28/08/2026
A lot can happen in the space of a few weeks and the time has come to end part of my original line, whilst I managed to correct temperament in relation to aggression fairly quickly, I haven’t managed to correct the health issues to the degree I think is acceptable to continue on from.
I wanted to give it one more year but it’s not the right thing to do.
I’m still continuing on with those not as closely related to the rats this traces back to so I hope we continue to see improvement and stability but partly I’m starting from scratch again with the imported lines who will/have been crossed into the safer part of my lines and who will also be kept seperate altogether.
There’s been a lot of wonderful rats that’s come from this so this has been a very difficult choice because they’ve by far outweighed the bad.
This honestly sucks and I’m hurting 😢
I knew this whole journey would be hard, I didn’t expect anything less and I’ve always said I thought it’d take 3-5 years before something significant changed.
I can’t help but feel I’m responsible for at the very least trying to make a positive change here in WA and 3 years breeding just seems like a drop in the ocean so I’m not going anywhere even though some weeks I do truly wonder if I can keep baring the heartache that comes with rats in general.
It’s not all doom and gloom though (I promise), we have two litters due this weekend which I am very grateful for and it’s a nice reminder to count the blessings where and when they come.
Pick of my beautiful heart rat Emmet who was helped over the 🌈 bridge yesterday
I’m extra sensitive at the moment so I’ll respond to messages when I’m able to
