# Rat Show/ Rodent Expo?



## elizabethrae. (Dec 24, 2008)

Hey
I live in Canada and I was wondering if anyone knew of or had been to a rat show or rodent expo
I would love to go to one but have no idea if there are even any around here 
Searching the web has turned up nothing

Anyone know anything about them?


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## Gizaz (Nov 20, 2008)

I heard the Ratstravaganza(spelling?) was in Vancouver recently. I had wanted to go but missed it. Not sure when it was though.


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## courtuhknee (Jun 18, 2008)

I've never been to one, but I was on goosemoose.com recently and there was a thread mentioning the Spring Rodent Fest on May 2nd in Leesport, Pennsylvania. I reallyyyyy want to go!  It's pretty far from Canada.. but it's the only one I know of.. 

http://www.goosemoose.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,118/forum,rat/board,10.30


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## elizabethrae. (Dec 24, 2008)

thanks for replying but I'm a bit too far away 

know of anything in the Toronto/Ontario area?


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## little ratscals (Nov 3, 2008)

i was at the ratstravaganza in february. it was at holy trinity church in new westminster but it was really a small show. interesting tho. met a lot of other people that love rats. there were a lot of breeders from the states there too.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

There are NO rat shows in Canada beyond the one in BC...and those are US ratteries coming up to show in Canada. Canadians just don't have the same quality of rat as the U.S. Members and we also figured out that the shows often transmit those scary possibly deadly rat viruses that we do not see much at all in Canada.
There used to be rat shows until SDA took its toll and they figured it out years ago.

Most good rat shows have a VERY serious Quarantine period for their show aniimals both going to the show and coming back. It's normally a month of QT each time.


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## little ratscals (Nov 3, 2008)

do you think that that might have been what is making my rats sick? the fact that i went to the rat show? i mean i didnt go home for a couple of hours but now that i think about it, that might be it or am i just being paranoid?
i did see the cutest dwarf rat there. he was so cute. i didnt even know that there were dwarf i just thought that he was a baby!


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## Stace87 (Jun 24, 2008)

little ratscals said:


> do you think that that might have been what is making my rats sick? the fact that i went to the rat show?


It's always a possibility. Do you know of any other rat owners that went to the same show? Have their rats came down with anything showing the same symptoms as your rats?

I'm also a member on fancy-rats. After the Preston show, many rats have very quickly got extremely ill and unfortunately died.


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## little ratscals (Nov 3, 2008)

no i dont know anyone else that was at that show. i wish i knew someone else at the show to see if anything else happened to their rats.
seems so coincidental that after i went to the show my rats have gotten sick. rogue just passed away without any kind of symptoms. and allegra ended up with myco and mimz is really sick now. seems just too co incidental but then again i could be thinking it was the show and it was not the case. tough call


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

There are several things you can/should do after visiting an iffy situation that may carry communicable ratty diseases. You can stay away from your rats for over 3 hours...the viruses cannot live away from their host for that long, you can shower, change your clothes and remember to blow your nose! The SDA virus can live in your nasal passages waiting to transfer to your rat.

Even bringing home a new myco strain is a possibility.

I know a friend who ran into a petstore to grab bedding, never went near the rats, but came home and gave her and her friend's rats she was caring for, SDA  Quite a few died.  We figure it was on the bottom of her shoe.

These are reasons there should never be Playdates, and you have to be careful taking your rat out in public. I also know of a woman who took her rat to a children's reading circle. We guess one of the children had a rat and had handled it prior to going to the circle. The woman lost 10 of her 18 rats to SDA.


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