Rat Roadhouse

Like many, I did a lot of research before ever breeding my first litter. I asked a ton of questions, which got a lot of people angry that I wanted to breed. At first I thought it was just because they did not want 'competition'. Very few people were willing to explain things. Every point that I made for breeding was quickly slammed before I ever got a chance to explain. Frustrated, angry and hurt I decided to stop asking questions. I read a lot of articles and many of them had the same reasons written as why one should never breed. They all seem to read a lot alike.

The first point is always that breeding is too expensive. You make so little money in compared to what it costs to raise a litter. That did not sound true and just wasn't a good enough deterrent to me. They spoke of their monthly vet bills. With a veterinary background and at the time a vet training me with each situation, I wasn't too concerned. Granted, you have one litter with problems, one emergency spay or anything else goes wrong you are looking at a bill of $100 or more. Sure, you can do things to lessen your chances but illness happens. Yes, there are on going monthly expenses and they can be pretty steep. I don't even want to go in to how much money I spend on bedding alone.

The second point is that you need to truly understand genetics. Again, almost no one wanted to help me learn anything genetics. I did the best I could with the stereo type instructions that I found and decided to just continually learn and study as I went. Again, lessons can be learned the hard way. For example I was striving to get a silver fawn. I did indeed get him. However, I also got seven albino (or PEWs) rats and three agouti-berks (you know that wild looking rat) that no one wanted. Now I know that beautiful fawn is a recessive dilute on the agouti gene. That is just a matter of coloring. That doesn't even touch on temperment, or even more importantly health.

Now I have some real eye-opening reasons that I learned the hard way. So, if you are convinced the other points are weak and are still thinking about breeding, please evaluate this.

Days after rescuing two females I had two litters. I knew it could happen. I tried patting myself on the back saying to myself that I was saving generations of babies from this breed-mill style pet store. What I could never be prepared for was that the first litter died, one by one. I wasn't really worried about the finances when I sat in front of the vet trying not to cry. Bills can always wait, a life can not. What truly devastated me was that dramatic point when I realized that the entire litter was going to die. One by one I tried to save them until they hit what I determined to be the point of no return. The second litter only half survived. While they did not suffer and die, they mysteriously died one by one.

I determined when I got them that the mothers were never going to be bred again. What happened? One of them escaped. She got herself a date and had 16 out of 18 babies survive. They were sweet and wonderful and took me many months to place.

If a litter is bred, you do so with the intention of carrying that line. Sure, any number of reasons can be exposed (even in known and established lines!) that will cause you to have to stop a line (and possibly years of work). Even the most recessive disease can become triggered. So, in a way it is roulette. You can do everything possible to increase the chances in your favors, but defects happen.

Let's look at the first four litters born under my care. One I bred (14 babies), two were born within days of mothers arriving (11 and 13 babies), and one was the late night escape (18 babies). FOUR litters produced a total number of 55 babies. That is an average of about thirteen a litter. Each mother has 12 nipples, so at least ONE baby is going to be displaced. Here comes your first major decision. Do you sit back and let nature take it's course? I mean really, you have more babies than mommy can truly feed by herself. Can you sit back and watch one or more babies not really getting the same amount of nourishment as the rest? It is not even that pretty. Mostly it is everyone not getting enough. So here are your options:

Option one - culling. You choose any number of babies and end their lives before they truly begin. Already you don't know truly what that line has produced because you picked off the weakest babies. You also have to be able to live with yourself and say yes, I knowingly ended the life of a healthy animal. You also have to realize that many people in the fancy will frown heaviliy upon you if you cull.

Option two - you sit back and do nothing. You just peek in twice a day and watch nature take it's course while one or more babies are stunted, dehydrated or worse.

Option three - you interfere. You grab your little emergency kit to start supplementing or feeding one, some or all of those babies. Now you have interfered and don't know whether or not you have a disease that was starting to attack a baby and managed to just postpone it until the baby is older and it is going to be harder on them.

No matter what you do, your single action (or lack of action) has just impacted an entire line. Worse, it has impacted each and every life. When people say breeders are playing God, this is what they mean. To me this is hard decision to deal with. It is even worse knowing that you allowed the rats to breed in the first place.

Next comes placement. All these babies that need homes. Some are quickly snatched up, others are months old and still in your home. They are not getting the attention they deserve because they are not one or two babies being spoiled, they are part of a large colony. The longer it takes to find them a home, the longer in their short life span they manage without being a pampered and spoiled pet.

What's worse is every e-mail you get inquiring about babies. You get some short note and don't get even an inkling who this person is. Do they really want rats? Are they going to be committed to them for life? Are they going to give them the proper care they need? You can ask for references, but what guarantee is that? I get more e-mails saying someone needs to get a home for their pet rat than someone is looking for a pet rat.

A good breeder has a waiting list before a litter is even bred. Even that is shaky because people decide that they don't want to wait and get from a petstore or they just change their mind.

I have learned a lot that I wish I had known before my first litter. However, I know it now. I still breed, but I will do so with far more care and consideration. I was very fortunate to have made a few mentors and friends along the way. Sure, no one ever gave me a secret guidebook, and it took a lot to earn their respect. It is not that breeders don't want the competition, they just want to make sure that someone is not going to breed fifty babies this week and dump them the next when they are overwhelmed.