Choosing a Rat

The Rat Keepers Guide - Choosing your Rat

Things to look for when choosing a Rat:

Age - Baby rats should not be separated from their mothers before the age of six weeks, but be careful, it has been known for rats as young as three weeks to be on sale!
The perfect age to buy baby rats is when they are 6 to 8 weeks old.

Sex - Male rats have huge testicles and Females don't. Don't buy from places that keep male and females together, females can get pregnant from the age of 6 weeks!

Neither sex is better than the other, though they both have different characteristics:

Male	Female
large and chunky has large testes very laidback marks his territory with a lot of urine coat hair harsher than females	much smaller and slimmer no protruding genital organs very fast active, can be skittish, especially when on heat (for 5 hrs every 5 days or so) don't mark territory as often or with as much urine softer coats than males

Health -

	good	bad
red staining around eyes and nose		x
sneezing		x
scabs, flakey coat, excessive scratching		x
runny or smelly droppings		x
blood in urine or on rat		x
head permenently tilted		x
hunched posture and coat standing on end		x
bald patches (except in Rex's)		x
limping or lumps		x

Colour- this is down to individual choice. No one colour is better than another, though possibly strains like the Blue are a bit more inbred than many others. Siamese are sometimes said to be a bit aggressive, but this has not been proven. Check out the Colour Guide for more pictures and explanations.

Back to Guide Index | On to Feeding

If you have any tips that could be added, or if you have a query or amendment on any of the information given here, please email me.

This guide is not a be all and end all, therefore I do not accept liability for any illness or injury that results from use of any of the information provided here. Most advice has been tried and tested, but I am not a Vet and cannot predict every eventuality.