Close Knit Rattery

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Close Knit Rattery

Just a small scale rattery in Missoula, Montana focused on producing healthy rats with great temperaments.
(1)

20/01/2023

Surprise baby announcement!

Winter is not my girls' preferred season so I didnt anticipate any new beans until closer to spring. And yet here we are with 10!
6 boys, 4 girls.

29/09/2022

Have you ever rough housed with your rats? 😂
This feisty little one thinks she's tough and loves to pick a fight.

24/09/2022

Peepers are opening up today!
It's looking like we'll have 3 girls and 2 boys available

22/09/2022

My camera doesn't do these babies justice.

10/09/2022

Surprise!
8 new beans when I came home from work today.
I gave mom a bunch of TP for nesting and she chose to use exactly none of it. Turns out bare plastic is the only way to go.

16/07/2022

These two ladies are available!
The black berk's adoption fell through and the russian blue harley was one of my keepers that ended up with a weaker immune system than I want for breeding. She's more prone to sniffles than the others, a fairly common problem for harleys.

20/06/2022

I have one lady available at the moment.
She's a standard black dumbo berk with a blaze.
She'll be ready to go in a couple weeks.

This lady is from the outcross litter that has not been available for reservation due to temperament. She is one of only 2 I've found to have acceptable temperaments in that litter. The other will be staying here

05/06/2022

The difference made by only 2 days.
The double velveteen was cracking open one eye at only 10 days old (first 2 pics), and both are now open at 12 (last 3) which is somewhat unusual. For those that dont know, 14 days is a fairly consistent average. Ive even had some slower maturing that wait until 15 or 16 days. My velveteen line seems to mature particularly quickly.

The other female's eyes are still sealed shut, but that's to be expected as she has either harley or satin in the mix, both of which, in my experience, tend to be smaller and slower growing.

26/05/2022

Good news and bad news, guys...
Scarlet gave us her first litter (the blue double velveteen litter) on Monday. Unfortunately, she only had 4 and 2 have since passed. 😔 From what I was able to see, I suspect they were crushed. It's sad, but can sometimes happen with new moms.

Thankfully our 2 week olds are thriving though, and cute as ever

22/05/2022

2 weeks old snoots

18/05/2022

Blacks, blues, whites, agouti, and.. fawn?! ❤

20/04/2022

I think Scarlet's getting tired of me impatiently checking for signs of babies on board. 😂

One of the many things I love about Scarlet is that she does her own manicures. She keeps her claws nice n short so I rarely get scratches from her. Greatly appreciated since I have a mild allergy, and one of those things I like to select for where I can.

11/03/2022

How I raise my rats...
I’ve been asked about socialization a few times. Whether I start socializing early, how early, and whether they can get their rats at a younger age to get a head start on bonding.
Here are my current thoughts and ramblings given what I’ve learned so far, for those that are really interested....:

Generally speaking, the longer an animal is with its mother and siblings (up to a certain point), the more well rounded it’s going to be. It gives them the opportunity to reach optimal health, learn how to best be what they’re meant to be, and allows them to develop confidence.

Confidence is HUGE for me. I want rats that will go anywhere, do anything with you without worry. This CAN be done through desensitization but, generally speaking, as soon as an animal is faced with a new experience, it will revert back to a predetermined baseline. That is, you can’t teach an innately nervous animal to never be nervous. You can take extensive work to teach them how to better handle individual experiences, but new experiences will almost always result in a genetically determined default response.

If the animal can develop deep bond/trust with you, you might be able to adventure together regardless of how fearful it is of the environment because the animal will look to you for safety rather than away. The relevant factors here though would be whether you can in fact develop that level of trust, how long it would take (we’re working with very short lifespans!), and whether that actually reduces the animal’s stress (it's not much of an adventure if the rat sits on your shoulder because it's too scared to do anything else).

It is possible to breed rats that are more genetically inclined to enjoy humans and exploration, but in order to do so you need to observe their natural tendencies and select for the desired ones. Socializing, or desensitizing, too early can easily disguise traits that aren’t ideal, and they’re likely to resurface as soon as the rat is moved to a new environment anyway.

It’s my personal opinion that the best pets are a mix of both good genetics and good upbringing. Yes, my rats are played with, snuggled, exposed to children, crazy sounds, weird textures, etc.. but there is typically no deliberate socialization in the early weeks (not always, because sometimes i cave to snuggle baby seals) so that when they reach an age that temperament testing becomes appropriate I can see how they react to a wide variety of new, intense experiences. The goal is to select for rats that handle new experiences well, recover quickly from being startled, want to explore new things, and want to engage with people so that when they go to new homes, they adjust seamlessly and bond easily. This means a lot to me, which is why I will happily replace any one of my rats that someone feels isn’t what they’d hoped for.

11/03/2022

I'm so thrilled for this pairing.
I mean I'm never not excited, but this one is a big step in multiple ways.
- These 2 are both my largest rats to date with the buck coming in at 610g and the doe at 367g (at only 3 months!).
- They're both velveteens and double velvs are something I've been wanting for quite some time. (Unlike rexes, when velvs are doubled the coat gets thicker and curlier)
- Downfall with the male is that he's a nervous boy. His comfort zone is narrower than I like. I think this pairing is the best I could ask for because the female is a fearless explorer.

They'll likely be paired in the next few months 😁

09/03/2022

Here they are! The silvermane litter im rehoming for someone unable to. They were an oops litter from a mis-s*xed pair. Born Jan 20. They're small for their age, around 115 - 125g.

Ive handled them quite a bit (whipped cream is an excellent motivator) and will work on socializing while they're here. These babies will need a bit more patience to learn to enjoy being handled as they're rather flighty. The big changes have been stressful for them.

Some of these photos are fairly comical, but it's been a long day and I was ready to take whatever I could get 😂 as always, more pics upon request.

*These rats were not produced at my rattery and are not included in my replacement promise.

09/03/2022

Today is a big photo op day - trying to take pics of all the babes that need homes - but i had to pause to admire this girl.
I think black rats tend to be underrated. She's such a beauty.
And CHONKY.
She's a hefty 210g at 6 weeks. Her littermates are 175, 178, and 191.
Mom is 357g.

Unfortunately, my lines tend to rust and silver pretty heavily so it's unlikely she'll maintain this nice color, but I think she'll bring a lot to my silvermane line in terms of temperament and structure. 🥰

03/03/2022

A few things about my rattery...

1. RESERVATIONS
I do my best to reserve rats in the order that people come to me for them, but after having a lot of issues with people ghosting I will no longer be reserving without a deposit.

2. PAIRS
Rats must go in a minimum of pairs unless you have rats of the same s*x at home

3. REPLACEMENT PROMISE
If you are unhappy for any reason with any rat you get from me, you can return it to me (within 3 months) and I will do my best to replace it with one that you will be happy with. I've had plenty of rats I was unable to bond with in the past. It can be a real bummer. I don't want that to happen with any of my adopters and rats.

4. PETS ONLY
My rats are for pet placement and are not for breeding. I work with genes that can be associated with health problems and in need of careful selection to minimize problems and continue improving (such as skin or immune system issues in harleys, cryptorchidism or malocclusion in marbles). I also put a lot of effort in to breeding for the best temperaments. My lines are still young and, in order to continue improving, I select the best to keep as breeders and place the rest in pet homes. That is not to say I will intentionally place ill tempered or unhealthy rats. I never breed or place any that I don't expect to make excellent pets. And if it happens that my judgement was incorrect, refer to point 3.

5. AGE
Babies will never leave prior to 6 weeks, period. However, careful observation and selection sometimes requires me to keep babies until they're older. It's not unusual for me to hold some back until 3 months. This is especially true with harleys, harvels, satins as I prefer to see them through their second molt. In some cases, I will have retired breeders available. If you have specific ages you want, let me know and I'll see what we can work out.

6. FEEDBACK
I always appreciate updates and feedback from owners about my rats, good or bad. Their behavior, their coat changes, illnesses, age at passing, etc. The more information I have about my lines the better I can make them.

28/02/2022

I'll be transporting some babies looking for homes this weekend.
There are 6 that have yet to be reserved, four 5 week olds and a pair of young adult females. Message me for more information.
I'll know more about specific availability and picks after pick up.

25/02/2022

Mama Pink and our 2 little (long awaited!) Loki beans.
Seems we might've had satin hiding out in here. To be determined what coat type these guys have 😆

15/02/2022

Mlem

13/02/2022

This little velv seems to be very chill.
A chill female would be a nice change. Most of them are all chaos 😂

12/02/2022

Photo dump of sleepy buttons
The iiiiiitty bitty headspot on the male marble 🥺

08/02/2022

Baby rats fill me with a ridiculous amount of joy.
Especially when they have fun little quirks. The blue velv girl has a white tipped tail exactly like her momma, which I figured was likely related to the marble gene, but this lady is clearly not a marble.
She's also got a cute little lightening stripe on her side.

08/02/2022

Little marble twins. The most wonderful squishy mcnuggets.
Even as blind fat seals they're still mobile enough to make taking pics a challenge.

06/02/2022

Yet another litter of 4, and a week old today.
3 girls (black, marble, rb blue velv), 1 boy (marble)

Discovered my mischief has rat lice so no coming or going ratties while we treat that for the next month or so.
Freeze your bedding guys. 😬

22/01/2022

Take 100 pictures in the hopes that one of them might be good

10/01/2022

Comparison between the standard and harley girls.
The velv and standard are particularly big so the size difference between them and the typically smaller harleys is pretty significant with this litter.

10/01/2022

Babies are nearly 6 weeks now and this girl is still solidly my favorite

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59808

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