u/BlackestQueen

Hi everyone!

I’ve been lurking around rat communities (and reddit itself, which is a nightmare for me to navigate) for quite a while, so I thought I’d finally introduce myself and what I actually do.

I run Crimson Sun Rattery, a small closed rattery in Germany. I currently keep several breeding lines and a fairly large number of rats, and my main focus is not simply producing certain colours or markings, but working long-term with health, temperament, social behaviour and longevity.

Of course I still have traits and varieties I enjoy working with. Among other things, I breed standard-sized rats as well as Dwarfs, and work with different coat, ear and colour varieties. But appearance is never the only thing deciding whether an animal stays in my breeding program. I keep pedigrees and lots of records, follow the development of my offspring, stay in contact with owners where possible, and remove animals or entire branches from breeding if something turns up that I don't want to reproduce. Sometimes that means abandoning a planned pairing or line even when the rats themselves are outstanding. What I can admit, though, is my big love for Silver Fawns (especially Hooded!) - I am a massive lover of pink eyed rats. 😂

One thing that has become increasingly important to me over the years is education. Rat keeping is one of those subjects where you very quickly encounter statements like:

• “Everyone knows you have to do it this way.”
• “This is always bad.”
• “A good breeder would never do X.”

And the longer I keep and breed rats, the less interested I am in rules that nobody can actually explain.

I want to know why something is recommended.

• What evidence or experience is behind it?
• What problem is it supposed to solve?
• Are there disadvantages as well as advantages?
• Does it apply to every situation, or are we repeating something that became community wisdom years ago?

That is also why I write quite a lot on my website/blog.

I write about things such as housing, nutrition, breeding, genetics, health, behaviour and responsible ownership, usually from the perspective of "this is what I do, this is why I do it, and this is what I have observed over the years."

That does not mean I think my way is the only correct way. Quite the opposite, actually. My own husbandry has changed many times because I learned something new, gained more experience, tried something and decided it did not work as well as I expected, or simply changed my mind.

For example, nutrition is one subject I care a lot about. I use a nutritionally complete pellet as the basis of my rats' diet and prefer using scatter feeding, fresh food, treats and other enrichment in addition to that rather than relying on a mix where nutritional balance depends heavily on what individual rats choose to eat. Housing is another subject where I tend to care more about usable space, structure, hygiene, enrichment and what the animals actually do with their environment than whether a cage happens to resemble the current popular setup on social media.

I also try to be very transparent about breeding itself. Breeding animals means making decisions that are sometimes uncomfortable. Not every animal should reproduce. Not every line should continue. Sometimes a health problem appears several generations later. Sometimes a pairing that looked promising simply wasn't. For me, responsible breeding isn't pretending those things never happen. It's documenting them, being honest about them, informing owners where relevant, and using that information to make better decisions afterwards.

My rats are primarily placed as pets, I only rarely place them with breeders anymore now. Adopters are screened beforehand, housing is checked, and I remain available after adoption. Rats bred by me can also come back to me if their owners can no longer keep them.

And yes, I am very aware that breeding is a controversial subject in parts of the rat community, especially when rescues are full. Personally, I don't see ethical rescue and ethical breeding as enemies. Rescue helps rats that are already in need. Responsible breeding should aim to produce animals with carefully selected health and temperament, place them responsibly, support their owners, and reduce the chance that those animals end up in rescue in the first place.

Mostly, though, I'm here because I genuinely love talking about rats. Genetics, weird health cases, social behaviour, breeding decisions, nutrition, enclosure design - give me a rat-related rabbit hole and I will probably disappear into it for three hours.

So: h! I'm Shani, this is Crimson Sun Rattery, and if anyone is curious about how or why I do something, I'm usually very happy to explain it. I also write longer articles about these topics on my blog, because apparently I am physically incapable of having a short opinion about rats. 😭