The difference is though that with a rat from a breeder you pay more than the $10-$20 pet shop rat because rats from breeders are handled from birth, given the best food and come from good quality parents and they have a pedigree (normally) and a known medical family history.
So yeah its great to be only able to pay $20 for a rat from a breeder, and there are really good quality breeders who do only charge that much, but you get what you pay for when you spend $30-$40 dollars on a rat from a breeder.
Even when a rat is $30-$40 a breeder doesnt make any money where as pet shops can sell rats for $10-$20 because they make money on them, they never lose money selling their rats so cheaply.
I was replying to the question as to how much a rat costs from a breeder compared to a petshop. And most breeders I have seen charge between $10 - $20 for a 'normal' rat. More for something different. Anyways..
1. I honestly don't believe a breeder who sells a rat for $40 won't make money. hrmm.. let me re-phrase that. I honestly don't believe a breeder who sells a litter of rats for $30-40 each won't make money.
Perhaps if there were only a couple of babies in the litter, then they might break even. But the average litter size is anywhere from 6-12. That is $180-$480. $180 I can just accept as a break even if you work it out over a 2 month period (pregnancy + raising the kittens = $22.50 a week). But $480? I have 8 fat boys who eat me out of house and home, and they don't cost me $480 in food and bedding for 2 months
I suppose you can justify the $480 if the breeder charges themselves an hourly rate for handling/cleaning/feeding the rats.
** The following assumes a litter of 12 rats **
The retail award in Qld is $18/hr.
So.. lets just assume it costs about $180 for the two months the mother is raising the young (3 weeks being pregnant and 5 weeks raising the litter).
That leaves $300, which works out at roughly 17 hours of handling time, or just over 3 hours a week. Not much when you think about it, as most breeders would 1-2+ hours a day handling their rats.
Now lets work out how much a breeder should charge for a rat if they take into account handling the babies very day. (Lets assume 1 hour of handling every day - for the 5 weeks the babies are born).
For 1 hour of handling/cleaning/feeding every day, the breeder should pay themselves $630. Then add $180 in food and its $810.
Lets just say there are 12 rats in the litter (just for fun
. That works out to $67.50 per rat
If the breeder increased their handling time from 1 to 2 hours/day, then the rats should cost $120 each.
Now that I have just completely forgotten the point I was going to make
2. Thing with petshops, alot of people say they make money of the animals they sell (and perhaps they do with the puppies and kittens), but, with rodents, if they stay longer than a couple of days in the shop, most shops will loose money on them.
I say most shops, as there are always shops which just won't clean out their cages/feed them only the minimal amount of food/ and just generally cut corners when caring for their rodents, such as selling their rodents for snake food, or putting their rodents in a freezer when they reach a certain age (I know of a certain chain of stores who do this).
Another thing to remember with petshops is that the small animal section is often the section that brings in the least money.
To properly run the small animal section of a petshop costs money. Treat incoming animals for mites/lice, making sure they get good food, proper bedding, and at least twice weekly cleanings. And on top of that, unlike a breeder, you actually have to pay the staff to do these things, so you need to factor that into the price.
Do petshops do this? Well, there are only 2 in Brisbane that do.
And while this point might sound pro-petshop - its not. Two petshops in the whole of Brisbane that actually treat their rodents with any sort of respect? Its downright disgusting, and in all honesty, it would be better if shops never sold animals in the first place
Note that I didn't mention about handling.
Thats because most petshops tend not to handle their rodents much. Staff do the best they can, but it all comes back to money. Its not cost effective for shops to do that - even the 'better ones'.
In Brisbane you would be hard pressed to find a rex rat in a petshop. Or a blazed. Or a silky. Or quite frankly, anything other than a standard coat/standard marking rat
.
Its funny, but pretty much all the breeders' sites I go to, all have their rexes/blazed/downunders/silkies etc at higher prices than their 'normal' rats.
See, in my eyes, a 'quality breeder' wouldn't charge more for the 'unusual' types. Instead, they would be picky about the homes their babies would go to, so they get looked after properly, and the breeder would get feedback on the health/temperament of the line so they can monitor it.
Sometimes money doesn't mean much. Look at all those 'designer dogs' which wind up in the pound. The amount people pay for them ($800+) doesn't guarantee they will be looked after. Sometimes its counter-productive. If someone thinks that they will make money out of an animal because they paid 'X' amount for it, they will start breeding that animal, and sell the babies at high prices.
Personally, I think if you price your rats in a litter differently depending on coat type or marking, then its a grab for money. Why would a rex rat cost more to raise than a normal coat? A 'perfect' blazed rat doesn't guarantee that it will breed 'perfect' blazes.
A 'perfectly' marked blazed/hood/berk/downunder/etc would do well on the show bench, but maybe its just me, but surely a rat should be a pet first and foremost? And not something you buy so you can win at a show.
(alas, in the 'real world' it doesn't work out like that).
This is getting to long so I'll end it right there
Zoe
. That works out to $67.50 per rat 
Yep we are looking at around 6 weeks.
