Precious Jems Rattery

Hi everyone
Thank you to everyone who responded on my last post and those who sent me kind , supportive messages. I really wasn’t expecting that. It has given me further incentive to keep going. Thank you!

I’ve spent the last several weeks evaluating my oldest litter and have finally decided on who I’m going to hold back for now and who will be ready for you to bring home. They are bit older at 8.5 weeks because I wanted to watch their personalities and temperament develop. They aren’t teeny babies, but they are still quite young and ready to bond with their own person.

This litter has 4 really nice boys and 2 girls that I feel will be excellent additions to your family. They have had visitors come play with them a few different times. They were all friendly and curious with the strangers. Once, going outside with them as well. No fear at all. They were content to be held and came right up to any hands offered to them.
This post will be for the 4 boys. I will post the girls later.

I have information about each boy in the captions. I love all of them, but I have to control myself. I am already keeping a few boys and a girl from this litter. lol They can go in pairs or as a group. Please, message me if you’d like to come meet them or have questions. I don’t always see comments on my posts right away. So, if you don’t get a response to your comment, message me.

Thanks again!

Hi everyone. This is going to be a very long post, but I encourage you to read it through.
I’ve been getting a lot of messages wondering if I’m still raising rats. For several months, I wasn’t sure if I would be. The year has been a real disaster in every aspect of my life. Everything I love and enjoy doing has been on hold as I have struggled with serious physical and mental health challenges of my own as well as having to care for a mother with Alzheimer’s , a dad who was in and out of the hospital the last 5 months and trying to save 2 animals with serious health concerns,that are near and dear to my heart, all on my own. I ended up losing one of my animals, but the other has made a miraculous recovery and is doing amazing. My dad had heart surgery and is also doing amazing. While there are still far too many stresses and difficulties in my life, things have calmed down enough that I realized I need to continue on. My rats are an important part of my life and help me get through each day.

The next thing I want to talk about is the future of my rattery. I am a big believer in being transparent about my breeding program and the rats in it. Due to all the struggles I’ve been going through really, starting 4 years ago, I feel the quality and consistency of my animals has suffered. I was just going through too much to realize it.
I typically raise 2 litters every few months. The last several years, I have had a few individuals in what feels like a few litters a year, that were great with me, but when they went home with their new people, they became fearful and would bite. Because it was happening infrequently and despite how sweet their parents were, each time it happened, I’d retire the parents of that litter and all would be well again for awhile. Id just deal with it the best I knew how and went on. This year, I had 2 litters at the same time with a few individuals in each of them that did this. I think I was in shock when I first started getting these reports and didn’t want to believe it. It broke my heart to know the people who trusted me to provide wonderful pets, had to go through this. Some of those rats came around and became good pets. Others, did not. I asked for those rats to be brought back to me, but not everyone did. This situation has been extremely stressful and heartbreaking. I don’t ever want anyone to have a bad experience. So, I took months away from doing any breeding and considering what to do.
I decided that if I was going to continue to do what I love, I needed to try to figure out what went wrong and when, then to make big changes. I have been bringing in newer varieties the last several years. I think I let my standards fall a bit in an effort to produce these beautiful newer varieties and continued to raise them the way I always have. That was the mistake I made. The original animals I brought in were nice rats, but with each generation , things began to change subtley enough, I didn’t realize it. So, I’ve decided I am not going to be bringing in anything new and will be focusing strictly on temperament. This means I may not have as many rats available for awhile. I won’t know what colors I will have either as I will not be focusing on that. I promise, it will be worth it!
Fortunately, my dwarf line is a completely separate line from my normal size rats. They have have always been my favorites. I just hadn’t been producing many because they haven’t been popular. That’s going to change.
I will still be raising both normal and dwarf sizes, but my normal size rats will start being bred in with my dwarfs. So, I will still have both sizes. I began this project about 4 months ago with a single litter. I was so extremely excited about what I got, I repeated the breeding. This second litter is just as exciting as the first.
I also have done three litters with the same normal size buck and doe so I can really get to know what this pairing will produce. I am encouraged with the results, but there are consistently a few babies in each litter that are fearful, while the rest are very outgoing and friendly. I will only be placing the boldest, most fearless, people loving babies from these litters and any other litter. So, there might be a few of these babies available. Some are 7 weeks old. If any of them pass muster, they will be available in a week.

The other litters I currently have are very promising. I’m very encouraged by their fearlessness, willingness to come over, be picked up and want to hang out and explore with me, for their very young ages. It is too soon to say for sure, but there will likely be some of these babies available next month.

After these litters, I won’t know for sure when I will have anything available. I have just put a few pairings together, so it will be at least 3 months if not longer, depending on how the babies turn out.
If you are interested in getting some babies from me, please do contact me. I’d be happy to go into more detail about current litters and future plans so you can decide if I’ll be the right breeder for your next babies.

Due to all these changes and because I have a tendency to keep far more rats than I will ever need for my program, I do have some really sweet older girls available. Most range from 5 to 8 months of age. A few, are about one year old. They’ve all been born here and most have been sweet, friendly girls from day one. A few were really shy at first. Probably because I went overboard with trying to prevent them from bonding with me, so I didn’t pay any attention to them the first 6 weeks. It took them a while to learn to trust. The 3 I kept from those litters have turned into really sweet, friendly girls. I sent one to live with a trusted, long time repeat buyer for awhile to see how she’d handle the change. She handled it very well. Her foster mom said she was very enjoyable to have. She has been nothing but a joy to have here since coming home.

The younger girls have all had some handling once or twice each week from birth. They have grown up with no fear at all and have a lot of confidence. They’re as sweet and sometimes as obnoxiously (in a great way)friendly as their mom. I just can’t decide which to keep, but I can only keep one! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Since these girls are older, my first priority is for them to go to homes that are experienced rat owners that will keep in contact with me and update me on occasion. Not $
If you think you’d like to bring home a few of these girls, please message me.

Thank you so much for sticking with me and reading this book of a post. I’ve loved and have had rats in my life for 35 years. I really love raising them, but my priorities are with you, my fellow rat lovers and newcomers to the beautiful world of pet rats. I want nothing more than to share these amazing little “pocket puppies” with everyone so they can all experience what fun, loving creatures they are. I will always be here for everyone who takes home my babies for support, advice and anything else you need for your babies. Thank you!

In loving memory of Shimmer. The best little girl I ever had and a big reason why I’m still fighting. You were a tiny, but very bright beacon in my life. I wish so much you were still here with me ❤️

Hi everyone! Long time, no posts. I’ve had a very busy summer! Including having 4 litters! Two, being from a newish cross of lines I haven’t done before. The parents of this cross have fantastic temperaments, with absolutely no maternal or hormonal aggression at all. Dad is a gorgeous 9 month old agouti dumbo. The two moms are another agouti dumbo and an agouti tonkinese odd blaze. I admit, she is my favorite. She is very lovey and kissy. From the day her litter was born, she tried to drag my hand into the nest box. lol

I have hung onto up these litters longer than normal. For some reason, most of my favorite doe’s boys especially, were squeaky and shy. So, I held onto them longer to see how they’d change as they matured. I’m happy to say that most have come around and are becoming the friendly, playful rats I expected from these pairings.
The girls in these litters are extremely outgoing and friendly. Most are very willing to rough house play with my hand and allow me to pick them up and give them a gentle toss. They come back for more.

So, I’m happy to report that I will be taking photos of these 2 litters and will be posting them in the next day or two. I got a pleasantly surprising variety of beautiful colors and some with some really nice patterns. I’m yet again faced with the hard reality that I cannot keep as many as I would love to. They were born 5/24 and 5/28 of this year, so the oldest will be 9 weeks old this weekend.

The other 2 litters? One was born before the 2 mentioned above and most have left the nest. I do still have a few dwarfs from that litter that I’ve been allowing to grow up more before making my decisions on who is staying. Baby dwarf rats are very tiny and most are still far too small at 8 weeks for me to consider letting go just then. I will be posting those who will be available soon.
The youngest litter was born 6/17. There are some dwarfs and normal size in this litter who will be available. Again, the dwarfs will stay a bit longer, but the normal size kids will be ready August 8th. This litter is a lot of fun. Most are heavy patterned variegated and capped. All dumbos. So, stay tuned for them!

Please message me if you have questions! I can’t wait to share these little cuties with you!

Sneak peak at the adorable ness of my newest litter born May 4th. The girls might be spoken for. Not positive yet. There will be 3 pairs of boys ready to pack their bags June 22. At least one boy is a dwarf and he is absolutely darling ❤️

Went home!
DOB: 2/26/25 siamese 3/8/25

The first 3 come from a Harley project I had been playing with. The last is a sister to the boys I just posted. All are very outgoing, social butterflies.
No fear in any of them. Just curious and gregarious. ❤️
The Harley gene is new to me and while I love their cute scruffiness, I’m not sure how deep I will be getting into them. Harley rats tend to have sensitive skin and coats. They are prone to flakey, scabby skin and do much better on a lower protein, higher omega fatty acid and amino acids diet. Not something I really have the space and ability to really work hard on to improve (if that’s possible). I would like the 2 harleys to go together so their diet can be easily managed. The darling little black girl has already developed a few scabs, so she’s telling me she’s ready to go on a lower protein diet. Speaking of her, she is missing part of her tail from her mom being a bit over enthusiastic in cleaning her when she was born. It just adds to her adorable character

And here is the first post!
DOB: 3/8/25
Black variberk dumbo

These two boys are offspring from a lovely little lady I took in as a rescue. Their momma is one of the sweetest, most trusting mothers I’ve had in quite awhile. Despite not knowing me that long, she happily shared her brand new babies with me and tried adding my hand to her nest constantly. Often, washing my fingers right along with them. lol!
These 2 darlings are a bit shy, but once picked up, they melt in my hands. It doesn’t take them too long before they’ll start bruxing. They just have a bit of cautiousness at first. With their own person giving them attention regularly, I have no doubt they will grow out of this phase quickly.
I just love their beautiful spotty patterns on their sides.

Happy May everyone! After taking time off over the fall and winter, I have enjoyed raising 4 litters of little beauties so far. They never made it to being posted here since they were all spoken for before I could do so. I’ve also been going through a lot of personal struggles, so I haven’t been keeping up on this page the way I wanted to. For that, I apologize.
I am currently ,very very behind in posting about my most recent litters. They are already 7 and 8 weeks old. It took far too long to take photos and make final decisions on who was staying. Just too many things going on all at once.
I finally have all that figured out and will be posting photos of 2 darling boys and several gorgeous girls who are more than ready to find their very own people, tomorrow.
So, if you’re ready to welcome home some new babies, watch for my next post coming soon.

Hi everyone. I apologize for not posting pics of the summer litters like I promised. I take care of my mom who is dealing with cancer and I myself, have health issues of which, have been giving me a lot of trouble lately. Between my mom’s bimonthly chemo and doctor appointments, 2 hospitalizations, my own appointments and flare ups, plus family visiting, etc. I just didn’t have time.
These 2 litters did get lots of time spent with them. Including several bonding bag sessions. They have become outgoing, very friendly kids.
On top of that, I’ve had so many fantastic people who contacted me before the litters were weaned, wanting babies, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have anything left to post!
All that said, I do have one pair of girls and one pair of boys that are now 7 weeks old and ready to find their own loving family. The girls are both from Kitti’s litter and are off black in color. It’s possible they may be low expression snowflake like their daddy, Jette. If so, they may end up
Looking similar to Jette. Black with off black belly, sides and possibly patches on the body. Scattered white hairs may appear as they mature.
The 2 boys are from Nibs’s litter. One chocolate and one black. All 4 of these kids are very playful and absolutely love being tickled, wrestled with, then cuddled when they get tired.
Message me for more information

I’m excited to announce that both summer litters of 2024 have arrived.
I mistakenly said Kit Kat was expecting, but I meant her sister, Nibs. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I don’t know how I got them mixed up. lol
Kitti had a healthy litter of 13 July 26th. Nibs decided to have her litter the following day on July 27th. She had 17, but one was stillborn. With a litter this large, not all babies always survive. I’m keeping a close eye on mom and babies.

I’ll be posting pics of the babes when their eyes open, so stay tuned!