Eva's Rat Breeding Rules

Eva's Home Page Eva's Cavy Page Eva's Natal Rat Page Eva's Mouse Page Eva's Hamster Page Eva's Gerbil Page Eva's Rat Page Eva's Rat FAQ Eva's Rat Articles Eva's Rat Aggression Scale Page

This page will contain my personal experiences and views about how to breed nice tempered rats - Rattus norwegicus. Also check the Eva's Rat Aggression Scale Page.

The Most Important Issue When Breeding Rats As Pets Or Show Rats - Is Temperament

The best way to breed only nice-tempered rats and no biters is to use the Rat Aggression Scale heavily. You will only want to use rank 1 rats for breeding. If the rats in question are both rank 1 and all their relatives for generations back are rank 1 too, you will get mostly rank 1 rats in your litters and an occasional rank 2 rat. Those rank 2 rats are never to be used in breeding because they will produce rank 3 and rank 4 rats, thus destroying your rattery.

If you have just found a pair of rank 1 rats after searching high and low, but you don't know their pedigree, you should not expect more than a few rank 1 rats in the litter. Be sure to keep those!

What Do I Do With All Those Rats That Are Not Rank 1

In order to make a rattery that produces only rank 1 rats you might have to a lot of matings. Even if you find a few rank 1 rats they may only produce a few rank 1 rats. You should only keep the rank 1 rats for breeding. Rats of rank 2 and 3 are often very good pet rats, but they produce biters when bred, so sell those as pets to people who will not breed from them.

Has Anyone Ever Succeeded In Producing A Line Of Rank 1 Rats?

Yes. Runatun Rattery has, with help from me and Ann-Zophie Pålsson. It took several years and included close surveillance of all the rats to really rank all the rats correctly. This started with a rank 1 rat called Ikaros and Apollonias Inadanllonia, called Ina. Ikaros was my pet, a silver fawn rex, rank 1 rat. Ina was Ann-Zophie's rat, she had an unusual colour that I have not seen before or after, based on beige and german blue. We now know she also carried english blue. These rats was used for one mating, so I never saw that much of Ina, I can't tell exactly what rank she was, but it was certainly not rank 1! 4 of the ratties from this litter ended up at Runatun Rattery, and from those we by hard work established a very good line of rank 1 rats. It took a few years, though.

Written by Eva Johansson.