Welcome!

We are currently CLOSED. No rats available at this time.

Moonlit Waters Rattery is closed, at least for the next few years.

We thank everyone who has supported us through the years. We are not leaving the community, and we are still here for any adopters as always.

It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. We've been hoping for a litter for the past few months, with multiple pairs together during the entirety of that time in hopes of any of them producing. Unfortunately, with our sole remaining line we've had repeated trouble with females not conceiving or carrying pregnancies through to birth. It appears to have continued with our females from our last litter. Multiple females and multiple males have been attempted with absolutely no sign of any even early pregnancy, over 3 months later. We were looking forward so much to these litters, the planned parents are adorable, sweet, gorgeous rats, and the possibile babies would have been amazing. But it appears that it is not to be.

Given the nature of many of the problems we have encountered over the years, despite tests not showing anything we are concerned about the possibility of any lurking issues in our rattery that may be contributing to this issue. We've done many tests, serology, cultures, histopathologies, etc on rats, includng ones who had some of the worst issue, some that died while in emergency veterinary care with hundreds and in some cases thousands of dollars authorized to try to help them and find the source of the problem, with no success. We've received multiple diagnoses of "no problems found" or "no significant issues"... we've had rats die from reproductive issues that the only thing many vets and tests could tell us happened is that they just stopped living. We've tried what ended up being a 9 month full lockdown quarantine to address it, and maybe some of it has been addressed, but we are still seeing reproductive issues.

Its possible with this remaining line its just a genetic issue, but even combining with a line that was breeding well hasn't corrected this. This line has had fertility issues, and our other lines have had to end already due to a lethal genetic issue in the fawns that was not breeding away after generations of trying, and losing any breeding age rats in our last quarantine after having two healthy females die in labor. This line has had trouble with carrying litters to term, and currently seems to just not be conceiving.

Adding to that that the males from our last litter (from this remaining line) are all extremely stunted in size (NOT dwarf, they are too large for that, but they are at BEST half the size of what other males from their line have been, and tend towards mediocre overall condition as well, despite attempts to improve them), and we have concerns that something has become ingrained in their immune systems or genetics, or a combination of both, that is keeping our remaining line from thriving and continuing as it should. We do not want to produce sickly rats, or rats that don't thrive, but unfortunately with what we have left we have rats that both won't produce and some don't seem to be thriving as much as we would like to see, making them not candidates for breeding.

Rather than bringing in new rats from elsewhere that may simply become more victims of a reproductive issue, we've decided the best thing we can do for our rattery and for the fancy in general is to shut down for the time being. All of our rats have ALWAYS been our own personal pets first, and we will continue to keep them all as such, giving them love and care for the rest of their lives here.

Once our rats have all passed, we will do a thorough decontamination of the entire room, enclosures, sinks, shelves, floor, walls, ceiling, and all of it. Then we will essentially treat it as an empty quarantine for 6-12 months to ensure anything remaining has no hosts to use. After that we will clean it all again, and at that point we will consider our options as far as restarting. This will likely mean that we will be closed for at LEAST the next 3 years to let our rats live out their lives and go through that process.

This is an effort to do what is best for our rats, and hopefully also prevent anything that might be lingering but not appearing on tests from continuing. (Added note: this remaining issue does not seem to have caused any issues for any non-breeding rats, or people. Pet only ones have not struggled with it at all, so it is not a risk in that regards.)

We are not going away entirely, and we will keep this site and our facebook page running to maintain our records of the rats we've had. In several years we may be back again.

Thank you all again for your support through the years. Of course if anything changes we will update again!

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Please check our planned litters page for information on potential upcoming litters, read our policies page for information on adopting from us, and fill out our adoption application if you are interested in getting rats from us! Also check our links page for links to other breeders we recommend, as well as rescues.

You can now follow us on facebook by "liking" our Moonlit Waters Rattery page. We will post pictures and updates there, as well as on the website.

NEWS

*Don't forget that there are rats in shelters and rescues who need loving homes! The local shelter regularly gets rats in (they even recently had an adorable litter come in that they placed out. Their website is here: www.cuhumane.org

*Remember to adopt in at least pairs! No rat should EVER be kept as an only rat! If you don't find what you want here, there are plenty of other rescues out there, check out petfinder.com!

*We have test results from our 2016 annual IDEXX-RADIL blood test available. Click here to see the test results, as well as results from previous tests.

*There is currently a lot of understandable concern going around about the Seoul Hantavirus. It is important that people educate themselves about this potential risk, and remember that there have been very few cases compared to the number of homes with rats and people in contact with rats. To our knowledge our rattery is isolated from this virus, as we have not taken in or adopted out any rats in well over a year, we do not attend shows, take our rats out to public places, etc. Our rats have only left our rattery in the past over a year in the case of Planet having an emergency visit to the vet where she passed away, and had a full necropsy, histopathology, culture, and serology done on her (and was not found to have any troubling results.) As such it is highly unlikely that our rattery is at all connected with the reported cases of the Seoul virus. That said, we are monitoring the situation closely as we are always concerned about potential health issues that could affect us or our rats.

*For more information on the Seoul Virus and the situation in Illinois, I recommend checking with the CDC and IDPH.
-CDC Article on general hantaviruses: https://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/technical/hanta/virology.html"
-IDPH Article on the current Seoul Virus situation: http://www.dph.illinois.gov/news/illinois-department-public-health-reports-six-cases-viral-illness-linked-ratteries

About us...

My name is Beth, I'm a CVT and I live with my husband in Champaign, Illinois, where we have our small rattery in our home. I've been keeping rats for nearly 25 years and involved in the showing, breeding, and online community for a decade.

Our primary focus will always be on exceptional temperament and healthy animals first, as these are far more important than any particular color, coat, or ear type. However, we do have varieties we hope to focus on within those goals. Previously we worked with fawn, agouti, and russian silver, but due to various health issues, some genetic, some that simply interfered with producing litters, those lines have since been retired. Our current focus is our burmese line, where we are aiming for a goal of black based burmese and sable burmese, with satin and satin-rex coats, top and dumbo ears, all unmarked. Russian blue variations, siamese, and possibly other color dilutes may show up from time to time as well.

Our rats will always be a part of our family first, and breeders second, and any animal born here will always have a home with us if necessary for their entire lives. We seek out medical attention from qualified exotics veterinarians whenever needed for the sake of our animals. We believe that quality is always better than quantity, and will work to have that be reflected in our actions and our animals. Please stick around to watch us continue to develop!

For anyone out there who thinks that breeding any animal sounds like a good way to make some extra money, please take some time to read this page on the Average Profit/Loss On a Litter. It was published by the AKC in reference to dogs, but the same idea can be applied to any animal, especially animals requiring not just basic care but also socialization time, such as rats. It is an eye opener for many people who don't necessarily consider all the cost in time and money that is involved in breeding and raising a litter.