Reno Rats

🐀🐾 Reno Rats (RNOR) | High Desert Rodentry

AFRMA registered. We specialize in well-handled, temperament-focused pets raised with care in Northern Nevada.
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Our goal is to provide healthy, social companions that make exceptional pets.

05/21/2026

🐀 💬 Toast is here for some updates from Reno Rats

First, we just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported Reno Rats and patiently waited through some delays over the past several months. Life threw a few unexpected health and family challenges my way, which caused a bit of a slowdown in our breeding program on my end, and I truly appreciate everyone’s kindness and understanding through that process.

With that being said, we’re officially getting things moving again, and are hoping to get the remaining waitlisters taken care of before our summer break.

Right now we currently have: 🐾 3 litters on the ground 🐾 1 older litter (3 weeks old)
🐾 2 litter that have been born in the last 24 hours  🐾 and we’re hoping for 2 additional litters before our summer breeding break

Over the next couple of weeks we will be working on refreshing and reorganizing the waitlist to make sure everyone currently on it is still interested in adopting.

📩 If you are currently on the waitlist, please keep an eye out for a text message from us! We will be asking everyone to confirm whether they’d still like to remain active on the list. Due to the need to really clean up the list we will be asking for a timely response in order for you to remain active.

We completely understand that timelines, life circumstances, and plans may have changed in the meantime, absolutely no hard feelings at all if so 💛

Thank you all again for your continued support of our little rattery. We are very excited for these upcoming litters and grateful for this amazing community 🐭✨

05/19/2026

🐭✨ THIS is why genetics matter, even in small pets.

These babies don’t run and hide when the cage opens. They run TO the door to greet me, investigate my hands, and politely provide their complimentary “rat manicures” 💅🐀

One thing I’m very passionate about in breeding is temperament. While thoughtful handling and positive socialization are important, there’s also a major genetic component to confidence and friendliness in rats.

These babies actually haven’t been heavily handled or “over-socialized.” In fact, good breeders should intentionally avoid excessive handling very young babies because constant handling can sometimes mask naturally nervous genetics.

Instead, these babies have simply had:
✨ calm, appropriate interactions
✨ positive exposure to humans
✨ a stable environment
✨ generations of carefully selected temperaments behind them

And the result is babies that are naturally curious, confident, and eager to interact with people.

There’s a big difference between:
🐭 a rat that tolerates handling because it’s constantly desensitized
and
🐭 a rat that is genetically inclined to be social, calm, and human-oriented from the start.

Of course every rat is an individual, but thoughtful breeding truly does matter 💛

And yes, the little finger nibbling is completely normal exploratory behavior, not aggression. Around here we call it a tiny rat manicure 💅✨

RatTemperament PocketPuppies RatManicure WellBredPets

04/28/2026

Our sweet Padma aka “sewer” had her babies last night. 9 total. This is her last litter before going into retirement. We are excited to watch them grow up. We will be reviewing the waitlist and texting to refresh all our data. Look for a text from us if you’re on our list! 👀

04/19/2026

Car rides with Cookie. 🍪 enjoy some morning boggles and sun bathing on my shoulder. She just migrated mostly between my shoulder and the front of my hoodie. She’s such a sweet girl! She’s meatballs sister and no we haven’t forgotten about a full bio for Meatball it’s coming soon!

04/16/2026

Me just trying to get some work done at my desk meanwhile the girls are waging war on a pizza crust slice and treating my legs like a parkour course. It’s fineeeeeee….. 🤣🫠

04/15/2026

More shots of meatball. He’s quickly become a house favorite. If you want meatballs full story let us know and we can post a reel tomorrow. 🥹🤎🐁

04/13/2026

Baby meatball living his best life with his one eye. 👀 he’s quickly become one of our favorites.

04/08/2026

With the recent prescribed burns, windy conditions, pollen, and airborne debris here in Northern Nevada, we’ve been getting more questions about respiratory symptoms in rats, so let’s talk about it!

Rats have very sensitive respiratory systems, and environmental changes like:
•Smoke
•Dust & debris
•Pollen
•Dry air
can easily trigger mild symptoms.

🤧 What you might notice:
•Occasional sneezing
•Slight increase in porphyrin (red staining around nose/eyes)
•Mild congestion sounds
💡 These symptoms can sometimes be temporary and environmental, especially during poor air quality days.

🏡 How to Support Your Rats at Home:

✨ Air quality matters
•Keep windows closed on smoky or windy days
•Consider using an air purifier

🌿 Fresh air (when safe!)
•When conditions improve, we do recommend allowing for fresh air and natural airflow in your home
•Good ventilation is very beneficial when outdoor air quality is stable

✨ Humidity helps
•Dry air can worsen symptoms, a humidifier can make a big difference

✨ Clean environment
•Use low-dust bedding
•Keep cages clean but avoid harsh cleaners

✨ Reduce irritants
•Avoid candles, sprays, perfumes, or smoke indoors

✨ Immune support
•A small Vitamin C supplement can help support immune function during times of environmental stress
•This can be especially helpful during smoky or high-allergen periods

🚨 When It’s Time to See a Vet:
Not all respiratory symptoms are harmless. Seek veterinary care if you notice:
❗ Frequent or worsening sneezing
❗ Audible clicking, wheezing, or labored breathing
❗ Lethargy or decreased activity
❗ Loss of appetite
❗ Puffing sides when breathing
❗ Symptoms lasting more than a few days or getting worse
These can be signs of a respiratory infection, which does require treatment.

💛 The takeaway:
Environmental factors can absolutely trigger mild respiratory symptoms, especially this time of year in Reno, but with a little extra support and monitoring, most rats do just fine.
When in doubt, trust your gut! You know your rats best.
— Reno Rats 🐀

03/28/2026

🐭☀️ Reno Rats Summer Break Announcement

We wanted to share an important update with our community

Running a rattery is truly a full-time commitment, especially when we have newborn litters, nursing moms, and a full group of adult rats that all require daily care, monitoring, and attention. Proper care isn’t something we take lightly, and it makes travel and time away nearly impossible during active breeding.

Because of this, we will be taking a break from breeding for the summer months.

📋 What this means:
✨ We will continue accepting waitlist additions for the next 2 weeks (through April 12th)

🚫 After that, the waitlist will be closed to new additions
Before we go on break, our goal is to ensure that everyone currently on the waitlist has been offered babies from our final litters.

🤎Why we’re taking this time
We’ve had a few setbacks in some of our lines, and we want to use this break to:

•Reassess our program
•Refocus on priority lines
•Make thoughtful decisions about the future of our rattery

When we return, we may do so at a smaller, more intentional capacity.

🩷 We’re still here!
Even while we’re on break:
•You can still follow along for all your favorite rat content
•We’ll continue to support our past, current, and future adopters
•We’re always here for questions and guidance

Thank you all so much for your continued support and understanding. Taking this time ensures we can come back stronger and continue providing the level of care our rats deserve 💛

— Reno Rats 🐭✨

03/10/2026

🐭✨ What Is a “Tuck” in Rats?
In the rat world you may hear breeders talk about a rat having a nice “tuck.”

When a rat is picked up and pulls their back feet in close to their body, relaxing their limbs and letting their body rest comfortably in your hand, this is often described as a good tuck.

🐀 Rats that do this tend to:
• feel relaxed when handled
• appear comfortable with people
• let their body “melt” into your hands
Because of this, many breeders view it as a sign of a calm temperament.

📸 The examples in these photos
You’ll see several rats here with a nice tuck:
• RNOR Toast (female)
• RNOR Sewer (female)
• RNOR Neville (Toast’s son)
• one of our current 4-week-old babies
This similarity isn’t a coincidence. Temperament in rats is strongly influenced by genetics, which is why breeders often see certain behavioral traits appear consistently across related animals.

🐾 But tuck isn’t everything
You’ll also see Cormac (Sewer’s son) in these photos, and he’s very splayed when picked up.

🤎Yet Cormac is one of the most affectionate, gentle rats in our entire rattery.

➡️Some rats simply:
• stay balanced
• stay alert
• prepare to move or jump
…and that doesn’t make them any less sweet or handleable.

💡 The takeaway
A “tuck” can be a nice indicator that a rat feels relaxed and comfortable, but it’s only one piece of the temperament puzzle. Many factors are a part of determining a rat’s temperament. It’s important to select a breeder who focuses on both health and temperament so you can get a healthy social companion.

Address

Sparks, NV
89436

Website

http://renorats.com/

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