Where do you get rats to start your colony?

I'm looking to get 1.2 rats to start my own small little colony and I was just wondering where do you guys get your rats? Do you get them from the same place you get your live feeders? Do you get them from shows? How about pet stores?

I'm going to the Daytona Show and was thinking I might be able to pick up some good rats there, but if that isn't an option I might just get them from my local pet store since they breed their own rats.

I started my colony from a number of different places. All of my rats are from feeder rat stock from private breeders and reptile stores. I bought a bunch of weaned rats and raised them up myself to adulthood.

a friend of mine that works at a pet store, she had to get rid of her pet rats...she even included some cages. totally lucked out. couple free other ones online, with cages....I'm pushing 3:11 now. My only cost has been food and bedding...same friend even gave me two "female" bps for free, and the other guy that works at the same pet store, is giving me a free bp Monday. So, I will be getting my quarantine room ready again...lol. Free is key ;-)

I like the idea of getting weaned rats and raising them up myself. How long after being weaned does it take for them to breed? What kind of food do you feed your rats?

6 months

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I have this "rat chow" 50 pound bag. I give them odd treats here and there, veggies and fruit.

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Originally Posted by missriss2012

I like the idea of getting weaned rats and raising them up myself. How long after being weaned does it take for them to breed? What kind of food do you feed your rats?

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They can technically start breed at 5 weeks of age. But I haven't seen any rats that young display any breeding behaviors. I start breeding my rats at around 5+ months of age depending on their size and gender. Then I retire them to my big pet cage after a year of breeding and/or until the litter size drops significantly.



I use Mazuri 6F Rodent Breeder food.

Mazuri is good food too. Ours also get fruit and veggie treats. We also raised ours up from weanlings. They are sweet little buggers.

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I get mine from other breeders, rat rescues (two pets, males that I did breed), and pet stores that I trust. I brought home a rat one time that had the 24 hour flu and 10 of my 13 rats died within 2 days. It was terrible! That's one thing you have to know when you are breeding and be really careful about what you are bringing home. I would definitely quarantine for a couple days just in case that particular rat has the flu. Some can carry it and not show signs, but at least you tried to keep your colony safe.

I got mine as weanlings from a few pet stores in June. Yesterday one of my females had her first litter(11 or 12) and the other two will be having there's soon too. I wanted to get pet quality rats and not just the normal albinos and black hooded rats you see. I ended up getting two female Himalayan dumbos with red eyes, a red eyed hairless male, and a grey and white female who has somewhat longish fluffy hair. I'm pleased with the foundation of genetics I'm starting out with.

I bought a couple that I thought were cool looking as smalls from petco (I know I know) but raised them up and they both dropped their first litters this past month. The rest of mine I bought from a local breeder who comes highly recommended from a few people here on the forum. I feed mazuri rodent breeder. I get 50lbs for $35 shipped. It takes me about 3 weeks to go through half of that.

Personally, I got 1 albino,1 hairless, 1 agouti, 1 berkshire, and 1 fawn hooded (all female) as a package deal on craigslist, and went to petsmart to get my male because those rats are generally pretty sweet and a genetic grab bag which I find awesome. I managed to produce some blues which I thought was pretty cool, and ive been eying up a male rex they have right now haha. I dont like the idea of breeding predestined feeders because some people just dont care if they have aggression in their lines. Rats that are aggressive dont make it in pet stores. Their goal is to keep and sell rats that are good with people. My albino female was slightly aggressive, and I think the fathers friendly disposition kind of evened out the single albino female that was produced from the pairing. I decided to hold her back because of how sweet she turned out to be. So pet store gets my vote. Well, more pet rats.

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Originally Posted by Riv

I dont like the idea of breeding predestined feeders because some people just dont care if they have aggression in their lines. Rats that are aggressive dont make it in pet stores. Their goal is to keep and sell rats that are good with people. My albino female was slightly aggressive, and I think the fathers friendly disposition kind of evened out the single albino female that was produced from the pairing. I decided to hold her back because of how sweet she turned out to be. So pet store gets my vote. Well, more pet rats.

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Norway rats generally have sweet dispositions as a species. There are exceptions of course, but aggressive rats are pretty rare. That's why they're recommended as a beginner children's pet (feeder or not).
And just so you know, most petstore rats are of feeder rat lines....
No professional rat breeder is going to sell their pedigree rats to a petstore. Just a plain top eared black hooded pedigree rat can fetch $25+ alone. A petstore wouldn't be able to afford that when they're selling rats for ~$10.

And no body wants to breed aggressive feeder rats intentionally. That means potential harm coming to the animals that eat live feeders.

I've built my colony from a couple of sources. I got my original breeding group from another local member on here. Another group started as store-bought live feeders that were refused. I put them (2 females) into a tank and after a week, introduced one of the male weaned rats from the original colony. From there, I have built another colony from offspring of the two. I picked up some more females last weekend from the local member I got my first colony from, so I'm mixing up the genetic lines as much as I can...

And as someone else said, most of the "pet" rats you see in stores start out as feeder rats. They'll get a batch of feeders, pick a few cute ones to separate as pets. Those rats will get a lot of handling to get used to hands in the tank, then they're put in displays and sold as pets.

Ive been so nieve...I mean when I think about yeah, yeah of cpurse thwy would be from feeder lines. XDD. My first experience with feeder rats from a friend of my dads, and his lines were terrible. He went the all albino route and all of them were pretty bitey. So when I think feeder rats thats the image that comes to mind. When I got into snakes I went right to frozen thawed and then to breeding my own "pet rats" which I had a associated as nicer. But youre right. They probably mass produce, sell the uglies as feedes and the cute ones as pets. Jeeze. Mind blown @_@

i got my male from petco and my 2 females came from a local breeder.

haha I have two suppliers. One of which I order 25 medium lives from a week. Usually he gives me all males but sometimes he runs out of males and slips a few females in. I keep those females and pair them to males from a different supplier haha. I only have a 1.2 colony right now, cost me $5.00 lol

I make the big orders for a buddy of mine, and I have no intention of breeding 100 mediums a month for him. It's the same supplier I get my mazuri from so it works out for me LOL