A Colorado Blue Rat Breeder, A Colorado Rattery
A Colorado Rat Breeder. Camarattery, Breeding Dumbo, Dwarf & Standard Rats In Dark American Blue, Russian Blue, Wheaten, Burmese, Siamese & Pearl Merle. Breeding Self, Hooded Down Under, Blazed & Marked Patterns. Satin, Rex, Hairless & Harley Coats.
About Myself & The Rattery
As time went by I ended up breeding & hand feeding birds for 18 years. And when I met my husband he knew what he was getting into before he married me in 1995.
In 1998 I decided to get my 1st rat, he was a cute little fawn hooded that I chose from a scales and tails feeder bin. I reached in to look at the babies and he ran right up my arm and sat on my shoulder. I was struck with love at 1st sight! I appropriately named him Stanley after the shoe box I brought him home in.
Soon to follow were his harem. Four black hooded and Berkshire females. At the time I did not have a computer and there was no good reading material at the book stores or library's about breeding rats or genetics of rats, so I couldn't understand for the life of me why I only got such drab colors. And for several generations that never changed. When Stanley was 2 years old he developed redness coming out of his nose and paralysis of his hind end and it broke my heart to see him like that and soon his kids followed suit. And me being so interested in animal genetics for so many years, I knew that what ever this was it was genetic. So I stopped breeding that family. I didn't know what the problem was with the family, but I wanted to find out and do better with the rats. But there were no reputable breeders here in Colorado that I knew of so I began to search for better breeding stock in other places. I thought in order for me to get healthy rats for my own pet needs I would have to make them myself.
That's about the time I got my 1st computer. And that opened up a whole new playing field for me and rats. I had no idea there were breeders to be found on the net. All my life as a breeder I never had dealt with that before. I decided set up a website to explore if the Internet was a good way to find homes for my babies and find better info on rats in general. I called my site Camarattery after the word camaraderie which means togetherness since I have always enjoyed working with other breeders who share my passion. After a short time exploring the Internet, I found more great breeders and some that I still work with today. At the time there were no reputable breeders here in the state to adopt from, (except Raining Rats Rattery who is no longer breeding) so I started working with the breeders on the more Westerly side of the country who had great rat breeding ethics like my own.
Since I couldn't work with any breeders instate since there weren't any to work with I started the Colorado Rat List to start gaining support for the rat in my community. Today that group is Colorado's official rat club with a total of over 200 members! I am so happy to see Colorado coming from a non noticeable participant in the rat community to what it is today, a strong, large community who really has added a tremendous positive difference for the rat as a breed. Thanks to all of the members of the Colorado Rat List!
So you could say I had to start from scratch and do things the hard way, which was to search out healthy rats with great pedigrees and either have them shipped in or drive out and get them. I still do that once a year to this day. On the way I have gained many wonderful breeder friends! And I have received many beautiful shipments of rats, like wise I have sent rats out to them. All in all it has been a very positive educational experience for myself, and a huge benefit my animals. I have truly enjoyed being a rat breeder. These little furry critters are so worth everything I have put into them.
My rattery consists of nothing but well pedigreed healthy stock. I am a bit of a stickler about having no holes in my pedigrees as I am afraid of the unknown! I am just so bad about that! I don't like the worry of what may be lurking in that "unknown". And I cannot stand the thought of adopting out a baby to a child and later cancer pops up and breaks the child's heart just because I took a short cut. I'd like to think I did my best and did everything I can to make a healthy pet with health verifiable linage. Maybe it's the mom in me. I wouldn't do that to my son. I really don't think breeding a rat with no health history is benefiting the breed. It's just adding a new "pretty color" to your unverifiable/unpredictable stock so that you can have "more to offer adopters". I guess I am not really understanding any benefit there.
However, about 10 generations ago I did start my Rex line myself and my blue line about the same time. And after much line breeding and testing and breeding them to pedigreed lines and trial and error, I finally got them where I wanted them! But I would never do it again. That was at a time when I had no one to get rats from, until I shipped. But I am very proud of these lines and they are very well known here in Colorado for their longevity and great temperaments. I have tried to breed lesser pedigreed rats since then and every time I end the line out of pure worrying myself to pieces. It's actually easier in the long run to ship in new good stock then to have to end lines and find cancer and tumors later after years of work! Even if it takes a year or more of saving and planning, healthy lines are worth it!
Just my philosophy....
___
I only specialize in hooded down under and Self rats. I breed both standard eared and dumbo eared rats although I prefer dumbo and will be working on making all of my rats dumbo as they are my passion. I specialize in standard and dwarf rats in colors of Burmese, Agouti Burmese AKA Wheaten Burmese, Russian blue Burmese, Siamese, American blue, Russian Blue, mink, pearl Merle, cinnamon, Agouti and fawn. My rats are bred to be very beautiful and healthy as well as long lived. I do NOT sell feeder animals. I breed for pet and the main goal, show quality animals only. I breed to better the animal in every way. I do not breed pet shop animals into my lines. I do bring in new blood and new varieties of rats from well known established out of state breeders that follow AFRMA or CARE ethics and show standards. I will also adopt from other Colorado rat breeders that are members in good standing in the Colorado Rat Club. All breeders I work with follow my same ethics, and have very well pedigreed healthy animals like my own. I follow very strict quarantine procedures when I do decide to bring in a new rat.
I breed rats because of my love for them. I enjoy their wonderful personalities as well as their wonderful range of colors and patterns. Breeding rats for me is a very rewarding hobby when I see how much love my animals bring to the lives of my adopters. Also I love breeding well tempered animals and opening peoples minds to just how wonderful a pet rats are! My hope is to open peoples hearts to these animals so they can embrace them for the clean, loving, playful and smart animal they really are! I am very interested in education about rats and I work very hard to help educate here in Colorado and the community I live in. I am also constantly learning more about rats myself. I love working with not only rat owners on help with their rats but also new honest breeders and long time veteran breeders.
Please see my specialties page for more info on what I breed. And please see my diets page for ideas on what to feed your rat.
Camarattery is a small rattery. The amount of rats I have at this time is 34 standard & 12 dwarf rats. This gives me enough genetic diversity to keep my rats from being to closely related. I have several months each year where I don't breed at all, so that keeps my rattery small. This also gives me time for my family and bike riding which is my second hobby. My rattery is in my home, actually in my family room, and each rat I have is raised by my loving family. I love to see rats kept in the area your family spends most of their time in. This is the best way to socialize and enjoy your pet! All of my rats are very well socialized and above any thing they are my pets before breeding stock. Breeding rats is not a business, it's an enjoyable hobby.
Camarattery only breeds a few litters at a time to ensure proper socialization for each baby and each of our adults. We have several family members who socialize each one of our animals so that they are used to more than one person. Not to mention our adopters that are come over several days of the week to play with the rats. All of our babies are raised in our home with young children and adults. Our rats are raised by our family for your family. In addition, we only breed what we can comfortably adopt out so that every baby we raise finds a loving home.
My cages are large All Living Things brand that are no longer produced sadly. But the males are kept separate from the females unless I am doing a breeding of coarse. I have used shredded phone book for bedding in the adults cages since about 2004. You can find it at any local feed store here in Colorado as its made in Greeley Co. In the nursery cages I use Aspen bedding because it doesn't "stick" to the babies like the paper does. I never use Kay-Tee brand though as its very well known in the rat community to be lethal to the rats respiratory systems because of the massive amounts of dust. And I never use Care Fresh for the same reason. More and more breeders have stopped using Care Fresh because of its dustiness. I have had 5 rats put on Care Fresh and develop respiratory ailments because of that bedding. 5 cases is no coincidence so I have contracted my adopters not to use it. That is my personal experience and I am sticking to it!
The caging you would need would be very similar to the ones in my rattery that you can look at on my rattery page. Rats must be housed in wire cages not tanks. Tanks in general are to small and do not allow for the climbing rats do by nature, and are bad for ventilation. Unless you have a 55 gallon or larger with built in levels. Tanks this large are better with ventilation as well. But as a rule rat cages are wire with several levels and wire bottoms which are safer for their feet. Wire bottoms are comfortable for small rat feet and they allow the droppings and urine to fall which makes sure the rats feet stay clean. This way they do not get bumble foot which is caused by urine getting in a wound on the foot and getting infected. This is a condition you see in rats kept on solid floors which tend to allow waist to build up quickly. Rats are very energetic and need lots of room to live. Much more so than mice or hamsters because of the size difference of the animal involved. A small rat cage for 2 adult rats can be a minimum of 20" square and 3 levels tall which is usually 24" in height or more. But the larger the cage the happier they are and the longer they will live. If you want to save space and go with the smaller cage you are only shortening the life of the animal and diminishing their out look in life in general. Your cage needs to easily fit an 11" wheel which is the correct size for an adult rat.
Wheels are a requirement with my rats. My rats are raised with wheels and need them as adults. I have many adopters ask me if my rats use them and the answer is yes they do. They run, run, run on the wheels, both the males and the females. When rats are raised with a wheel they will always use it. If they were not raised with one, they will never bother trying. As mentioned earlier wheels must be at least 11" in diameter. Rats simply don't fit in smaller wheels.
Toys are always offered in my cages in many forms. I use balls, hanging wood toys and leather hanging toys. These are rotated often to keep it interesting. Toys greatly increase the outlook on life for your rat which helps them live longer. Rats that are left to sit board have less of a vigor for life and get depressed quickly as they are normally a very active frisky animal.
Play time is never in any shortage in my rattery. You can see pictures of my play area as well as my cages on the "My Rattery" page. My house is not safe for rats to free range roam in. I have to many computer and TV wires to be chewed on. And I have a cat who would not hurt the rats by any means, but I never take a chance either. So instead of roaming in the rattery my rats have a kid play pool that I have set up with toys, tunnels and goodies to eat. I say that each cage gets at least one hour a day of play time but that's being very conservative. It's more like five hours per cage in the summer when I am off of work and the rest of the year two hours per cage.
Feeding my rats is simple and I do have a whole page dedicated to that very subject and I encourage you to look at that. But the simple answer to what I feed is, Harlan Teklad blocks. It's the best diet to cover your rats nutritional needs 100%. But I also spoil them with fruits, salads, cooked pasta and veggies galore.
Cleaning the rattery is done every other day. I strip down every cage every other day and bleach everything. All cages are bleached in the shower using scalding hot water.
Quarantine is done under very strict conditions. All new rats that I receive from another rattery are quarantined in an off site location in Englewood Colorado for 30 days. During this time health and temperament are evaluated and all rats are treated with Ivermectin to be sure there are no "bug" issues for any future generations. (Even though I only adopt from breeders who would NEVER have bugs anyway. But I am overly safe.)
Mentoring is something that all new breeders need. I did not have a mentor and had to do things the hard way all on my own. It is not my job to tell everyone not to breed. If I did they would just do it anyway. As the president of the Colorado Rat Club it is my job to promote healthy breeding practices. So if an honest hearted person needs mentoring, I would be happy to do so. I would rather see a new breeder do it the correct way then to be a backyard breeder just making more poor quality rats.
The rules I follow are that of the AFRMA code of ethics. All of my rats are registered through NARR so that all of my lines health and linage can be tracked. As far as the breeders I work with, they have very similar values and are very trustworthy people to work with. And I have a zero tolerance policy for bad breeding ethics and for untrustworthy breeders in general. I simply will not associate with them and I am very adamant about that.
My breeding goals for 2008
However, about 10 generations ago I did start my Rex line myself and my blue line about the same time. And after much line breeding and testing and breeding them to pedigreed lines and trial and error, I finally got them where I wanted them! But I would never do it again. That was at a time when I had no one to get rats from, until I shipped. But I am very proud of these lines and they are very well known here in Colorado for their longevity and great temperaments. I have tried to breed lesser pedigreed rats since then and every time I end the line out of pure worrying myself to pieces. It's actually easier in the long run to ship in new good stock then to have to end lines and find cancer and tumors later after years of work! Even if it takes a year or more of saving and planning, healthy lines are worth it!
Just my philosophy....
___
I only specialize in hooded down under and Self rats. I breed both standard eared and dumbo eared rats although I prefer dumbo and will be working on making all of my rats dumbo as they are my passion. I specialize in standard and dwarf rats in colors of Burmese, Agouti Burmese AKA Wheaten Burmese, Russian blue Burmese, Siamese, American blue, Russian Blue, mink, pearl Merle, cinnamon, Agouti and fawn. My rats are bred to be very beautiful and healthy as well as long lived. I do NOT sell feeder animals. I breed for pet and the main goal, show quality animals only. I breed to better the animal in every way. I do not breed pet shop animals into my lines. I do bring in new blood and new varieties of rats from well known established out of state breeders that follow AFRMA or CARE ethics and show standards. I will also adopt from other Colorado rat breeders that are members in good standing in the Colorado Rat Club. All breeders I work with follow my same ethics, and have very well pedigreed healthy animals like my own. I follow very strict quarantine procedures when I do decide to bring in a new rat.
I breed rats because of my love for them. I enjoy their wonderful personalities as well as their wonderful range of colors and patterns. Breeding rats for me is a very rewarding hobby when I see how much love my animals bring to the lives of my adopters. Also I love breeding well tempered animals and opening peoples minds to just how wonderful a pet rats are! My hope is to open peoples hearts to these animals so they can embrace them for the clean, loving, playful and smart animal they really are! I am very interested in education about rats and I work very hard to help educate here in Colorado and the community I live in. I am also constantly learning more about rats myself. I love working with not only rat owners on help with their rats but also new honest breeders and long time veteran breeders.
Please see my specialties page for more info on what I breed. And please see my diets page for ideas on what to feed your rat.
Camarattery is a small rattery. The amount of rats I have at this time is 34 standard & 12 dwarf rats. This gives me enough genetic diversity to keep my rats from being to closely related. I have several months each year where I don't breed at all, so that keeps my rattery small. This also gives me time for my family and bike riding which is my second hobby. My rattery is in my home, actually in my family room, and each rat I have is raised by my loving family. I love to see rats kept in the area your family spends most of their time in. This is the best way to socialize and enjoy your pet! All of my rats are very well socialized and above any thing they are my pets before breeding stock. Breeding rats is not a business, it's an enjoyable hobby.
Camarattery only breeds a few litters at a time to ensure proper socialization for each baby and each of our adults. We have several family members who socialize each one of our animals so that they are used to more than one person. Not to mention our adopters that are come over several days of the week to play with the rats. All of our babies are raised in our home with young children and adults. Our rats are raised by our family for your family. In addition, we only breed what we can comfortably adopt out so that every baby we raise finds a loving home.
My cages are large All Living Things brand that are no longer produced sadly. But the males are kept separate from the females unless I am doing a breeding of coarse. I have used shredded phone book for bedding in the adults cages since about 2004. You can find it at any local feed store here in Colorado as its made in Greeley Co. In the nursery cages I use Aspen bedding because it doesn't "stick" to the babies like the paper does. I never use Kay-Tee brand though as its very well known in the rat community to be lethal to the rats respiratory systems because of the massive amounts of dust. And I never use Care Fresh for the same reason. More and more breeders have stopped using Care Fresh because of its dustiness. I have had 5 rats put on Care Fresh and develop respiratory ailments because of that bedding. 5 cases is no coincidence so I have contracted my adopters not to use it. That is my personal experience and I am sticking to it!
The caging you would need would be very similar to the ones in my rattery that you can look at on my rattery page. Rats must be housed in wire cages not tanks. Tanks in general are to small and do not allow for the climbing rats do by nature, and are bad for ventilation. Unless you have a 55 gallon or larger with built in levels. Tanks this large are better with ventilation as well. But as a rule rat cages are wire with several levels and wire bottoms which are safer for their feet. Wire bottoms are comfortable for small rat feet and they allow the droppings and urine to fall which makes sure the rats feet stay clean. This way they do not get bumble foot which is caused by urine getting in a wound on the foot and getting infected. This is a condition you see in rats kept on solid floors which tend to allow waist to build up quickly. Rats are very energetic and need lots of room to live. Much more so than mice or hamsters because of the size difference of the animal involved. A small rat cage for 2 adult rats can be a minimum of 20" square and 3 levels tall which is usually 24" in height or more. But the larger the cage the happier they are and the longer they will live. If you want to save space and go with the smaller cage you are only shortening the life of the animal and diminishing their out look in life in general. Your cage needs to easily fit an 11" wheel which is the correct size for an adult rat.
Wheels are a requirement with my rats. My rats are raised with wheels and need them as adults. I have many adopters ask me if my rats use them and the answer is yes they do. They run, run, run on the wheels, both the males and the females. When rats are raised with a wheel they will always use it. If they were not raised with one, they will never bother trying. As mentioned earlier wheels must be at least 11" in diameter. Rats simply don't fit in smaller wheels.
Toys are always offered in my cages in many forms. I use balls, hanging wood toys and leather hanging toys. These are rotated often to keep it interesting. Toys greatly increase the outlook on life for your rat which helps them live longer. Rats that are left to sit board have less of a vigor for life and get depressed quickly as they are normally a very active frisky animal.
Play time is never in any shortage in my rattery. You can see pictures of my play area as well as my cages on the "My Rattery" page. My house is not safe for rats to free range roam in. I have to many computer and TV wires to be chewed on. And I have a cat who would not hurt the rats by any means, but I never take a chance either. So instead of roaming in the rattery my rats have a kid play pool that I have set up with toys, tunnels and goodies to eat. I say that each cage gets at least one hour a day of play time but that's being very conservative. It's more like five hours per cage in the summer when I am off of work and the rest of the year two hours per cage.
Feeding my rats is simple and I do have a whole page dedicated to that very subject and I encourage you to look at that. But the simple answer to what I feed is, Harlan Teklad blocks. It's the best diet to cover your rats nutritional needs 100%. But I also spoil them with fruits, salads, cooked pasta and veggies galore.
Cleaning the rattery is done every other day. I strip down every cage every other day and bleach everything. All cages are bleached in the shower using scalding hot water.
Quarantine is done under very strict conditions. All new rats that I receive from another rattery are quarantined in an off site location in Englewood Colorado for 30 days. During this time health and temperament are evaluated and all rats are treated with Ivermectin to be sure there are no "bug" issues for any future generations. (Even though I only adopt from breeders who would NEVER have bugs anyway. But I am overly safe.)
Mentoring is something that all new breeders need. I did not have a mentor and had to do things the hard way all on my own. It is not my job to tell everyone not to breed. If I did they would just do it anyway. As the president of the Colorado Rat Club it is my job to promote healthy breeding practices. So if an honest hearted person needs mentoring, I would be happy to do so. I would rather see a new breeder do it the correct way then to be a backyard breeder just making more poor quality rats.
The rules I follow are that of the AFRMA code of ethics. All of my rats are registered through NARR so that all of my lines health and linage can be tracked. As far as the breeders I work with, they have very similar values and are very trustworthy people to work with. And I have a zero tolerance policy for bad breeding ethics and for untrustworthy breeders in general. I simply will not associate with them and I am very adamant about that.
My breeding goals for 2008
1) As always I will be breeding for health, longevity and temperament. That is always a given for any reputable breeder.
2) I will be showing my rats very soon so I will continue to keep a very close eye on breeding for the show standards for the fancy rat. Those include temperament, confirmation, coat type and color. The breed standards I have bred for since 2004 are according to AFRMA The American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association.
3) I will be breeding all of my rats for dumbo this year. Almost all of my rats will be bred to a dumbo. If not their babies will be.
4) I will be working very hard on perfecting my self and hooded patterns. I will not however be breeding for any other pattern. Although other patterns at times will pop up for your enjoyment.
5) I will be working very hard on my dwarf lines. As you know I introduced Colorado to the dwarf rat for the very 1st time in May of 2006. Since then I have had many wonderful things happen for them. I have bred dumbo into the line and every color I work with. I will continue to work on those things and perfecting the hooded, self and dumbo genes with the dwarf rats. Once I have that where I want it I will continue to breed for the colors I like including American blue, Russian blue, Siamese, Burmese, mink, pearl and merle. I have also bred my long lived line of rats into the dwarf line.
6) Hairless. I will only be breeding 1 or 2 litters of standard sized hairless per year. After I have finished with those 2 litters I will breed these hairless into my dwarf line. From that point all of my hairless rats will be dwarf from there on out. I plan to breed my hairless for pinkness, dumbo and dwarf. I prefer not to have colors on my hairless, you can still see the color if they are black, blue and so on.... I will be breeding them for black eyed white and pink eyed white only. This will leave them with a pink body and either pink or black eyes.
7) I will be working on keeping my IB (Inbreeding) ratios very low. I don't want my rats to be to closely related. I have enough out crosses to make that possible.
8) As always I plan to continue paving the way for rat related events and education of the fancy rat in our community. If you would like to be better educated about the animal I encourage you to join the large, very active child friendly free yahoo group for Colorado rat lovers:
2) I will be showing my rats very soon so I will continue to keep a very close eye on breeding for the show standards for the fancy rat. Those include temperament, confirmation, coat type and color. The breed standards I have bred for since 2004 are according to AFRMA The American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association.
3) I will be breeding all of my rats for dumbo this year. Almost all of my rats will be bred to a dumbo. If not their babies will be.
4) I will be working very hard on perfecting my self and hooded patterns. I will not however be breeding for any other pattern. Although other patterns at times will pop up for your enjoyment.
5) I will be working very hard on my dwarf lines. As you know I introduced Colorado to the dwarf rat for the very 1st time in May of 2006. Since then I have had many wonderful things happen for them. I have bred dumbo into the line and every color I work with. I will continue to work on those things and perfecting the hooded, self and dumbo genes with the dwarf rats. Once I have that where I want it I will continue to breed for the colors I like including American blue, Russian blue, Siamese, Burmese, mink, pearl and merle. I have also bred my long lived line of rats into the dwarf line.
6) Hairless. I will only be breeding 1 or 2 litters of standard sized hairless per year. After I have finished with those 2 litters I will breed these hairless into my dwarf line. From that point all of my hairless rats will be dwarf from there on out. I plan to breed my hairless for pinkness, dumbo and dwarf. I prefer not to have colors on my hairless, you can still see the color if they are black, blue and so on.... I will be breeding them for black eyed white and pink eyed white only. This will leave them with a pink body and either pink or black eyes.
7) I will be working on keeping my IB (Inbreeding) ratios very low. I don't want my rats to be to closely related. I have enough out crosses to make that possible.
8) As always I plan to continue paving the way for rat related events and education of the fancy rat in our community. If you would like to be better educated about the animal I encourage you to join the large, very active child friendly free yahoo group for Colorado rat lovers:
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