Rats Of Keona

Quarantine and Rescue Policies

Quarantine Procedures
We don't bring new rats in very often - maybe once or twice a year which includes the occasional ritten returning to the rattery for one reason or another, but when we do, we adhere to a strict quarantine practice. Any time a new rat is brought into the rattery, before it can come to our house we do a minimum 3wk quarantine. This is done at a different location entirely so as to not share airspace. This is generally a friend's house where I can stop by and check on the new arrivals without the fear of them spreading any communicable diseases. We always take care when we come home from these visits to make sure our clothing has been changed and we shower before we handle our current rats (or even go in the rat room!). We also voluntarily quarantine our whole colony for 4 wks if we have any illness at all that involves any kind of treatment (such as antibiotics). This means we stop breeding and bring absolutely no rats in, even if they would have cleared their quarantine during this time. This is just a little extra precaution that ensures if the illness was contageous we've prevented it from spreading any more then necessary.

Unfortunatly, I had to learn the hard way the importance of quarantining new rats. I lost a whole colony to an infectious disease in 2003 when I brought home four rescued rats. Within two months, more then half of my rats died and within 6 months they all had. Because our local vet couldn't give us clear answers on what caused this we were very leary about bringing home new rats. I didn't own rats for 18 mos after this virus as I couldn't shake the thought that just because the rats were gone didn't mean the illness was gone (think Parvo in dogs). The other part to this, though, was my vet wasn't exactly rat savvy. Now we have a much more experienced vet if something so tragic were to happen again. This is why we take quaratining so seriously.

We strongly recommend you quarantine any new rats you bring in (this includes new babies from us) if you have ANY SMALL ANIMALS at home already! This is for your and your pets safety! Realize that certain viruses can be carries by a rodent that doesn't outwardly show symptoms of the illness. You can also bring viruses home on your clothing or shoes. When dealing with animals with suspicious backgrounds, it's always wise to change your clothes (wash the old ones in hot water), and spray your shoes with disinfectant before handling your current pets.

When quarantining your new pet, these guidlines will help ensure you don't spread any illnesses:
Quarantines need to be a MINIMUM of 4 wks, many suggest longer
The rats must be kept in a seperate location from current small pets - this means NOT SHARING AIR SPACE! Putting them in a different room IS NOT ADEQUATE. The worst diseases are airborne!
After handling rats in quaratine, one must change their clothes, remove shoes, and AT LEAST wash their hands. Keeping direct contact to a minimum is ideal for a couple hours after you've handled incoming animals.
If a rat becomes sick with a contagious disease, quaranteen starts AFTER the rat has completed treatment and is symptom free.

Here are some great links on proper quarantine and some of the diseases that you should be concerned about:
http://ratguide.com/health/basics/quarantine.php
http://www.rmca.org/Articles/quarantine.htm
http://rodentfancy.com/pets/2008/01/27/facing-deadly-viruses/
http://ratguide.com/health/viruses/sda.php
http://ratguide.com/health/viruses/sendai_virus_sv.php

Rescue Policies
Because of the issues with contagious diseases, we no longer rescue. We will always take babies back we produced, but we cannot take in rats that are simply in need of homes. We'd be happy to point you to a rescue if you need to rehome your rats, though, as well as recommend a rescue if we don't have what you're looking for or you prefer to rescue but aren't sure where to go.
I must add that I do not support rescues who "rescue" pet store's feeders. If anything, these "rescuers" are promoting and supporting the rat mills out there who are mass producing animals merely to make money with little regard to the animal's longterm health and welfare. The animals aren't the best candidates as pets and there are plenty of genuine rescuable rats out there who need homes and are well balanced and socialized. These are rats in animal shelters or whose families need to rehome them for whatever reason, or even sometimes rats from breeders that cannot be taken back to the breeder. When one buys from a pet store, the petstore merely orders more animals - you don't even put a dent in the system! Also petstores make a killing on their animal sales. Many times there is a massive mark up on animals sold at a pet store. I worked at a mom-and-pop shop pet store in high school and they paid about $1.50 per rat and charged $4. They paid maybe $.25 per mouse and charged $1.25. The few rats and mice we sold as pets were nothing compared to what was sold to be feeders. This means that not only will the pet store simply replace the ones you just bought, but you are supporting the store in a big way by purchasing any animal from them! I understand that sometimes a situation may truly warrant "rescuing" a pet store rat, but running a "rescue" of exclusively pet store feeder rats is not, in my opinion, a rescue. If you'd like to help stop the sale of rats (or any animal) in a pet store, or help promote the feeding of humanely prekilled feeders, there are much more productive ways to do so, without lining the pockets of those who run these kinds of operations.
I do believe that any person who breeds rats, or any animal, had better be in the position to keep or take back anything they produce. If you aren't able to do this, you are the reason there needs to be rescues in the first place! This is why it is so important to choose your litters carefully and make sure you are prepared to deal with the consequences of those choices.