Where to buy live breeder rats online?

I need to find out where I can buy some live rats to be able to feed my collection a more cost efficient way? Any links or contact info would be appreciated

Rat are everywhere. I'm sure you can find some breeders locally

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Originally Posted by stickyalvinroll

Rat are everywhere. I'm sure you can find some breeders locally

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Not necessarily. It's a two and a half hour drive for me to the nearest place that sells rats, other than the local pet store - which is selling the surplus from what I breed. So that doesn't really count.

I've looked for an online source of live rats, as well, and come up empty.

You could try Big Cheese, Rodentpro, Prefect prey just to name a few. I went with Big Cheese, and I like how they package the rats as they are vacuum sealed.

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there was a Redrum Rattery in Las Vegas last year or the year before that was adopting out rats

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Originally Posted by Jon14

You could try Big Cheese, Rodentpro, Prefect prey just to name a few. I went with Big Cheese, and I like how they package the rats as they are vacuum sealed.

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I'm not sure how well they breed after being vacuum packed, lol :P.

OP - look on Craigslist, a lot of people have pet rats that sometimes breed on accident and the need to find homes for the young. You could also contact some large ball python breeders that have their own colonies, maybe someone would be willing to sell you a pair or two.

Lmao, in my defense I have only a few hours of sleep and missed the live part.

As for buying online, it seems that they need to be picked up at the location. For example, Big Cheese sells live, but they are located in Texas.

You also could try to find a local herp group that has members who breed their own.

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Try your local pet store, or Reptile store. I just went through a period when my girl would not eat, so i tried a live pup, she didn't eat so my daughter drip fed it and now has a pet rat, she didn't want it to get lonely so she bought it a friend at the local reptile store. With another refusal last week we now have 3 baby rats in a rat hotel. Don't laugh all my snakes eat frozen thawed except the one girl. and she will only eat white rats never brown or black, or any with colored heads. She is one picky girl.

Check facebook groups in your state as well; there's usually at least one rat group per state that either focuses on feeders or at least allows them alongside pet stock. My original founder rats are from a dual purpose colony like this.

If you don't have any local rat breeders and I were in your shoes...I would drive a few hours to buy foundation stock and breed my own. Which is what I do now. Where I lived before this place there were NO live feeders nearby, not stores or hobbyists. I started breeding my own rats so I would always have easy access to quality snake food at the time I needed it no matter where I l lived. You can shrink and grow your colony as needed.


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It will never be cost efficient to ship live rats versus driving them. This is because (as mammals) rats must be shipped the same way that a puppy would be, except in a special shipping cage so they can't chew out and with health certificates as well. So online LIVE rat sales usually just refers to ads online but you still pick up the rats in person.

If you have a local reptile club or even a semi-local facebook type group, you might be able to find a semi-local source for rats. If you start out with even the lousiest live rats from any petstore or feeder breeder, you can usually breed up a colony, then start culling for undesirable traits and get your colony shaped into a good one.

I have a great supplier of live rats semi-locally, within 45 minutes drive. I was driving each Monday when I was off work but I do have a colony and now they're breeding better so I'm only going every 2-3 weeks.