Welcome to Rat Dippity Rattery. Michigan is a state that has many ratteries. We are one of the largest ratteries in Michigan. We are located in Kalkaska Michigan which is 25 miles southeast of Traverse City Michigan. We are a Michigan Rattery that has been breeding for six years. We serve the whole state of Michigan and surrounding states also.

My name is Kathryn, but my nickname is "Kat". I got into the world of raising pet rats by accident, but I think it was really fate.

In the late winter of 2002 I rescued two baby Norwegian rats from my dog. They were only about five days old. They didn't have much fur, and their eyes weren't opened. They were about the size of my little finger. My dog had killed the rest of their litter mates and had left their housing area in such a state that they would have died of exposure had I not taken them indoors. I just could not leave them out in the cold to die, I was too kind hearted and I attempted to save their lives.

I went out on the Internet and researched how to raise a baby rat. I did everything the article told me to do and somehow they thrived and grew into, two beautiful, Norwegian, agouti female, rats. I named them Hurkie and Ruggie.

A couple of months later I was visiting a pet store to get supplies for Hurkie and Ruggie when I noticed they had feeders rats for sale. I was horrified to think anyone would give one of these sweet creatures to a snake to eat alive. I would have liked to have taken them all home with me. I chose two young pet rats, a beige and white male and a beige and white female, with a white V around her eye, to take home with me. I named these pet rats Tanner and Camie. I bred Tanner to Hurkie and to Camie and this is how my Rattery was born.

All the knowledge I've been gaining from books, the Internet and other rat fanciers, has helped me become a responsible Michigan pet rat breeder. I'm now very careful about which ratties I breed. I've been studying rat genetics, and how you get certain traits. I keep careful records of all my pet rat children. I now breed to produce quality pet rats, of sound health and temperament who make wonderful human pet companions. In the six years I've been breeding I've raised over 400 of my furry pet rat buddies.

For the last year I've been learning the genetics behind the markings of my pet fancy rats. With the assistant of more knowledgeable breeders I'm discovering you can have a pet fancy rat that looks like it has a certain type of marking, but genetically is a totally different marking because of genetic modifiers and recessive spotting genes, masking its true identity.

With this new knowledge comes the realization that it is hard to distinguish between the two aspects to the naked eye. Therefore for ease of understanding I'm listing all my pet fancy rats descriptions from a phenotypical perspective and not a genotypical perspective. Which is much easier for the novice pet rat fancier to understand. As I learn more about the genetics end of what each of my pet rats really represents I will make note of it on their individual pages. This important information is needed for other Michigan pet rat breeders and even pet fancy rat breeders from other states, to know what they can expect to get genetically if they breed using pet rats from my lines.

I never cull any of my pet rat babies and none of my pet rat babies are raised as feeder animals, nor adopted out to anyone suspected of using or breeding for feeders. If I can't find loving homes for them they stay living here with me, where they are very well provided for.

There isn't really any profit to be made from running a Michigan pet rat rattery, or any pet rat rattery for that matter. Pet rats require a lot of different kinds of foods to keep them healthy and medicines and beddings, exercise equipment, such as wheels to run on, and of course their housing units. When I do sell one of my pet rat children, it is done under contract, and I don't ask that much for them, so what I do make just covers some of their food and bedding. I guess my running a Michigan pet rat rattery is a labor of love.

I'm in this line of business just to promote what wonderful companions pet rats are. Each time a first time buyer takes a chance on having a pet fancy rat as their pet I feel like I've accomplished something good and worthwhile. I would like these little bundles of fur to become everyone's number one pet of choice! Ten years from now when a nationwide poll is taken on pets in a household, or the question is asked, "What is your favorite kind of pet?" I want the answer to be MY PET RAT, or MY PET FANCY RAT!

We are a member of the Are your pet rats registered?