# At PetCo: "Species: Small Rat"?



## AshleighNicole (Dec 3, 2013)

I was at PetCo yesterday, and was wondering about something. The regular rats for sale said "Fancy Rats" and beside them, there were rats half the size that said "Small Rats".
What is the difference, other than size?
I am assuming the two cannot be housed together?

They were just soooo cute, and only $5, I really want one! My girls may be "Small Rats". I always ooh and ahh over everyone else's huge rats, mine are so tiny. These did look smaller than mine though... Is anyone here knowledgeable on the subject?


----------



## Finnebon (Jul 15, 2013)

It just means that they're young. Petco doesn't differentiate between pet rats and feeder rats, so they sort them by size as food. So when someone comes in to feed a snake they can decide if they want a small rat (young) or a large rat (adult) to feed the snake. Which is why the bigger rats are more expensive since they're technically more "food". :S

They're just regular cute young babies though.


----------



## AshleighNicole (Dec 3, 2013)

Wow, I wish she could have just told me that ~___~
I'll be getting a baby girl then. Thank you!


----------



## MrsTefee (Dec 1, 2013)

Yup it just means they are babies. When it says "small" "medium" or "Large" its just the way they sort the rats at the size they are at that moment. Every rat will eventually get medium-large size once they grow up. They do this for feeder purposes.


----------



## zombiesrkewl (Nov 28, 2013)

So would the 'Large' feeder bin be mostly filled with adult males and the 'medium' with adult females? Just curious because we don't have a Petco in my town.


----------



## rattiblue1 (Dec 25, 2013)

Interesting! I didn't know that either! The other day I saw an adorable small gray female... tempted to get it... but I didn't because I don't have the time currently to do the whole intro process with my current rats.....


----------



## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

zombiesrkewl said:


> So would the 'Large' feeder bin be mostly filled with adult males and the 'medium' with adult females? Just curious because we don't have a Petco in my town.


Petco usually only carries one gender, so it would just be old (gender) adult (gender) and baby (gender) 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## RexRat (Nov 29, 2013)

Does PetSmart do the same?


----------



## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

RexRat said:


> Does PetSmart do the same?


Petsmart does not sell feeder rats. They sell fancy or dumbo, of one gender. 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## MrsTefee (Dec 1, 2013)

zombiesrkewl said:


> So would the 'Large' feeder bin be mostly filled with adult males and the 'medium' with adult females? Just curious because we don't have a Petco in my town.


Well like another said petco is different because (depending on store) will only sell one gender so it will be consistent to whatever that gender is. So large female (adult) or large male (adult) vs medium female (teenager) medium male (teenager) vs small female (baby) small male (baby) its just relative to whatever age they are. At my local petshop where they have feeder bins they sell them this way large female (adult size) vs large male (adult size) etc.


----------

