Humane rat distributor?

[Bogertophis]

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I should add in that most of my best pet rats were 'feeder' stock. I've also had some terrible tempered fancy rats.... but that's fairly rare for rats in general...



@Bogertophis I bred a couple silky coat mice YEARS ago. I ended up giving up on the project because the females were being terrible mothers and I didn't want to continue breeding mice with that kind of trait. Those coats are beautiful, but man can they get tangled up in bedding or dirty quick.

As far as temperaments, I've seen horrible ones in pet-store hamsters (not mine) as well as some "fancy" pet-store rats: this can happen when large commercial breeders pay no attention to avoid excessive inbreeding, & only breed for appearance. Just like happens with "purebred" dog breeds, inbreeding keeps both the "good" traits (those wanted for appearance) as well as unintended poor temperaments, & not every seller cares enough to avoid this- all they want is to make that immediate sale of a "warm body" regardless.

Silky & satin mice: I can remember similar issues- including the long-haired mice just being "impractical" for sanitation reasons. Not many people keep "show" mice in this country, so I was happy to quit producing them too; they were just a pretty novelty & I much prefer my strong healthy breeders with less "fancy" coats. (All my mice are still "fancy" coat colors, but not fancy textures.)