Holly - My Agouti Berkshire Girl
Hi. My name is Jenny McCormack and I own a rattery for breeding pet rats in Perth, Western Australia called Amberdawn Rattery. I got my first rat in 1990 after looking after my cousin's rat (Tess) while he was on holiday. I fell in love with the cute little furry face, the ticklish whiskers, delicate hands and kind and friendly personality and have not looked back since.
Having fallen in love with these creatures and after getting to know much more about them I have established a line of warm friendly rats with good health and have slowly added a variety of colours and markings to go with these big delightful rats. My rats are my pets first and foremost. However the line I have is so beautiful and their personalities so fantastic and loveable that I have not been able to resist breeding them. I currently have pedigree rats that have over 10 recorded generations of breeding history in their bloodline and it is this line that I have merged with Julies line that is well known and well respected in the eastern states and also has a long history and now I get all of my rats from Julie.
Toffee - My Topaz Berkshire Girl
You can see some of my my girls here and my boys here. I still keep rats and hope I always will. I get new ones on a regular basis, about every six months, from Julie who has some of my line of rats as mentioned above.
The rats all live in our family room in two cages. The cages are made from joining bird flight cages together and using the sides and wire from the bottom to make extra shelves. The rats get cooked meals each night and the cage doors are kept open during the day so they can climb up on top of their cages and go into the box on there or climb out onto the ledge to see us and they are always being stroked and tickled as we walk by.
In my time of keeping rats I have learnt that generally all of the negative stories you hear about rats are false and the more I learn about them from experience the more I have come to realize how unappreciated they are as pets. Pet rats are as far apart from their wild rat cousins as the pet dog is to the wolf or fox. The rats are very loving and loyal and adore attention and cuddles you can read more stories about my rats here.
PS. The gorgeous rattie in the left hand picture above the menu is Pearl my champagne hood girl.