# My Petsmart gets their rats from a local breeder!



## DumboMom (Jan 29, 2012)

I went into Petsmart today to get more information on the dumbo rats they had before I get my ratty boys next week. Come to find out, the manager in charge of that section told me that they get their rats from a local breeder. I thought that was amazing. At first I didn't believe her and asked her if she was pulling my leg but she wasn't. I had heard so many bad things about Petco and I thought Petsmart would be the same. I asked her if I could inspect one of her rats and she allowed me to. He looked nice and healthy and was very friendly. He instantly wanted to get cuddly with me and let me pet him. I just posted this to let you guys no that not all pet stores are bad. I would trust Petsmart over Petco anyday.


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## 1a1a (May 6, 2011)

There's a non chain pet store in my neighbourhood which I've always thought poorly of (the rats are in aquariums, no where to hide, always lots of poo, always older than average too). Turns out they breed their own and (from the experience of others), produce animals with good temperaments and few health issues. Furthermore, they don't sell them until 10 weeks of age (so I suppose, leave them with the mother for quite some time.)


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## Kiko (Sep 18, 2009)

Not opening this can of worms right now.....
Ugh


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## GhostMouse (Sep 6, 2011)

Just because the breeder is local doesn't mean they are good. A responsible breeder would make sure they knew where their rats were going. By selling them to a pet store, any random person off the street could buy their rats. Said person could keep this rat by itself in a 10 gallon aquarium on pine shavings and feed them hamster seed mix. Said person could decide to breed them just for fun to have cute babies, and keep all the rats in a 20 gallon tank. Said person could feed it to a snake, or abuse it in some other way. I won't go on. The pet store does not check the buyer to make sure they are responsible, and by allowing their rats to be sold this way, the breeder is showing that they do not care about the rats' well-being, but rather about making money.

There are probably other issues with this set up as well, but this is what instantly comes to mind when I read your post.


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## Jaguar (Nov 15, 2009)

That is NOT a good thing. For the exact reasons GhostMouse stated. Breeders should ALWAYS keep in touch with the owners of their rats so they can know about their current care, and their health, temperament, and all those things they strive to breed for. 

This breeder has NO idea what is becoming of their rats, and that is awful. Petsmart and Petco do not care who they sell their rats to. Would a breeder EVER give rats to someone without bothering to even ask what they're going to do with the rats, or how they plan to care for them?

What if the rats have some awful genetic predisposition to get tumors when they age? What if they get so aggressive when they turn 6 months old you can't handle them because they bite? This "breeder" will NEVER know anything about the lines they are producing and that is a VERY terrible thing.

We are quite strongly against mills/BYB's/unethical breeding over here and if you read the SITE RULES you would have seen that. This is not a great thing to post your first time on the site, and this WILL get ugly... fast. 

Please refrain from posting controversial stuff like this. Everyone has their own opinions, but the hard fact is, this is NOT a breeder, but someone who is looking to make a quick dollar.

I am going to lock this thread now.


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