Euthanising untame rats?

[Hubblez]

Hi all,

I am feeling guilty and am wondering if I am right to be doing this. I own my own rats and am a hobby breeder, have been breeding for years with my own lines. I recently 'rescued' 3 rats from somebody that they had bought from a pet shop and were untame.

I've had them for 6 months now, they are still not tame at all. If I move at the other side of the room they run and hide. I can't handle them at all. If I go in their cage they run and hide and avoid me if I try to touch them, they haven't bitten me but I think if cornered they would bite from fear. They also don't get on with other rats despite many attempts to introduce them to my own and each other, and so I have them in 3 seperate cages, which as you can imagine takes up a lot of room

I've been looking at rescues to take them but nobody wants an untame/possibly bitey rat, especially ones that won't mix with other rats as it makes them impossible to house, and I don't blame them. One rats cage I haven't cleaned in over a month because I can't get him out of it I've tried everything possible to tame them and not once have they shown the slightest bit of interest, I can't even get hold of them anymore and it's getting worse

I don't think it's fair on the rats to be living alone and in what seems like constant fear, they must be so bored and scared, and not to sound selfish but they are taking up a lot of room with their cages that I could use for my own rats, I had assumed they'd be tame by now and living with them but that isn't the case

So last resort time came and I have booked them in to be put to sleep on Friday but I feel awful every time I look at them, they're healthy but I think mentally what sort of existence is this for them? I am tempted to cancel the appointment because I feel guilty but don't know what to do

Am I doing the right thing by putting them to sleep?

AmazonGrace, rats make fantastic pets! They're such little characters. Mine have always been happy to climb on me/sit on my shoulder or cuddle up there. They do tend to like being high up. You do need quite a big cage and to let them out each day, but they're not dreadfully time consuming. I've personally never had a problem with biters. If you are confident and happy around them, they usually are.

Fantastic I'm so happy to hear that! And they are gorgeous!

RE biting rats: We had a nippy rat, we rescued two back in March, both skittish, one very very skittish and it took us three months to get her to come out for five minute cuddles. The other was very nippy, she only wanted you to come into her cage on her terms and would only come out on her terms. Her sister (the scaredy rat) died in August, we knew it was coming and got a pair of babies in three weeks before she died and Nippy Nibbles has completely changed since then. She can be tetchy but only when she's on heat (so it's obvious when she's in a mood, unlike before!).

We can now put our hands in the cage after handling the boys, before that would warrant an immediate nip. To prove a point to DP about how much she has chilled out, last night I picked her up out of the cage and stroked her immediately after handling the boys and she curled right up to give me a cuddle.

I have only had 6 rats, but speaking to breeders and other rat owners, it seems to be quite rare to have one that nips routinely, and certainly rare to have one that actually bites. I think Nibbles knew that her sister was ill before we got her (she had a tumour that became visible in June), so the change in environment triggered her to become very protective over her sister, which resulted in her nipping.

I think one thing about rats and other rodents is that people say "Oh! They bit me!" quite often, when what they really mean is that they were nipped, Nibbles would break the skin but I still wouldn't call it a bite, she wanted us to leave her alone, it stung if she broke skin, but was only uncomfortable for a moment when she didn't. If she had wanted too, she could have sunk her teeth in and that would have hurt.

The main things I'd say about rats Amazon is that you should always try get them from an NFRS breeder, I wouldn't recommend rescues for your first pair either, they can be hard work and we were in over our head with our two, loved them, but had we got them first we would have been put off of rats for life. The other thing is that the cage has to be quite big for rats, be prepared to buy hammocks and toys often. Rats need stimulation, a cage with a hamster wheel, bowl of food/water bottle and a shelf is not adequate.

Amazon - my female rat was so loving I carried her around in the front pocket of my hoodie everywhere I went!