# No more rats in Alaska



## missorie (Oct 14, 2014)

In my town, we have two places to get small animals and birds. Petco, and a local pet shop. A few days ago, I got a super pet deluxe habitat as a temporary cage for the two boys I got from the same pet shop. The owners of the small shop are close friends of my entire family, and they get all their animals as rescued and from out of state individually owned breeders. After quickly learning that without building any shelves or a new too for the cage, it would be restricted on toys to hang, and cleaning would be a hassle. So, I went out today to find a larger, nicer cage for my boys, without spending 50+ on shipping to Alaska. On my quest, I wandered into petco to see if they Carried anything better. Stopping by the small mammals, I was surprised to see not one rat. A couple hamsters, guineapigs and ferrets, but not a rat. A woman was filling a lower tank (rather atrociously) with mice, and I stopped to ask her. What she said surprised me. Petco wasn't carrying rats or rat products anymore, as they weren't even bought as feeders. Eventually they would grow too old, and petco would bring them to the animal shelter or simply let them loose. As I am glad that they are no longer treating rats harshly, I'm just thinking of all the other animals in the shop who are treated terribly.


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## Raticle_Rats (Oct 8, 2014)

Makes my heart sick to think of those rats who don't get loving homes from places like Petco. I can't believe they would just let them loose... Poor babies


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## missorie (Oct 14, 2014)

Unfortunately up here it's fairly common for unwanted pets to be let loose or shot. Welcome to the north. Love my state, not a fan of most the pet owners


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## PawsandClaws (Jul 22, 2014)

How sad. Never been a huge fan of big chain pet stores.


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## shayfoxx (Oct 13, 2014)

We lived on kodiak with only one local pet store and had to get all our from feeder bins, and order everything online, it wasnt very fun


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## missorie (Oct 14, 2014)

Oh I know exactly what you mean. Icant get anything decent without outrageous shipping fees


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## Tesumph (Aug 12, 2014)

That's interesting. I was born in Juneau and wanted to go back someday (for months or years). I knew shipping was outrageous, but I didn't think about not having certain animals at all.


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## missorie (Oct 14, 2014)

Yeah it sucks, but Juneau is my home town and the most beautiful town to be in, so I'm willing to pay crazy prices to get my darlings, and to make sure they're happy. I've found a few breeders who will send them


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## missorie (Oct 14, 2014)

And there's always ferries


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## shayfoxx (Oct 13, 2014)

yea ferries are nice when you are close we only have rusty tusty haha


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## rubysrats (Jul 28, 2014)

I live in Kodiak, there hasn't been a pet store here in a long time. I got my rats in the lower 48 and flew them up on Alaska Airlines for $100. I got a SCN that shipped free on Amazon. That is where I get food and supplies too. My issue is that I didn't know that PEWs are the only type legal in AK so I can't get vet care :tired_face:. I just have a big emergency kit and know to get PEWs in the future. I think flying them (if you are heading south) would be lots cheaper than shipping.


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## shayfoxx (Oct 13, 2014)

yea i havent lived there for almost 7 years now, our first rats were just feeder bins of a friend who breed for their snakes, neither of ours were PEWs we knew the vet really well who was there then and got some side help from a tech (she taught us what to do and look for and some dosing tips), but its changed so much since then


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## missorie (Oct 14, 2014)

Yes when I was about seven we had hooded and PEW, and then up until a few years ago my step mom had an agouti, but when I went in for these boys there wasn't even a feeding bin, and the owner told me the red eyed are only legal type because of infestation problems or something? Made me kinda upset, blues are so beautiful. But I'm happy with my little PEWs. It'll just be harder to have more than two unless I'm constantly coloring all their bums with food dye, haha


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## rubysrats (Jul 28, 2014)

Well Shay, small world... I have lived here for 7 1/2 years so we probably overlapped by a few months. Might have stood by you in line at Walmart :smile::smile:


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## shayfoxx (Oct 13, 2014)

haha probably I was only a freshman in high school then


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