I was quite surprised to pick up a rat that had never been handled and just have him curiously wander around my hand with a sign of intelligence about what he was seeing. Unlike my other rodents, except chinchillas, who just seem so lost in flight mode they can't do anything but run off if not handled a lot. Problem is I know I mentioned it somewhere here but rat people are a bit crazy about their bloodlines and competition. Just a little.... They don't want to help anyone get started even with their culls without their name on it like you can usually get easily for other animals. The whole group went utterly insane when I spoke about the annoyance of not finding females around. It turned out unless I want to pay $20+ for who knows what breeding quality chain pet store animals or wait on a list to pay the same prices from pet/show breeders no one will sell you a female rat to within over an hour around us and I even posted various places while we made a 2hr trip to Des moines and back. They turn all the extras into frozen or their personal reptile collection food and sell the males. Even the local pet store. I do have one female they missed from the small feeder bin. Well, debating a new thing to breed that will sell well while also not wanting to get involved with another mammal we decided on crested geckos and the route to the best deal on a male and his unsexed offspring included was past the person who sold feeder rats $2/each to anyone. Last minute I shot him an email and I now have these in a large, long breeder bird cage because I don't have the crack in the tank I got pretty much free fixed yet. It hasn't been high on the list since I had no breeding rats.
I'm not sure the color names or genetics and I'm walking on eggshells with the feeder breeder group so I don't really want to ask yet. I do plan to cull out the pink eyed white. In the meantime though my males look like this now.
It might be awhile to pair them with the females. The snake forum are actually the ones commenting the most on them being too cute to feed. Some raise rodents to sell and then buy frozen feeders. :lol:
I'm not sure the color names or genetics and I'm walking on eggshells with the feeder breeder group so I don't really want to ask yet. I do plan to cull out the pink eyed white. In the meantime though my males look like this now.
It might be awhile to pair them with the females. The snake forum are actually the ones commenting the most on them being too cute to feed. Some raise rodents to sell and then buy frozen feeders. :lol: