08/25/2025
⚠️Important Announcement!!⚠️
TLDR: Garden of Tails is closing to the public with hopeful plans to reopen in the future. Timeline unknown as of now. Select past adopters may have the opportunity to adopt retired ratties if/when available.
After much thought, I have decided to close to the public after this round of babies. This decision has not come easily, and I have tried all that I can over the last 2 ish years to make things more manageable behind the scenes to avoid this outcome. Unfortunately, the changes that have been made have not been enough to help offset how much time and energy that is needed to manage all of this on my own. Sadly, having outside help is not much of an option either as anyone helping would have to be as involved in this as I am, which is not realistic.
To be fully transparent, I've had a lot of personal struggles that have needed a lot more of my attention, which is why I've not had as many posts or updates as I prefer. This has also led to a decline in engagement and placement for my animals. I'm sure the prices of everything going up hasn't made things easier for families to access the proper supplies and resources needed for these little guys either. Regardless, the ratties aren't placing as well, which isn't the only determining factor for closing. However, if I will be keeping most of what I produce anyway, then I'd rather just focus on producing rats for myself with the same goals to improve health and temperaments without the pressure of keeping up with the social media side.
Some of my lines have had some odd health and/or temperament issues crop up here and there, so closing will allow me to keep all of the rats produced for several generations so I can fully observe their development throughout their entire life.
I am slowly making my way through my adopters and reaching out to those that have rats from the lines I've either observed or had issues reported from. I do have most of the rats from the last two generations for the two "problem" lines ("planets/space" themed line and Russian dilute line), so there shouldn't be many with related rats anyway. These two lines are ones I've decided to drop going forward so I can focus on my healthier and better tempered lines.
I've also had some poor luck with a few of my last generations. I'm either not getting enough of a s*x that I need, which is disappointing and sometimes detrimental to a line, rats have experienced labor/litter complications, thankfully not often, but it adds up, as well as smaller litter sizes, making it tough to pull what I need or have extras available after choosing my keepers. These things are all out of my control, but it is a bummer having to announce when plans aren't working out well. I know this just comes with the territory, but right now I don't have the energy to post or share these updates in a digestible way.
Another big reason, if all goes well, I also plan to start college classes next spring, so I am trying to be realistic about what I can maintain during that time while still working full time and managing my critters.
All that to say, this has been on my mind for quite some time, and sadly it's gotten to the point where I am not able to properly balance it all with my current life demands.
I will continue to breed for myself during this time, so there may be occasional just for fun posts. I do hope to open again in the future when I can be more active, but I cannot say when that will be. It'll be a minimum of 1-2 years, but we shall see what life holds in store!
I am truly grateful to all of you that have consistently stuck around to welcome my critters into your homes and update me about their lives. I will remain available for questions, concerns, and updates to all who have adopted from me. For those of you who have adopted before, there may be opportunities to adopt adult/retired rats if/when I have extras. If this is something you're interested in, feel free to message me.
Thank you all so much for your love and support over the last 9 years! Here's to hoping for more in the future!
