# YIPPEE!! My pet store is no longer selling rats!



## schnebbles (Nov 11, 2015)

I'm so happy about this news! I've nearly cried before when I had to sell feeders. I found out that corporate has decided rats can carry a dangerous bacteria and no longer wants to sell them. (I think their reasoning is stupid, but I'm not going to complain). People are going to be mad but not me! 

I just had to share with people who will understand


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## mis.kay (May 29, 2015)

Yay! I was really excited when my local pet store stopped selling rats. There are many others in the area but the one I shop at no longer does and that's good. Plus I don't have to pass them and force myself to move on instead of taking them all now. haha


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

It is awesome seeing a post on this that is happy 

Soooo many people keep complaining about their stores not carrying rats anymore ugh

This is a GOOD thing. 

Honestly not to sound like a total.... but anyone who sees it as a bad thing is such a horrid selfish person IMO


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## schnebbles (Nov 11, 2015)

I sell them as pets, but there are plenty of people on craigslist who also sell feeders and if anyone wants a pet, they can contact someone else. We are the only local petstore so people are going to be mad but too bad! I'm delighted I'll not have to sentence one to death by a snake. Everyone knows me and they all know I hate it, I have them get their own out. I should probably get in trouble, lol! If someone wants a pet, there are plenty of places to find one.


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## abratforarat (Jan 12, 2014)

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's great! So happy for you and the rats!


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Now if only people stopped buying store pet rats. Pet stores make much more money on pet rats than feeders because 1) many more people than one thinks get their pet rat from a pet store, and 2) people buy a cage, rat food, toys, litter...for their pet rat at that same store. If pet stores were only selling feeders to pet snake owners they would just stop carrying them entirely because it would just not make economical sense for them to keep selling them. Pet snake people buy their frozen feeders online, on Craigslist where it is much cheaper than getting a live feeder from any pet store. Not that many pet snake owner get a live pet rat from a pet store, if they go to a pet store at all to get feeders for their snake(s), it is mostly for frozen rats.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

I'm very happy your pet store stopped selling rats there are many cities in the US that also stopped selling live feeders. I can't remember which cities from the top of my head.


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## schnebbles (Nov 11, 2015)

Gribouilli said:


> Now if only people stopped buying store pet rats. Pet stores make much more money on pet rats than feeders because 1) many more people than one thinks get their pet rat from a pet store, and 2) people buy a cage, rat food, toys, litter...for their pet rat at that same store. If pet stores were only selling feeders to pet snake owners they would just stop carrying them entirely because it would just not make economical sense for them to keep selling them. Pet snake people buy their frozen feeders online, on Craigslist where it is much cheaper than getting a live feeder from any pet store. Not that many pet snake owner get a live pet rat from a pet store, if they go to a pet store at all to get feeders for their snake(s), it is mostly for frozen rats.


Where I live, I think we have quite a few. We sell more mice but people with ball pythons get the rats. The frozen don't sell well. I'm not sure I've ever sold a frozen rat. Very rarely a frozen mouse. 

I got my rats there because I work there. When I had snakes I ordered my mice online but I had a few snakes. if I had just one, that wouldn't be economical since you have to pay high shipping because they are frozen.


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I'm strangely torn on this one... Somehow I know that the snake owners are already scampering around for new food sources for their reptiles and most are likely to find rats somewhere... More than likely they are going to be supporting horrible BYB's... In my area, the dog manager started a rat delivery business out of his basement to pick up the slack for the store that he worked at that used to sell over 100 rats per week as feeders. He kept all of the connections from working at the store... both with the suppliers and the customers. I think he calls his new business... "Yum-Yum Rats and Mice"

And I'm also thinking that there are going to be people that are looking for pet rats without 'connections' that aren't going to find any... or worse yet have to go to the BYB's for rats.

I think that the best chance rats have for legitimacy and for protection is to become popular pets. I mean almost no one feeds puppies to large snakes and they don't use guinea pigs in labs anymore. Becoming popular pets is about the best thing that can happen to rats in the long run and making fancy rats really hard to get is going to reduce their numbers as pets.

Still, I don't like the way most stores treat their rats and I'm against rat mills. Perhaps, without feeder rats easily available at pet stores, fewer people will buy large snakes, which might be a good thing. My local big box pet store hasn't had a rat in in a long time too, Maybe it's a trend. 

I can see a lot of good in things changing, but I don't know if it's for the best yet... Things the way they are for rats is awful, but I think it was getting better... Maybe it is... I like that there are less pet shops selling feeder rats. I like the fact that there are less rats mistreated in stores and that rat mills might be losing business... But my local big box pet shop, that didn't sell feeder rats and doesn't seem to carry any rats anymore just got in a shipment of small fancy ball pythons.. I have a lot of trouble thinking that these snakes are going to eat daisies... Some people are going to buy those snakes, and they are going to need cheap rats to feed to them... So in all reality, the store didn't fix the problem, they just moved it outside their walls... And in the meantime folks that wanted pet rats aren't going to find them.

It took us three months to find our breeder... he doesn't over breed and he breeds fantastic rats... and he parts with a small number of rats to people who want them for pets at a fair price (not cheap)... But mostly rat breeding is a hobby... that supports his other more profitable hobby... breeding expensive fancy snakes.

Sadly, there is currently no profitable or sustainable business model for ethically breeding and selling pet rats. In order for a business model to work, rats would have to cost almost as much as pet dogs. And at $100.00 per rat or more, they wouldn't wind up as snake food... And after taxes and expenses that would mean that someone would still have to raise nearly 1000 rats per year to make a half decent living. And ethically raising 1000 rats per year is at least a full time job and a half. This fancy has a long way to go... Are we going in the right direction? 

Maybe and I hope so, but I'll wait a little while before I break out the champagne.


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