I'm friends with a commercial rat breeder and can tell you the "fancy" pet rats are bred for colors/pattern and features like dumbo ears or hairless in the same commercial breeder tubs the feeder rats are bred in. When they produce too many "fancy rats" and not enough "pet" rat orders the same expensive "fancy" rats are mixed in with my cheap feeder rat orders. At this facility rats are bred 6 to a tub with pregnant females put in maternity tubs to maximize production. All the weaned rats are placed in big grow out tubs, I understand almost all commercial breeders operate this way to produce enough to supply the reptiles industry, zoos, and falconers.
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