I would go to someone that is selling feeder rats. I was buying my feeders from a place that produces excellent rats, and simply kept any of the feeders that were female. That's normally a low percentage by the way. They tend to sell the males as feeders, but you should have some females in it.

When you buy from a breeder concentrating on color, type, etc... you may NOT be getting high production, hardy when breeding, fast growing rats. When a breeder is more concerned with the markings being great, the rat's conformation being perfect... they are not generally concerned with if it has large litters, whether the babies grow fast, whether the females recover well from pregnancy. It's not a failing, it's just what they look for in a rat is not the ability to mass produce more rats.

Feeder breeders that produce nice quality healthy feeders usually watch for the best qualities in a breeder rat. Get your breeders from a person who is concentrating on the same qualities as you are concerned with.

If you want to produce high quality pet rats, you can try to find breeders of pet/show rats as well. I don't bother with most breeders that want you to sign your life away for a rat. I'm NOT dissing those breeders at all, it's not what I am personally looking for in a breeder. It's their rats, and their right to declare who buys them, and who does not buy them. I'd prefer not to lie to a breeder in order to get one of their rats. I do produce rats mostly to use as feeders. I will be breeding the rat I'm looking to buy. I do own reptiles that eat rodents.

Now I AM looking for a tailless rat in the future for a pet. But I won't be buying it to breed and fibbing in order to get it. I won't intend to breed it because I don't want to deal with all the issues tailless rats can have. But I've heard cool things about them and I think their neat.