows his stuff. They are friendly and social and in fact were carried around by young teenagers since they were born which makes them super social. The breeder I used, Carolina blue rattery, has a fantastic reputation and only breeds a few times a year and doesnt use the same female over and overl ike some places do. Its not fair to use the same female to have babies over and over, or she will spend her entire life having babies. Not good.

However, I love them all, and I do not regret the fact I bought some not so healthy rats that lived a short time, as long as they were happy and had a good life, short or long, that is what matters.  I do strongly suggest before you get a rat that you do a few things first. (not for you since I see your rats have a vet etc...) but I always suggest to rat owners to be sure they have a vet that is very knowledgeable about rat care and surgery, which can usually be found in vets that are either exotic certified OR have a strong interest in exotics and have gone the extra mile to attend exotic mammal work shops and seminars to keep up to date on exotic mammal health care.  Also be prepared to spend some money. If the females remain intact, prepare for mammary tumors to pop up any time after menopause, around 18 months, sometimes a bit younger or sometimes a bit older. Also an intact female may develop a nasty uterine infection, prolapsed uterus and vaginal bleeding, so spaying is one of the first things that should be done before the rat is 6 months of age, ideally around 4 or 5 months is best.  Also, rats are prone to respiratory infections and this can be prevented to the best of the owners ability by following the few steps such as keeping the rats litter clean, not using pine or cedar bedding, keeping powders, sprays, candles, cigarette smoke away from the rats.   Kidney and heart disease are common killers in older rats and this is best avoided by proper diet and staying away from high protein and high fats, found the most in the lousy seed mixes that pet stores push on rat owners.  If the rat owner becomes educated in rat care and reads up on how to prevent certain ailments from taking hold of your rats life, no matter where the rat comes from, you can provide them with the best care possible and can make a huge difference in their health simply by the way you take care of them.