I started my rat colony with petshop stock - some from the last LPS in town and some from Petco. (Some of the ones from Petco did not do well at all, particularly a very pretty female, a blue so pale she was lighter than most "white" rats! She died birthing her first litter.) We did have some issues getting things up & running . . .

More recently, we've been picking up rats at the White Plains reptile show. They don't allow the sale of rodents with eyes open, but we've been able to buy crawlers & pups, and foster them into litters we already had. They've been pretty clean. (We did have an outbreak of fleas last summer, but I blame the cats. I blame the cats for rather a lot . . .) Took a while, but we've finally got a group I'm not un-pleased with. You'll probably get better results buying from a breeder - depending on just what limits he's putting on what you can buy!

~Bruce