# How did you choose YOUR rat(s)?



## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

From browsing around here for a while it seems like people have some pretty cool stories about how they got their rats, so I wanted to start a thread to get an idea of what it is about your rats that drew you to them (if anything) from personality to looks to those stories about how you really just wanted another rat and BOOM! there one was.

I'll start, eh?

My newest two I did not choose at all. My housemate picked them up and, even though they weren't at all what she thought she'd be getting (from a breeder on CL) she brought them home and realized she wasn't set up to have girls and boys, so we agreed to take them off her hands. 

My Nirvash is my only real pet store rat. We had to split our original three up at one point because of cage issues, so Yuki needed a friend. We had actually picked out a little fawn hooded baby but when they opened the cage to get the girl we'd picked out out, the pile of baby rats scattered to reveal a tiny little champagne girl who yawned and stretched her hand up to grab my finger and that was that.

Yuki, our third rescue girl, was alone in a cage after she'd been surrendered to PetCo, and while that in itself was probably enough to get me to take her home, she was sleeping in a ball with her head under her body on her exercise wheel. She seemed super quirky so we couldn't say no, and she is still our silliest little rattie. 

Our first girls, Lulu and Euphie, were from CL. Except that the reason we were at the house where they were was that we were picking up some supplies for our fish in response to a different CL ad, and the lady who had the fish stuff had them out on her front porch waiting for someone to respond to the ad and pick them up. They kept reaching for us with their tiny little hands and, totally unplanned, we adopted two furry babies.

How about you?


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## Skaila (Dec 17, 2012)

My momo was in a feeder bin and was the only naked rattie. That wasn't enough though! She'd been picked on by the other rats, bitten and scratched up, but on the mend. When I picked her up she went up my sleep immediately and fell asleep. She was just so scared of being in there... so I brought her home~ 
My Yuki (cute name, huh?~) wasn't so obvious. In fact, at first I was worried she might not like being with us. I picked her out of a PetCo cage of 12 baby rats as the cleanest and healthiest looking youngster. Boy, she's given us a great surprise in being even more handle-friendly than Momo! She loves being picked up and is a sweety~


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## HeatherElle (Aug 16, 2012)

Bilbo, our Agouti, came from a pet store. We bought him with his brother Frodo and they were our re-introduction to the rat world after almost 10 years of being ratless. They were the last two babies in the feeder bin and were huddled in a corner together, I just couldn't leave them. Unfortunately, Frodo died when he was only 8.5 weeks old. 

Ratticus, our black hooded, had been surrendered as an adult to Petco by his former owners. He was all alone in a ten gallon aquarium and scared. They said he was a biter and had been there for a few months. I walked by him several times over the course of a few weeks before I finally just bit the bullet and took him home. I can't imagine not having him now, he's our funniest rat and is NOT a biter. 

Dobby came along after Frodo died. We wanted Bilbo to have another baby to play with since Ratticus was so much older, so we found a breeder who had some babies the same age as Bil. He's a hairless blue hooded dumbo. He's a big baby, a total sweetheart and my husband's favorite.

About a month ago we got Colby and Monty from someone on craigslist. They also came with their brother Percy, who was very sick and just passed away a few days ago. We actually weren't specifically looking for more rats when I found their ad. Though we'd been toying with the idea of getting another, I was actually searching for more cages. I wanted an extra to have on hand in case someone was sick or injured, etc. This guy was giving away a ferret nation and several smaller cages and was also looking for a home for 3 rats, one of whom was sick and needed to see a vet asap. We took the whole package! I spent the last month doting on Percy and I don't regret a thing.


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## thesmallerprint (Oct 28, 2012)

Juno and Cassie are from a pet store, as there aren't any breeders near me  I got them both at the same time but chose Cassie first. She's a agouti berkshire and she was so bold and curious, so I had to get her. I got Juno because she was hooded like the first rat I had and had dumbo ears, which I love. There was the added bonus of when I got home and had a look at her more closely, I noticed her curly whiskers and learnt all about rex rats.

My biggest regret was not getting these two other rats that were there, a blue self and a fawn self. They were both so pretty, but I knew I could only really afford and have time for 2 rats (3 at a push but I wouldn't have been able to pick between them!)


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## JLSaufl (Jan 20, 2013)

I rescued both of mine from the adoption bin at Petsmart. They were all snuggled up under their wheel and I couldn't help but take them both. They're both hooded, just like my first rat, Charlie. These two boys have never given me trouble, they're so sweet and great. Now i'd like to get another but my husband is threatening to move out.


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

JLSaufl said:


> I rescued both of mine from the adoption bin at Petsmart. They were all snuggled up under their wheel and I couldn't help but take them both. They're both hooded, just like my first rat, Charlie. These two boys have never given me trouble, they're so sweet and great. Now i'd like to get another but my husband is threatening to move out.


Awww, I hope he's joking! Does he have issues with rats, or just with the idea of many, many rats?


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

this could take a while ;D

Charles - Fawn hooded. November 5th, 2010. Einstein - Black hooded. November 5th, 2010. Basically, I was bored, I wanted to go check out petsmart. I had a science experiment I was doing for Science fair that had rats, because I wanted rats. I saw these 2 guys in one of the tanks, and I just had to have them. my dad said no But later that night they said that they were going to the "store" be back in 2 hours and to clean up my room.  I wasn't that stupid, so that's how we got them. Now we were suppose to Only get Charles, But when they took Charles out of the tank Einstein cried, and my mom didn't have the heart to leave him so Einstein was her rat, and Charles was my rat.

Soda - Russian Beige hooded, Storm - Black variberk Dumbo satin - August 13th, 2011. Einstein had passed away (July 17th, 2011) and Charles was lonely. So we went back to the same one and picked them out. Storm was all alone, so I wanted to take him. The Second I put my hand into Soda's cage, he immediately jumped up my arm and started boggling in my ear. Love at first sight. His cage mate at that time (a black hooded) wasn't interested in people, so we didn't take him. I hope he got a good home. the rat lady at the time was super nice, and knew a lot about rats actually. She was actually concerned if we knew they had to live in pairs. When we told her that one of our rat's friends had died she was very happy we were getting him more friends. She also played with them a lot from what I saw.

Liam - Black variberk Dumbo, Bentley - Black Dumbo. Born Oct. 30th, 2012. we got them December 1st? 2 brothers from my friend, she has male and females and at the time only had 1 of each gender who needed friends, well there was some mis-aging and apparently the two new rats they got were older then what they thought, so the female had babies (10, 4 females, 6 males). Charles had passed away (August 14th, 2012) so I was ready to get more rats. Both of these guys just kept running up to me, and they would just fall asleep on me. So we got them.

Niko - Black Variberk Rex. Liam and Bentley's brother. Ok, so before I got Liam and Bentley there was a third rat who also kept coming up to me, but I could only get 2. Well, he apparently didn't get adopted along with one brother. My friend couldn't keep both, just one, so when I saw Niko again I knew it meant something. He was also the one that became my shortest introduction ever. 2 Hours max. Storm didn't even bother getting out of his cage to see him, when Niko was put in the cage, Storm went up to him and Niko stood up to "challange him" but the second Storm touched him he fell over. And that was when Storm was cool with him.

Now Storm thinks all three brothers are His babies, so he keeps cuddling up with them acting like a big mean old parent  Oh and I must admit, while Storm may be the "meanist" (Jerk) rat I've had, he is probably my favorite. Not sure why, it's just his attitude, something about it just makes me love him. Plus everytime I hold him or he is on my lap he keeps boggling so maybe that's why.


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## JessyGene (Feb 27, 2012)

I adopted my 3 girls, Lily, Rue, and Piper, from the SPCA. At the time my rat, Koko, was still alive and needed a companion. I was only planning to get two babies for her but when I got to the SPCA I saw that there were 3 sisters and I couldn't leave one behind so I got all three. I got my boy, Jimi, off of CL. He was living all alone in a tiny empty cage on pine shavings so I really wanted to help him. He is also a siamese like Koko was (and she was a very very special rat) so I fell in love with him the moment I saw his pic on CL. 

As for past rats:
-Koko and Loki came from a feeder bin. Koko was incredibly friendly and loved me right away so I couldn't part with her. My boyfriend picked out Loki.
-Nim, Mozi, and Mylu came from a pet store. I picked them because they were friendly and were cute.
-Radigan and Miligan were given to me by my brothers for my birthday
-Ezzi and Olly came from someone who bred rats for their snake. I didn't pick them out, the lady just kept two females alive for me.


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## Willieboo (Oct 22, 2012)

Mocha came from the "feeder bin" at PetCo. She was so tiny then! There were plenty of other rats that were agouti colored like her, but I chose her because the tip of her tail was pink and the rest was dark brown. At the time I thought that the tail tip was a super unique trait (it was before I started doing homework on rat coloring), little did I know it was a common trait of a few different colorings (like Berkshire, I think), haha.
LouLou came from PetSmart, at a little under medium size. I actually chose her because she was sleeping squished between the back of the igloo and the glass of the tank, while the rest of her mates were inside it. She was the only one that would let me pick her up, had ruby eyes, was fawn-hooded, and had a white raindrop-shape patch on her head, right in the middle. I love the rain--and she was so calm, so I took her home to be Mo's friend. 
Pretty standard story for me (no amazing rescues or anything), but picking those two out of all the others remains a very special moment in my heart.


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## Eden10 (Aug 11, 2012)

Gomez- My Agouti Hooded is my first rat, I bought him & his brother who I believe was a Mink Self...sadly this little boy passed away the next day unexpectedly leaving me very confused & heartbroken...I went back to the store & they offered to replace him...but I just took the refund.

Fester- My Double Rex Dumbo Himalayan [mouthful! ] I adopted him off of CL from a lady who I believe had bought him as a 'novelty' gift for her kids who for whatever reason didn't like him...probably his red eyes? I know a lot of kids who are freaked out by albino animals. Anyway, she just wanted him gone & I gladly took him & he became Gomez' new brother.

Herman- Was a surprise gift from my fiance, he had gone to the reptile store to get food for our reptiles & came back with this tiny blue hairless rattie who he said he saw in the feeder bin & thought of me LOL! He had a HUGE swollen eye which my fiance didn't notice until I took him out of the box [men ] Luckily, with regular bathing the swelling went down within 48hrs...but this guy is still having eye issues & we're looking at a vet trip as the next step.

Eddie- I forgot his 'breed' black capped blaze?? LOL. But, hes my newest addition & Herman's BFF...he was from a feeder bin [different store from Herman] Cute little guy with pretty markings & a laid back temperament.


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## IGotTheMusicInMe (Dec 6, 2012)

My girl Scootaloo came from Petco with her cagemate, Itsy. My roommate and I both wanted rats, and decided to go halvesies on a nice cage and supplies. I picked Scoot because she had the prettiest coloring (she's an albino hooded Himalayan). I forget why my roomie picked Itsy. Last month, my roommate looked at her class schedule and realized that she wouldn't really have time to give Itsy the attention she needed, so 'custody' passed on to me. We were both pleased because I wouldn't have to get a new rat and Itsy and Scootaloo wouldn't be separated from the only cagemates they'd ever known.


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## iHayleyNorris (Jul 28, 2012)

All 5 of my guys were rescues.


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

IGotTheMusicInMe said:


> My girl Scootaloo came from Petco with her cagemate, Itsy. My roommate and I both wanted rats, and decided to go halvesies on a nice cage and supplies. I picked Scoot because she had the prettiest coloring (she's an albino hooded Himalayan). I forget why my roomie picked Itsy. Last month, my roommate looked at her class schedule and realized that she wouldn't really have time to give Itsy the attention she needed, so 'custody' passed on to me. We were both pleased because I wouldn't have to get a new rat and Itsy and Scootaloo wouldn't be separated from the only cagemates they'd ever known.


Scootaloo and Itsy might be the cutest names I've ever seen... just saying.


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## Rumy91989 (Dec 31, 2012)

iHayleyNorris said:


> All 5 of my guys were rescues.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


No more elaboration? Rescue stories are always so interesting! Why did you decide to rescue? Where'd you rescue from? Etc. XD


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## Ruka (Dec 20, 2012)

Zazzle was a rescue, he came into the SPCA with the rest of his litter and his momma.
They were surrendered because the owner didn't want them, poor ratties... 

He's a black Berkshire, nothing fancy, but I fell in love!!
He came right out to me and licked my nose.

He's an amazing shoulder rat and a huge cuddle-monster.

Zazzle








Spooky was from a local breeder, he's a PEW Dumbo, the mother was a chocolate, the father a silver. His siblings were all parts of fancy, but the breeder was worried that Spooky might have issues finding a home because he was plain, and lab rat looking. 
I bought him and he's a sweetie. Though he lives up to his name, he gets spooked VERY easily, we are working in building up his confidence!!

Spooky








Spindle, well, he's e most interesting story out of ANY rats I've ever had!!
After introducing my ratties to the apartment complex, just in case those how escape our apartment we don't want them being mistaken for wild vermin...

About a week later I went out the door to get the nail, and there was a box, there was a note saying 'to the rat lady' and inside was my Spindle. About three weeks old.

We think he was meant to be snake chow but the snake refused to feed.

Either way, he's my adorable little fellow.
He's a little shy, and reserved, but a love bug with a passion for noodles and fishing for any crumbs and crackers my son shoves between the couch cushions..


Spindle with a fishie cracker he found in the couch.









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## iHayleyNorris (Jul 28, 2012)

Well, my first guy, Splinter, I got out of a feeder bin. My second two, Remmy and Algernon, were gonna be dinner. And my two hairless boys, Rufus and Captain Harold Peachfuzz, were bred to be snake food. Unfortunately, because of that, the older of my two hairless boys is always sickly. But I couldn't let them be dinner. They're all so sweet. I love them all. 


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## Ruka (Dec 20, 2012)

iHayleyNorris said:


> Well, my first guy, Splinter, I got out of a feeder bin. My second two, Remmy and Algernon, were gonna be dinner. And my two hairless boys, Rufus and Captain Harold Peachfuzz, were bred to be snake food. Unfortunately, because of that, the older of my two hairless boys is always sickly. But I couldn't let them be dinner. They're all so sweet. I love them all.
> 
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Captain Harold Peachfuzz.. I LOVE THAT NAME! Lol


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## lcs (Feb 7, 2012)

I have wanted rats on and off for several years and last year I decided my kids were old enough and it was time. Within a week of looking around I found and ad on Craigslist from a woman who had adopted two females and both were pregnant - 17 babies! By the time I contacted her there were only a couple boys left so me and the kids went to take a look. Turns out there was only one black hooded dumbo with a blaze left - my son named him Toothpaste. No idea where that name came from! She agreed to hold him for me until my cage arrived and was set up. I knew I wanted (and he needed) two more so I got in contact with the woman she got her girls from. Turns out this woman does animal shows/demonstrations for the local public and breeds the rats as food for her reptiles. I did get two boys from her - a gray hooded and a blue, both dumbos. The gray is my 5 year old daughter's and after about three months and nine name changes, he eventually became Ratty and mine is the blue, Po.

They're all sweet, but I definitely have noticed a difference in their personalities as a result, I think, of Toothpaste having been handled as a baby and the other two having lived in a cage, tossed in a box, and then brought to a strange place. They're not as outgoing or adventurous as Toothpaste and even after almost a year of having them, Po still won't eat when he's sitting on any of us. Although he does give my son tons of kisses!


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## abisillyface (Jan 25, 2013)

I've wanted rats for over five years, so for the longest time I thought, "I'll get two boys when I get out of college and I'll name them Raichu and Raticate."

Anyway, about two weeks ago my mom & I went to a flea market and mostly I was just there to people watch and coo over the puppies and stuff. And also at this particular flea market I had heard that there were a bunch of unusual pets like deer and geese so I was hoping they'd have a few rats. Anyway we get there and my mom split ways from me to explore for purses and stuff. As it was nearing when we said we were gonna go home, I suddenly got a call from her and she was like, "Abi I found rats!" And after a few hilarious moments of trying to find my way to the rat booth and getting lost, I finally got there. 

My mom mistook the baby rats for mice, and the ladies selling them were really nice about it. They had rexes in one and dumbos in the other and then fully grown males in another.

Anyway, I stuck my hand in the dumbo cage and there was one that came up to be and was really friendly and licking me the most and so I picked him up and he eventually became my Kwon. My mom picked another while I was looking and the one she picked would become Choi.

Originally my mom was like, "We are not leaving this flea market with another pet." But the ratlets were just so cute, and I had been so depressed since my beloved pet rabbit passed, I think my mom took pity on me.

So yeah, now I have my Kwonnie & my Choi-boy and they're little punks and I love them so much, haha.


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## EndlessDream (Jul 9, 2012)

My two boys were a birthday present, although I got to pick them out. The day before we had put my 16-year-old cat to sleep from cancer, so I needed another couple of cute furry friends. I picked Martin out easily; I visited the local pet store two weeks before just to see the rats, and he was a huuuge licker, stole my heart right there by loving all over my hand. So of course I was very happy to see that when I went to pick out rats later there he was still! There were three other rats with him and only one of them was as eager for attention, so Matthias was the one that came home with me too. Turns out they were brothers and had been there "a while" so I'm glad I got them!

Sadly the pet shop has since burned down. They were very socialized rats. Hand raised and fed, and it shows.


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## Jess Of TheFatRatChannel (Jan 31, 2013)

I searched for my two latest rats for a few years (they are both hairless). I wanted to find the healthiest babies i could and these two, Merlin and Gaius cam from a line of hairless rats with no history of tumors and their granddad was alive and kicking at five years old! We had to drive a little out of our way to get to them but it was worth it. Originally we planned on getting one, to join my two furry boys Albie and Bobby, but when we got there the breeder told us the rat we had chosen had one brother left and my dad decided we shouldn't split them up haha. He said he pictured himself as a rat and imagine his brother getting taken away from him!!! So i ended up taking two adorable boys home who are both happy and healthy!


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## ILoveMyMonsters (May 25, 2012)

Axl - He and his two brothers were being sold at the PetSmart I work at. He was the only black one (I had always wanted a black rat!) and even as a baby, it was obvious just how intelligent he was. He is probably the smartest rat I have owned so far and he loves to lick. I just wish his pretty silvered black coat wasn't rusting so badly. 

Tanto - My last male pair had died, so I wanted a friend for Axl (who was only a baby at the time). I just happened to check Petfinder and found a group of boys at a local humane society, which was surprising since rats can be hard to come by in shelters near me. I went over there to look at his brother/or-maybe-son, who made it clear he wanted nothing to do with me. The others were the same way, and I was ready to give up when Tanto got my attention because of his unusual coat. He looked nothing like the others - like the archetypal mangy mutt. He was sweet and loved being cuddled, so I brought him home. He can be sweet in his own way, but is very independent and does not like being held for long periods of time. He's getting older (1.5 years old, minimum), so he's getting cranky, but still has his moments.


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