About Us
The Rattery
Sweet Whispers Rattery is registered with the NARR (North American Rat Registry) under the prefix STWR. The majority of our rats are registered with NARR. We have recently relocated to Allentown, Pennsylvania 18103 in Lehigh County. We are in the Eastern region of the state.
Here at Sweet Whispers Rattery we are a closed rattery, due to viruses that can be brought in. They easily spread and quickly destroy a rat colony. This is done for the safety of our rats. Though we are more than willing to send you as many pictures as you'd like from time of birth till the time you pick up your babies.
All of our rats come from a nice home environment and are very social. Their cages are right in our bedroom where they get a lot of attention and are quite spoiled. Maternity is also in our bedroom where it's nice and quiet for our new moms/pups. Our litters are very well socialized before going to their new homes. Temperament is very important to us. No rat(s) with poor temperament will be used in our breeding program.
The majority of our stock comes from Blue Skies Rattery, Big Apple Rattery, TOPI Rats, and Rats From Mars Rattery. All of which I would like to give a big thanks to for helping us as much as they have along the way and their continued support.
Due to recessive genes, we are able to offer adopters a wide variety that we may not necessarily focus on. Types include both ear types, dumbo and standard. The coat types we have available are Standard, Rex, Double Rex, Velveteen, and Harley. We offer mainly standard sized rats, but will occasionally have dwarf available. Many of our rats also carry manx (tailless) genes, so we may occasionally have manx available. Our manx rats will only be available on a limited basis. The majority of them will stay at our rattery or go to approved homes only.
Our main lines consist of Aurora/Chinchilla based varieties along with a Marked line which we are working to incorperate downunder into, currently. We have a small number of Merle as well. We used to also specialize in Black-Eyed Siamese, Burmese, and Roan, however, due to some life changes we have entrusted these lines with fellow breeders/friends, until the time when we are ready to add more lines. Again, due to recessives many of our newer lines carry, there will be other colors available such as: American Blue, Russian Blue, Beige, Blue Beige, Platinum, Mink, and Fawn to name a few.
Here at Sweet Whispers Rattery we are a closed rattery, due to viruses that can be brought in. They easily spread and quickly destroy a rat colony. This is done for the safety of our rats. Though we are more than willing to send you as many pictures as you'd like from time of birth till the time you pick up your babies.
All of our rats come from a nice home environment and are very social. Their cages are right in our bedroom where they get a lot of attention and are quite spoiled. Maternity is also in our bedroom where it's nice and quiet for our new moms/pups. Our litters are very well socialized before going to their new homes. Temperament is very important to us. No rat(s) with poor temperament will be used in our breeding program.
The majority of our stock comes from Blue Skies Rattery, Big Apple Rattery, TOPI Rats, and Rats From Mars Rattery. All of which I would like to give a big thanks to for helping us as much as they have along the way and their continued support.
Due to recessive genes, we are able to offer adopters a wide variety that we may not necessarily focus on. Types include both ear types, dumbo and standard. The coat types we have available are Standard, Rex, Double Rex, Velveteen, and Harley. We offer mainly standard sized rats, but will occasionally have dwarf available. Many of our rats also carry manx (tailless) genes, so we may occasionally have manx available. Our manx rats will only be available on a limited basis. The majority of them will stay at our rattery or go to approved homes only.
Our main lines consist of Aurora/Chinchilla based varieties along with a Marked line which we are working to incorperate downunder into, currently. We have a small number of Merle as well. We used to also specialize in Black-Eyed Siamese, Burmese, and Roan, however, due to some life changes we have entrusted these lines with fellow breeders/friends, until the time when we are ready to add more lines. Again, due to recessives many of our newer lines carry, there will be other colors available such as: American Blue, Russian Blue, Beige, Blue Beige, Platinum, Mink, and Fawn to name a few.
Housing
_ We currently refocused our breeding program and re-evaluated our lines. Currently we have one main Critter Nation model 162 cage. The top portion houses our females and the bottom our males. We also have 1 other Critter Nation model 162 cage for when we expand a bit more a down the line. We also have the following Martin's cages: Rat Retreat (R-685), (2) Rat Tower (R-690), and Rat Skyscraper (R-695). We also have other miscellaneous cages around when needed, we are always prepared. Some of these cages include the Super Pet Deluxe Care Home 4-Level, 4 1-level cages, 3 large travel bins, 3 large maternity cages, and 3 smaller maternity cages. Aside from our main cage we have maternity and weanling cages which are used on and off at different times. The rest of the cages are stored away in the attic if we ever need them. I much rather be prepared and have more cages than I need. It is good to have extra cages because we always have to be prepared in case we ever need to keep litters for a longer amount of time.
Photography
_At the rattery our most recent photos were taken in a homemade white light box with a Canon EOS Rebel T1i 15.1 MP DSLR w/ EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS Lens, and Natural Daylight CFL Bulbs for lighting.
We also have a wonderful little point & shoot camera, the Nikon CoolPix S6500. It has an excellent 12x optical Zoom-NIKKOR glass lens, 16-megapixel CMOS image sensor and built-in Wi-Fi. Perfect compact camera for those on-the-go shots without compromising photo quality.
We also have a wonderful little point & shoot camera, the Nikon CoolPix S6500. It has an excellent 12x optical Zoom-NIKKOR glass lens, 16-megapixel CMOS image sensor and built-in Wi-Fi. Perfect compact camera for those on-the-go shots without compromising photo quality.
Bedding
_Here at our rattery we use a variety different bedding types which include Aspen, CareFresh, material and sometimes newspaper. They love a few pieces of newspaper to shred for makings their nests/sleeping areas nice n' comfy. However, we are currently using Aspen bedding and Paper Pellet litter for their litter pans.
_Weight Maintenance
_We also always make sure our rats are at a proper weight. We weigh them regularly. Also we use our grams scale for pregnant does to track their progressing pregnancy making sure they are indeed pregnant and are gaining properly.
Diet
_What we feed here at our rattery consists of a staple diet of Native Earth 4018 Rodent Diet and a homemade mix similar to Suebee's mix. They are stored in Sterilite bins for freshness. We also give them other goodies which include fresh fruits, vegetables, yogurt, occasional healthy table scraps and once a week olive oil soaked in a small piece of wheat or multi-grain bread which helps their skin and coat. We also provide clean fresh water at all times. We change out the water bottles every 2-3 days. Below are pictures of their staple diet. Though the mix sometimes varies from month to month.