Okay, The Sleeping Rats Poll never worked out. My Computer Deleted everything on my Hard Drive, so i can't remember who won it, I'm Sorry! i will Run that Poll again with everybody's Entries this week ^^

Anyway, the new entering period is here, and the Theme is "Nomming Rats"
Let your Imagination go free!


Good luck everyone, and Have fun Snapping!

Micci.

I Am Not Against Buying From Pet Stores, But i Beg You to Just Bear in Mind That This Does Happen, and To Always Take Care When Buying a Rat From a Store. Many Are From Breeders, But Big Chain Pet Stores are Well Known For Getting Rodents From Farms



Many of the small animals sold in petshops will have been bred at a rodent farm. Rodent farms are where rats (and other rodents) are intensively farmed purely for monetary profit. The rats are usually kept on a wood based product (shavings, chips or dust), in solid containers with a grill lid or side that are stored in large racks. Rats are highly intelligent creatures but they are usually given no toys and no space to run around and play in.

The female rats are generally kept continuously pregnant. They often live with the males so will have a 3 week old litter (if they haven't been removed for sale), a newborn litter and will be pregnant. She is just a baby making machine and worth only as much as the babies she can produce for sale (live or dead), which aren't worth much individually to the farmers anyway.

The rats will be fed only on a generic dry mix, this will not support the demands constant pregnancy and lactating places on the mothers bodies or support the growth of the kittens. The rats are not handled gently at the rodent farm, if at all.

This means the rats are mostly small, nervous of people and because no thought is given to the parents the babies often have health or behavioural problems. The mothers will die very young of exhaustion and many of the babies will die of bad conditions before they even get into the accomodation at the petshop.

The young rats are frequently removed from their mothers far too early. Rats should leave their mum at 4 and a half to 5 weeks and should be homed at 6 to 7 weeks when their brains and bodies are more mature and they are more able to cope with the outside world. Rats are often seen in petshops at 4 weeks old.

Unfortunately quite a few uninformed people decide to breed rats in their own house. This can be on a large scale, where the people are known as 'back yard breeders', or on a small scale. The back yard breeders are the same as rodent farms, just without the official title, but smaller breeders of rats often start breeding rats through ignorance. Some may just think rats are cute or have a rat they love and want to have babies from them. So they breed and then sell the resulting rats to a petshop. Often these rats are well handled, but still young and undernourished. Some people breed on a small scale thinking there is a lot of money in breeding rats, they often find that there isn't much money at such a small scale and dump the rats in rescues. Reputable breeders would never sell their rats via a pet shop, despite what you may be told by the pet shop.


Remember, I Am Not Getting You To Not Buy From Pet Stores, But to Just Remember That Some Rats Are Put Through This Just For Money, So Please Choose Wisely. ^^

Will be starting polls soon for cutest rat, best pair and best pose. There will be one poll a week in that order so i dont get confused lol. the poll will be up for a week and the winner will get profile picture for a week, and also 3 luvs if i can get on their profile. i will start the first one (cutest) as soon as possible but it will be 5 pictures i choose randomly out off the rat pictures folders, and i will also post out a blog. if you want your picture in a certain poll please leave a comment and i will get to it . so post your pictures