How I Got Started...
My little brother John (1990-2014) and I back in 1995 with my first rat, Pipsqueak.
When I was in fifth grade, I wanted a pet. My parents said if I did good in school , I could get one. (I had hip surgery and struggled to keep up with home-schooling.) So I worked hard, and at the end of the school year, I was allowed a pet. So off we went to the pet store to get a hamster. While I was pointing at the mesh cage, showing my parents which one I wanted, the hamster bit me through the mesh. I bled like crazy and cried. I did not want a pet anymore. A gentleman working at the pet store came over to me and leaned down. He asked if I wanted to say hi to his friends (he said their names but I can't remember them). I looked at him, and he had a rat on each shoulder!! Both were the friendliest I'd ever seen, and wanted to be scritched and petted. My parents weren't thrilled that I wanted a rat, but I'd worked hard and earned it. I went over to the rat cages and looked at what they had.
So my first rat came home with me (I didn't know back then to get him a friend), a tiny little siamese male I named Pipsqueak. Every time I touched him, he squeaked, and he was so tiny! I didn't know any better at the time, and he lived in a little 10 gallon tank. Not that he stayed in there much though- he was always riding on my shoulder, or in my lap, or playing on the floor with my sister's rat, Stripe, a cute and chubby lilac hooded male. They played outside in the grass a lot (which is where they got mites a few times...oops). We treated them, and they seemed healthy. Pippy loved veggies and stayed trim, while Stripe liked the junk food and got fat.
When Pipsqueak passed away, at around a year and a half old (crappy pet store breeding I guess, since he wasn't sick) I lost a part of my life. I never knew a rat could be someone's best friend. I vowed I'd have another one day, but the thought of getting another rat so soon was too much to handle.
I had a string of other critters, from a rescued hamster, to the guinea pig who died of cancer, to the momma guinea pig who gave me twins, a stray rabbit, a bearded dragon, and a few bottle-fed cats that never left. I also "rescued" a pair of rat girls from my sister. I finally decided that after the last guinea pig passed away, that I wanted another rat. The rabbit was elderly and didn't seem to mind small caged critters either. So I began researching the CORRECT way to have a pet rat. I researched for 2 and a half years, (through the 6.5 yr old guinea pigs babies' passing of kidney failure and a stroke, and the rabbits passing at 12) and decided to take the leap and get another rat. But I didn't want just any ol' pet store rat. I wanted one bred to live longer and healthier than my poor Pipsqueak did.
I looked at rescues first, but had my heart set on another siamese. None within a state's driving distance had any, and neither did any shelters, so I even looked in pet stores. None there either. I finally found a breeder 2 hours from me who was expecting two litters of siamese. I decided to get a 6 week old siamese girl (SNR Phailin Defies Gravity BSS), and a 5 month old himalayan male (SNR Riders On The Storm BSS), with the possibility of having a litter (the breeder mentored me in the beginning). They were the best two rats I'd ever seen! So friendly and licky. I ended up with another female (SNR Eight Belles BSS) and the male's brother (SNR Magic Carpet Ride BSS) so each would have a friend.
I fell so in love with breeder-bred rats, that most of my rats have either come from or descended from rats from SNR (SNR House Of Rats, La Plata, MD, now long retired from breeding). I even adopted a few of their retired breeders, so I could see how the parents of my rats were doing health-wise and temperament-wise. I decided I wanted to breed my rats so that other people would have the chance to meet a friendly, well-bred rat. Sometimes you get lucky and find a pet store rat like that, but it's few and far between. I wanted something consistent.
So my first rat came home with me (I didn't know back then to get him a friend), a tiny little siamese male I named Pipsqueak. Every time I touched him, he squeaked, and he was so tiny! I didn't know any better at the time, and he lived in a little 10 gallon tank. Not that he stayed in there much though- he was always riding on my shoulder, or in my lap, or playing on the floor with my sister's rat, Stripe, a cute and chubby lilac hooded male. They played outside in the grass a lot (which is where they got mites a few times...oops). We treated them, and they seemed healthy. Pippy loved veggies and stayed trim, while Stripe liked the junk food and got fat.
When Pipsqueak passed away, at around a year and a half old (crappy pet store breeding I guess, since he wasn't sick) I lost a part of my life. I never knew a rat could be someone's best friend. I vowed I'd have another one day, but the thought of getting another rat so soon was too much to handle.
I had a string of other critters, from a rescued hamster, to the guinea pig who died of cancer, to the momma guinea pig who gave me twins, a stray rabbit, a bearded dragon, and a few bottle-fed cats that never left. I also "rescued" a pair of rat girls from my sister. I finally decided that after the last guinea pig passed away, that I wanted another rat. The rabbit was elderly and didn't seem to mind small caged critters either. So I began researching the CORRECT way to have a pet rat. I researched for 2 and a half years, (through the 6.5 yr old guinea pigs babies' passing of kidney failure and a stroke, and the rabbits passing at 12) and decided to take the leap and get another rat. But I didn't want just any ol' pet store rat. I wanted one bred to live longer and healthier than my poor Pipsqueak did.
I looked at rescues first, but had my heart set on another siamese. None within a state's driving distance had any, and neither did any shelters, so I even looked in pet stores. None there either. I finally found a breeder 2 hours from me who was expecting two litters of siamese. I decided to get a 6 week old siamese girl (SNR Phailin Defies Gravity BSS), and a 5 month old himalayan male (SNR Riders On The Storm BSS), with the possibility of having a litter (the breeder mentored me in the beginning). They were the best two rats I'd ever seen! So friendly and licky. I ended up with another female (SNR Eight Belles BSS) and the male's brother (SNR Magic Carpet Ride BSS) so each would have a friend.
I fell so in love with breeder-bred rats, that most of my rats have either come from or descended from rats from SNR (SNR House Of Rats, La Plata, MD, now long retired from breeding). I even adopted a few of their retired breeders, so I could see how the parents of my rats were doing health-wise and temperament-wise. I decided I wanted to breed my rats so that other people would have the chance to meet a friendly, well-bred rat. Sometimes you get lucky and find a pet store rat like that, but it's few and far between. I wanted something consistent.