# Wanted: Male good w/other males, pair baby males, or spayed female in WA/OR



## Critter Aficionado (Jan 30, 2011)

As some of you already know I picked up an elderly male rat from a shelter who was surrendered as an only rat. I'd planned to adopt a male rat or two from the Seattle Humane society a few hours from where we live, but we had to set up arrangements with family up there, and today the rats were, I'm assuming, adopted since their pages are no longer up.

So I'm looking for a single or couple of adult males who are known to be good with other male rats, a pair of at least 8 week old baby males, or even a spayed female or two (though those seem to be insanely rare in the state I live in and the next state over) in Washington State or Oregon or that could be transported to Washington or Oregon. I live in Cowlitz about three to three and a half hours from Seattle, and about an hour from Portland, Oregon. 


I'm having no luck on Craigslist or literally any other classifieds site (just feeder breeders, ads for frozen feeder rats, and other back yard breeders). Of course there are always male rats in the local pet stores, but obviously, being a rescuer, I don't even consider that to be an option. I've been keeping an eye on the local Petco's adoption table (when people bring in animals and they offer them for free or a $5 donation, to the public, you just have to sign an adoption form), but the only rats I've ever seen there have been extremely few and all unspayed female.


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

if you can get over to seattle, maybe you can get some babies from rous? their site is outdated but i do believe they are still breeding. maybe you can give them a call. this is another one listed on their website, called rattie rascals. there's alsoevergreen rattery in bc that might also be able to transport, give it a shot


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## Critter Aficionado (Jan 30, 2011)

I appreciate the links Jaguar. I'll email the BC one and see if they might have any retired show rats/breeders for adoption or even personal rescues. It looks like Rattie Rascals only has personal pet rats now, no rescues/retired or even babies. Their page mentions they stopped breeding and no mention of rescuing.

I finally found, and contacted a rescue in BC that says they have volunteers in Washington and Oregon. They have something like six baby males and an adult male listed on their Pet Finder page. I got a form letter response saying it may take a week or more to get a response though, since they are really busy right now.

I'll continue to check Pet Finder daily and online classifieds every other day.


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

little mischief rescue? they only adopt when they can do in home checks, so if there's no one to do a check in your area they won't  i live in bc myself and have tried adopting through them... and they said no. i offered a compromise like photos, references, etc. and they never replied.


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## Critter Aficionado (Jan 30, 2011)

Man, that sucks. I would have no problem with them doing a home check of course, but no idea if they have anyone in my area or who would be willing to travel to where we live. I won't be anticipating a response then. I emailed another rescue jthat's right here in the Pacific Northwest just a couple days after we got Helios to see if they still had any of the baby males they have listed on petfinder, but still haven't heard back.

This is so aggravating. Of course what's even moreso is the fact that when my fiance was looking for a pair of female rats (we figured females would be an easier first rat choice) all we could find for the longest time in rescues, shelters and being rehomed were males. Now that I need to find an 8+ week old male or two, no luck at all.


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## Critter Aficionado (Jan 30, 2011)

I found an ad on Craig's list for someone re homing 7 baby males; "free to good home/$1", that isn't intentionally breeding or selling for snake food. They are your standard pink eyed and white and black hooded, so I'm guessing they ended up with a pregnant female either from a feeder bin or a Petco store mis sexed and put males with females. They emailed me today to let me know they're just getting homes set up but that they are only four weeks old right now.


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## Critter Aficionado (Jan 30, 2011)

Sorry for the tripple-post, I'm not seeing the option to modify my other post. I got another email back, this litter came from them being given a pregnant female that was going to be fed to a snake if the former folks couldn't rehome her. But now they're saying they want to intentionally breed one of their rats, gah. Should I still get a pair, since they are free and weren't an intentional litter? I've been having such a crazy hard time finding any baby males or spayed females. But is this the same as supporting a breeder even though the babies are free and not from a breeding?

I'm going to try to convince them not to breed, and link them to sites about High Whites and the risk of megacolon. My stomach is all in knots now.


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## Critter Aficionado (Jan 30, 2011)

The more I talk to these folks the more I think they are a well intentioned young couple who have actually done a good deal of research on rats and genetics. I wasn't sure since I'd only talked to them through two emails, but they knew about mega colon and "High White" rats. They aren't sure whether or not they are going to breed their rat, the one they want to breed is not "high white" and they got the rat from someone who is very rat knowledgeable. They mentioned taking their rats to the veterinarian. They've been really friendly thus far so I'm sure they'd be willing to give me their veterinary clinic's name. They actually thanked me for giving them the information even though they've already done a lot of research on genetics before considering breeding (their female isn't old enough to even breed so it's not set in stone).


But now I'm in a real predicament. The rescue in BC emailed me and said they could transport as far as Seattle/Bellevue, they have two shy spayed females and seven baby males. They want to do a home check though, and since all of their volunteers are in BC they said they'd Now I myself don't have a problem with a rescue coming and in and doing a home check, and I'm glad there are still rescues do that.

The problem is that I don't know if my FFIL (our two very small two-person immediate families combined our incomes for financial convenience and live in the same house) would agree to a stranger coming into his house. For the longest time he didn't even let me stay when it got dark out (before we moved in obviously) even though we'd met before and I was engaged to his son; he seems pretty suspicious of new people/strangers coming into his home. He also has some pretty "old fashioned" views on animal topics; he's used to county/city pounds where you just fill out a form and a pet is yours, no home checks just giving them your personal information.


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## Critter Aficionado (Jan 30, 2011)

We just picked up a pair of 6 month old males of last night. They are being quarantined at a completely different house where people will be every day, and my fiance and I will go to every day for adding food, letting them out for controlled exploring, cage cleaning etc. They are promising candidates for several reasons; they are both used to being around other males from other litters (she once had a small colony of males of different ages and from different litters/places including these boys with no issues), even though they shared the cage, which is smaller than the one we have, with an elderly female (we did warn them of the risk and they decided to rehome the boys to reduce this risk and to get an older female for her to be with that would be less energetic) and only one hammock in the cage between the three, they didn't have fighting or over-hormonal issues with the other males or each other, and one is reported to be very submissive and shy which apparently made him bond stronger to the other rats. Of course we'll be very cautious with introductions and use all the nifty "tricks" in the book for a calm(er) introduction once they are done with quarantine.

We just picked up a pair of 6 month old males of last night. They are being quarantined at a completely different house where people will be every day, and my fiance and I will go to every day for adding food, letting them out for controlled exploring, cage cleaning etc. They are promising candidates for several reasons; they are both used to being around other males from other litters (she once had a small colony of males of different ages and from different litters/places including these boys with no issues), even though they shared the cage, which is smaller than the one we have, with an elderly female (we did warn them of the risk and they decided to rehome the boys to reduce this risk and to get an older female for her to be with that would be less energetic) and only one hammock in the cage between the three, they didn't have fighting or over-hormonal issues with the other males or each other, and one is reported to be very submissive and shy which apparently made him bond stronger to the other rats. Of course we'll be very cautious with introductions and use all the nifty "tricks" in the book for a calm(er) introduction once they are done with quarantine.

We wanted to get Helios a pair of companions sooner than later, and the accidental litter in the other Craigslist ad still have a month or a little over before they will even be old enough to be introduced to an adult rat (and Helios is good sized). So we're going to see how it works out with these boys, fingers crossed things go well.


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