Does the fancy rat have a long history?

History books date the origin of the fancy rat as far back as the 19th Century where rat catchers were paid by towns and villages to catch them. The ratcatchers were pretty clever and soon realised if they bred the rats they could make money easily instead of having to catch them! During this period the catchers discovered how intelligent they were and how easy it was to train a rat to perform tricks.

Between 1840 – 1860 breeding rats to sell became more and more popular and with this the rat became more and more domesticated. The main reason for their popularity is the rat is easily bred, social, intelligent and very clean. The first rat show was held around 1900 in England.

Rat keeping continued to grow throughout the 1900’s and in 1970 became even more popular with the publication of ‘Peter Rabbit’ by Beatrix Potter. Beatrix Potters popularity grew with the huge success and her love for ‘pet rats’ was broadcast through the children interested in her works.

1976, was the year in which the formation of the ‘National Fancy Rat Society was opened.

During the 1900’s, breeding ‘fancy rats’ was a very common practice throughout the world; this led to the process of selective breeding.

Today many varieties and colours feature in domestic rats that do not appear in the wild. Having said that some domestic rats; have retained the ‘Agouti’ appearance (two tones on the same follicle) of their past wild ancestors. Typical colours of ‘fancyrats’ include white, silver, pearl, champagne, fawn, beige, blue, brown and black.

Although most breeders are uniform there are a growing number breeding non standard fancyrats, these rats are being bred for example, without tails and/ or without fur. There is a lot of controversy surrounding this topic throughout the world as rat organizations believe rats require their tails for balancing and without them may not judge how high a fall may be. Plus without fur they are more likely to become dehrydrated or suffer from the cooler weather climates in certain countries; hence being more prone to virus’s or other illnesses.

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