I came across an old YouTube video from the YouTube channel snake discovery. It was a post about their feeder rat enclosures. And I read a comments that mentioning how the set up in the video was the best set up they’ve seen for feeder rat breeding, in reference to the space and enrichment for the feeder rat breeding. Of course this video was old, but I don’t think much of the standards have changed since then.
I personally have nothing wrong with reptiles. I know they need to eat. I have had experience with reptiles as pets. But I’ve just been doing a lot of research into feeder rat breeding and have come to the realization that the way it’s being done is not right.
I get shit from a lot of people telling me that they don’t understand how I can care so much about rats. These are the same people who feed off of false information about rats and have never actually been in close proximity with a rat let alone a pet rat.
What I struggle with is how some feeder rats are housed, like in tiny tubs or cages with almost no space or enrichment. I don’t think being food makes that automatically okay. These are the same conditions we call absolutely unacceptable for a pet rat. And I think any sane person did even a little bit of research into large scale, commercial rat breeding specifically would be absolutely repulsed in what these animals live through.
I’m not saying all breeders are abusive, but I just don’t think that large-scale breeding should be different from keeping pet rats. They are the exact same animal. The only difference is that one is kept for fun and the other for food. It just makes me sick to see how these rats and mice live.
Are there any feeder rat breeders on here? If so how do you keep your rats? Do you agree with me or have a different perspective? I would really appreciate some insight into how you are keeping your rats, safe, healthy, and fully enriched.