History

Breeding your perfect pet!

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History

The lesser known royal pet.....

History of the Fancy Rat

The earliest record of rats as pets begins in the late 19th century. Professional "Rat Catchers" were employed in Europe by town government officials and were paid per rat to rid the towns of rat infestations. One of the best known rat catchers was Jack Black, rat catcher to Queen Victoria around 1840-1860. He was known for collecting rats of attractive color and pattern to breed and train as pets. As the rats became more and more domesticated people began to enjoy them widely as pets. The term 'Rat Fancy' was coined, not as commondly believed to mean fancy appearing rats but actually because it became all the rage to 'Fancy' rats.

The first known rat show was held October 24th, 1901 in England. To fancy rats had become a formalized hobby when Mary Douglas requested permission to bring her black hooded rat to the Aylesbury Town show of the National Mouse Club. The rat won "Best in Show" and a new generation of rat lovers was born. This phase of rat fancy lasted until 1931 as part of the National Rat and Mouse Club causing widespread acceptance of the hobby throughout Europe.

The Hobby was revived in the 1970's. The British National Fancy Rat Society came into being in 1976 and the National Fancy Rat Society moved into the United States. The Rat and Mouse Club of America was created in the late 1980's and achieved it's title as one of the leaders in rat fancy when it made it's presence known on the world wide web in 1995.

To this day thousands of Americans continue to learn new things about rat strains, breeding, medical care, nutrition, behavior and training. I see many, many facts posted to books and websites and even more opinions. It is my firm belief that before we ever became involved in the keeping and care of rats they were surviving through things humans cannot, eating things that humans cannot and thriving in conditions humans never could. It is awesome how people dive into the "proper" care and breeding of their rats but I never forget, they did it even better without us. We are just enjoying our part in a process nature already had a pretty firm handle on.

My Background

When I left home at 16 I hitchhiked to Kentucky and joined the carnival. It was a hard, dirty life and I was ready for it. I took my paycheck to the pet store as soon as possible and got a pet rat. This was an ideal pet for traveling and I learned a lot from Elijah. He was a black dumbo rex and he became the talk of the place. I joined the Army in 1994 and as I moved from state to state I adopted more rats than I can remember, all different, all my favorites. I read about them online, went into every pet store and humane society I could find and bought any book available. I knew that someday my rats would be a steady part of a forever home and I learned all I could to be ready. I had hairless, dumbos, rex, hooded, siamese and selfs. I spent hours in my living room building my first wire cage, it was one of the happiest days of my life. It was ok, in hindsight, not great, but the two hairless rats I had at the time spent little time in it so it worked fine.

Now, 18 years later, I'm 33 years old. Have been out of the Army for 3 years and have settled down back in Maine, where I began. I have a significant other who is more of a plant and cat person but he is very understanding. I have started my very amateur rattery, calling it "Bit's of Maine". I wanted to have a theme and this works very well. All of my rats will be named for something Maine, a town, a tree, an animal, a historical figure all about Maine. I will have everything in colors that represent Maine, greens, browns and white. I love to plan and organize so this hobby will be all encompassing. My goal for 2008 is to have 8 established pairs of rats, 4 does, 4 bucks. I want to build 2 racks of cages and a play station for my little mischief to take turns in. By 2009 my partner Bob and I plan to buy a house and build a little rat room or shed that will become my formal headquarters for Bit's of Maine. If I can I will get together a collection of rat lovers in Maine who would like to socialize and share their rats. With that move I will have an actual live club and I will feel that Bit's of Maine is formally a success.

For now, we have a corner in the basement, which is dry and clean but as with everything it needs work (my house is very tiny and we smoke so the rats can't be in the main rooms) and my young rat pairs live in wire topped aquariums (so very not ideal). I call this "The Beginning". Visit my site regularly and watch us grow!