Application Guide
Purchase Process
There’s no wait list, and we only take applications after babies have been born.
Week 1: Babies are born - hooray!
Week 1-4: Pictures are posted to our site and instagram
Week 4: Applications open
Week 5: Applications close and homes are notified
Week 7-8: Babies go to their new homes
There is no wait list. We open applications for each litter.
Rats are $40 each and go home in same-sex pairs and trios. Pickup is at our home in Evanston, IL. If you are updated on your COVID-19 vaccination, pick up is in the living room of our home. If not, please let us know and we will do an outdoor pick up on the back patio.
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about our application process
Q: When will applications open?
A: Applications open when babies are around 4 weeks old.
Q: How do you pick who gets rats?
A: Well, it’s just me picking so…I pick the homes I think will be best for the rats I have. People who take the time to research and write thoughtful applications that show they have done their homework and will be a good home for some new rat buddies are always a yes. But, we get more good applications than we have rats. So from there it’s a combination of, people who have adopted before, people who have applied more than once, people who are looking for companions for an elderly lone rat, and people who are are kids (because it’s harder to wait when you’re a kid).
Q: Why don’t you have a wait list?
A: We did, but it got to be too complicated. It would be 30 people long and by the time we got down to it, half the people would have found rats somewhere else (which is not a problem, get your rats!) and the other half would be (rightfully) miffed because they had been waiting so long. This system just seemed stressful for everyone. We switched in mid 2021.
Q: Can I pick out my rats? Can I pick them from photos, or come meet the babies and pick that way?
A: No, but not because I don’t want people to pick and pet baby rats (everyone should be petting baby rats all the time). There may be rats I think will be better suited to one person than other, and it takes knowing them and their line to make that call. I also try to mete things out so that the rats you’re getting are easy to tell apart. This way one person isn’t getting three agouti dumbos and another is getting two standard Russian Blues. We’re not able to have people visit the rattery because it’s too easy to spread disease from one rat colony to the other this way. Even if you don’t have rats at home, there are still communicable diseases we have tested for and plan to remain negative for. Thanks for helping keep us healthy.
Q: Why wasn’t my application picked?
A: Three possible reasons.
One, and the most common, is that we had too many good applications and someone else took precedence (see above).
Two, may be that you are a great rat owner but it was hard to tell that from your application. We do get some “I keep my rat in good housing and feed him good food.” explanations, and if someone else tells me what their cage, food, and vet are, that person seems like a better home. So some of it’s just that, unless you tell me about it, I don’t know.
And last, and this isn’t common but does happen, you applied but aren’t someone I would send my rats to. Maybe you found out my personal email and had your friends and family write aggressive emails on your behalf (this happened and was not OK), or you swore up and down that your rat totally loves only eating your dinner leftovers and living in a hamster cage (also a real thing that happened) or you get mad at your rats getting sick because you kept them on inappropriate housing in a 90 degree unventilated room (my heartttt), but whatever it was, you did something crazy that made me not want to send animals to you. I’m some lady living in her house with her family and I happen to really like and to breed pet rats. Please don’t be crazy. Please be respectful of me and of your animals.
Q: Can you breed me a black velveteen/silvermane dumbo/agouti hairless/green downunder rat?
A: Probably no. There’s nothing wrong with having a preference for what your rats look like - we all have our favorites! Since we’re small and only breed a limited number of litters, we really need each litter to be furthering our goals, which makes it unlikely to be able to cater to requests. If we don’t have what you’re looking for we’re happy to try to recommend another breeder who might.