Two things happened in the summer of 2007 which brought me to the decision to begin breeding rats. One of my pet girls had a suspected pregnancy which forced me to consider the logistics of housing and caring for a larger number of rats (and possibly made me a little rat-broody). Secondly, a group of rescue brothers all developed respiratory problems at around three to four months old. One died of a heart attack at nine months old after being nursed back from pneumonia. A second died at eleven months having simply faded away. I lost two more at 16 months old and another at 17 months. Just one of the boys made it to a respectable 23 months. My other rats, some of whom lived with the affected brothers, were all untouched by the infection. It brought it home to me with great clarity the effect of genetic makeup on the disease resistance and longevity of my rats. The fact that two of the brothers also had some aggression issues despite being well treated throughout their lives has also made me (painfully) aware of the issue of temperament and its link with heredity.
So that's my motivation. To produce healthy and long-lived rats, along with the good temperament that makes a well bred rat such a pleasure to own. What about type and colour? Yes, I would be proud to win rosettes with rats I had bred myself, and thanks to the generosity of other breeders I have some lovely examples of ratdom to work with. But that's not my main focus. Maybe as I go on I will discover a brighter spark of competitiveness within myself?
Why breed more rats when there are already so many rescue rats? This was my hardest question. The answer, I think, is an investment in the future. Accidental litters will always happen, but the purposeful breeding of unselected rats for sale in petshops, which can then be bought without the need for forethought and planning, contributes a lot to the population of rescue rats. You need an alternative before anything can change. See the 'Rodent Farm' article on www.ratz.co.uk.
If the only rats that are ever bred are the unhandled, farm-bred pet shop rats and their random descendants there will be no selection for improvement. I hope I will always have room for rescue rats here, but for myself and for the rats' sake I would aim to produce a line of selectively bred, well tempered and healthy rats.
