Awwww. Cute! Good luck to you!

Good luck! And names! I want to hear names!

The only names I have in mind, so far, are Nicodemus and Balthazar. Suggestions are welcome!

Yay! Rats are great pets and those (esp #2) are cuties. Sorry, I missed the earlier threads...we had rats+cat household in the 90s with no problems.

Where did that comma come from?

Beady-eyed cuteness.

Whoo! Good luck, deborah!!

yay! so cute!

Oh, they're gorgeous.

My sis had a pet rat eons ago and it was terrific. Pet rats: OK! Rats in the walls and shed: No!

Please avoid Tubbs and Crockett for names (although I'm sure it isn't a problem).

What about Fred and Barney?

Hmmm, I was a Miami Vice fan back in the day...

Am I hallucinating or was there a movie with ferrets name Crocket and Tubbs?*

*admittedly the two parts are not mutually exclusive

These are so cute! Good for you -- I help out with an animal rescue and small animals are the hardest to adopt. No-one ever thinks of rescue when they want a ferret or a hamster ...

No-one ever thinks of rescue when they want a ferret or a hamster ...

I tried to adopt some dwarf hamsters from my local humane society shelter and the adoption fee was $25 for each. The shelter hammies were a little over a year old, or a little less than halfway through their lifespan. I can buy a young hamster for ~$12 at the pet store or ~$5 from an accidental litter via craigslist.

It was disappointing. I can understand the shelter needs to recoup costs but a $25 dollar bog-standard hamster is ridiculous, esp as there is no neutering or vaccinations costs for the little guys. I still consider the shelter for cats and dogs (and recently adopted a cat from that same org) but now I don't even bother checking in on the rodents even though I could offer them an excellent home.

$25 hamsters? That's bizarre. Wonder if they keep the price high to only get "serious buyers"? Clearly ain't working.

The adoption fee for these rats is $5 each or $25 each if I have them neutered before I get them. The actual cost of neutering each rat is $50. Neutering is recommended due to rats being prone to tumors (usually benign). Neutering lowers the possibility of tumors showing up by quite a bit.

Rats from hobby breeders tend to cost more than rats from pet stores and for good reason. Most hobby breeders keep records regarding lineage, health issues, and feed and house them with the best items available. They also tend to breed for temperament and health rather than looks, although the work on that as well. They also have adoption applications/agreements.

Pet stores rats are bred willy-nilly by rat mills (similar to puppy/kitten mills) in, for the most part, rotten situations. Once sold to pet stores, they're usually in cages/aquariums that are too small, fed crappy food, are on crappy bedding, both sexes together (they can mate from about five weeks on) and if you pick out females they're almost sure to be pregnant. Pet stores don't care who buys their rats as long as you can pay for them.

Even with all of that the cost difference is minimal. I've seen pet store rats from $9 to $12 and rats from breeders from $20 to $25 with, usually, a discount if you take more than one rat. Multiple rats (two at least, of the same sex) is encouraged due to rats being social animals.

All that doesn't explain why some shelters charge so much for small pets. I think even $10 would be enough to discourage people buying them to be "feeders" (fed to snakes). And I'm sure $10 rather than $25 would get a lot more animals adopted.

At our institution, you can adopt lab rats if there are superfluous ones around (otherwise they just get killed). You just have to fill out a couple of forms. I think that's pretty cool.

In my research I've ran across a couple people who have adopted lab rats. I think it's a cool idea too, gaspode.

I love the idea of adopt-a-lab rat, that's awesome.

Of the many snake-keepers I know (I'm not one of them. Shudder), none are crazy/spendthrift enough to spend more than $3 on a feeder of any size. This includes rabbits for the guys who have VeryBigBoas (again, shudder. While I like snakes in the abstract, I just can't deal with their eating requirements).

I always feel bad for the shelter hammies, before I stopped myself from checking in on them, the same ones would sit there month after month. If they came home with me, they would enter Hamsteropolis: cat-proof 3' x 6' enclosures with a beach (for dry bathing!), exercise wheels (Sealed ball bearings=non-squeaky! One even has an odometer!), flats of fresh wheat grass (for grazing! They are hilarious, they trundle around like little Roomba lawnmowers), litter boxes (sterilized soil changed daily!) and several feet of tubes buried under 6" of carefresh. The only downside is they have to deal with being stared at by cats. O_O O_O O_O

::sigh:: I have a great fondness for hamsters.

That sounds like hamster paradise, jamaro!