I'd have thought it would be hard to missex a rat seeing as the males have VERY VISIBLE BALLS!!! Unless they're being sold too early?

None of my petshop rats have had unusual health issues, been recalitrant or meek from 'lack of handling'. I know our local P@h has a rat owner working there. We've seen the animals there regulary being played with, i've seen a few of the rabbits get carried round the store when it's busy to get some interest. They get fed rat nuggets and muesli there so can't see how it's a poor diet. Mind petshop rats get looked at through glass for 8 hours a day and are cleaned out daily so will be relatively used to folk, if not handling and will adapt quickly.
But as i've only had 2 rats from a breeder i'm quite biased towards petshop rats.

Rescues are a good place, but as cherry said, babies are best as older rats can have bad habits or poor ability with humans due to bad previous owners like our boy rolly, scaredy rat.

And size wise, i've not noticed any difference tbh. our giants were all from pet shops, course we also manage to always get the runt of the litter in every group we choose!

Oh yeah, you also might want to get males instead of females for your first lot, lazier, less mess, less smelly (cage wise, personally they smell musky but not unpleasant). Will lie on you for longer without wanting down to explore. Might make keeping them as your first batch easier? If only I'd known that erm.. 6/7 years ago! lol.

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This is not a game of 'who the fek are you'.

Not a single gram of fek shall be given today.

Just another pointer the best diet to feed your rats is the Shunamite Diet, which is not something a pet store will usually know about or recommend as they want you to buy their own rat food. There is quite a bit about it on the internet and I have found my rats are much better on it

In relation to missexing: Some boys can retract their bits when scared and sometimes appear girl like but I think its mostly girls that have been mistaken for boys as they can have bump between their bits and bum which is sometimes mistaken as testicles (that haven't dropped yet) and girls protrusions can also be mistaken for boys bits. But as owieprone pointed out, its a wonder there are so many cases of missexing when most boys have very large testicles.
If you are interested in rescue rats and don't know of a rescue close by, there are a few rat forums with rescue sections that often have babies in or there is findafurry.co.uk which lists rescue animals including rats. They have some babies on there at the moment.

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Christina
Owned by Freya & Gobi - My two gorgeous oriental cats
RIP Bea, Murrey, Monty, Flicks, Kitten and Blue (ratties)


Virkon Disinfectant - For veterinary and domestic cleaning of cages and surfaces

Just want to add my bit!!

I have kept/do still keep rats and all mine bar the first 2 have come from rescues.

I am picking up 2 new little girls from a rescue on Saturday and know there are loads more out there looking for homes. Do not give your money to pet shops a good search will bring up loads of rescue places, in fact if interested i could put you in contact with someone who has rats needing homes in the cheltenham area.