Our Ethics

Breeding
I breed my rats for health and temperament first and colour second. I want all my rats to live long and happy lives and for the owners to be able to enjoy the happiness that rats bring. I do hope to be able to breed excellent show quality rats with pets always being available.

I only sell kittens in same sex groups. Each pair is £25 or a trio £35 (Single kittens are £15 and must be homed with another kitten from a NFRS rattery). All my kittens are sold under PET only contracts at this time.

Please bear in mind that if you want a specific colour/variety that you might have to wait longer as I can't guarantee 100% what will be produced or the sex of the kittens.

If you would like to go on my waiting list then please e-mail me for an application form.

If for any reason during the rats life you are no longer able to care for them, please contact me so I can try and help you find them a new home or I will take them in.

Culling
RCT rats is a non-cull rattery. I do not believe any healthy rats should be killed because it is too old to breed from or can't be found a home. Any retired breeding rats or kittens who haven't found a home will either stay with me for life or be offered up for adoption. I do occasional have older does available for homing. For more information, please contact me.

All my rats are pets first regardless of any breeding plans.

Health tracking
I do everything in my power to keep a track of my lines and monitor my plans I will e-mail the owners of the kittens to ask for a report on the health and temperament of any rats I have bred, approx every 6 months. . This will hopefully show me if there are any problems in my lines and help me improve my plans to breed healthy litters in the future.

Vet care
Any animal which appears to be or is ill it will be taken to our vet for treatment. If a rat in our care has no hope of recovery they are taken to the vet to be humanely given euthanasia.

Albion Street, Chipping Norton, OX7 5BN - Telephone 01608 642547
This is the vets that I take my rats too when they require treatment

Cages & Play time
My rats are housed across 4 cages. I have 3 Explorers and a Abode. I have 4 groups (2 female and 2 male) and each group has a maximum of 10-12 rats.

Each cage has the shelves wiped down daily and the litter trays are emptied and refreshed every 48 hours. A full cage clean is done once a week, which includes the removal of all the toys and hammocks and replaced with new items.

I use Bedmax as my main cage substrate with Back 2 Nature in the litter trays. Freshly torn newspaper is used in the igloos and changed every 3 days.

The rats live in a purpose built shed which houses the cages and all their toys and products.

All my groups get at least 1 hour free range time everyday. On some occasions this can be more than 2 hours per group per day.

Food
All my rats are fed on the Shunamite Diet with extra's which include fresh vegs, occasionally fresh fruit, dog biscuts, mealworms, EMP plus lots of other goodies. Please see my General Information page for more information.

Fresh water is always available.