T & M Curious Critters

About Our Rattery

 We are a small rattery located in Lafayette, IN near Purdue University.  Our rattery was founded in November, 2008.  We started with several varieties and have since narrowed our focus to 2 main varieties.  The varieties we now focus on are Siamese/Burmese and Mink. We will also have Russian Blue in our lines as we will be transitioning to russian blue siamese and russian blue burmese.  In the future we may also begin working with Russian Dove.  Since we are working with color points, most of the rats we will have available will be selfs. We will have both standard and dumbo ears, and we will have mostly standard fur, but occasionally we may have rex in our litters. We do not breed hairless or tailless rats.  If you visit our information page you can find more information about our rattery, how we run things, and what products and services we use and recommend.

Our Goals

  Here at T&M Curious Critters we are working towards many goals to better the pet rat as a whole. These goals are to improve upon health, temperament, and conformation.  In regards to health we hope to produce rats with increased longevity, and fewer health problems.  In order to do so we carefully watch the litters that are produced here, and if any health issues present themselves we heavily weigh the decision on how to proceed. We heavily rely on our adopters to keep us updated to how the rats that go to them age and how they ultimately pass on. For temperament we are striving to produce rats that are the licky, squishy, tuck and dangle, cuddly personalities. We breed rather late in the rats life to better determine the rats true temperament and if we feel it is what we want to breed and make sure it will produce even better offspring. We will not breed rats that are aggressive to either humans or other rats. If such a rat does become so after being bred, their offspring will be scrutinized even further before deciding to continue with that particular rats offspring. We are also looking to better our rats conformation. We are striving to produce rats with conformation set forth by the United Rat Standards (URS).

How T & M Curious Critters Began

     We both came from animal loving families. We have had pet rats since childhood and always seemed to go back to them over other pocket pets. We also both got our rats from pet stores where they were either sold as pets, or in feeder bins. We had decided that getting rats from pet stores was no longer for us!  We were heartbroken when they came down with respiratory illness, tumors, etc or were just never very "tame" or trusting of us. We knew there had to be a better source to get our rattie friends. We searched the internet for rat breeders, and found there were many, just not really any we could find in our area. We ended up traveling over 5 hours to pick up our first pairs of non pet store babies. We could immediately tell a huge difference in the temperament and trust these socialized babies had versus our pet store rats. We were hooked! Since there were not really any breeders in our area we could find we decided that we would like to open our own rattery to provide an alternative to pet store rats, as well as working to improve the fancy. We are now starting to get involved with the Northern Illinois Rat Organization (NIRO) because our goal is to produce wonderful show animals that are our ideal of what socialized rats should be. We love our rats to be licky, squishy, lovey, and tuck and dangle their back end when we pick them up showing they trust us completely!  We are working with a few specialized lines and working on improving the overall rat!

About Us

     Our names are Tori and Megan.  We are studying animal behavior and well being at Purdue University.  We both work at a vet clinic where we are vet assistants, as well as doing some work in behavior and grooming.  We are, first and foremost, interested in animal welfare!  This is not to be confused with animal rights.  We think that all animals should be housed, fed, and cared for in a way that is cohesive with its natural processes.  We do not expect our animals to be human, because they are not human, they are animals, they will never understand some of the things we do, just as we will never understand some of the things they do.  We will never personify our animals, though this DOES NOT mean we love them any less than we would any human family member.  They are our lives and our loves!  The only thing we expect from them is to be themselves and live their lives the way that best suits their needs, and we do our best to accommodate those needs.

     Tori is extremely interested in genetics!  She is constantly studying the ins and outs of rat genetics.  She is also interested in rat and dog behavior.  She loves teaching her dogs new tricks and dabbling in agility. Tori is the proud "mama" to several pets in addition to our ratties (click here to see her other pets). 

     Megan is interested in behavior and welfare above most other things.  She is interested in finding ways to limit stress in animals during otherwise very stressful events (travel, vet visits, etc.)   She trains dogs to accept handling and manipulation, in an effort to decrease the stress of grooming and vet visits.  She is also interested in diving into the mind of the cat, understanding cat behavior is one of her goals.  Megan is also the proud "mama" to several other pets in addition to our ratties (click here to see her other pets). 

     We are very passionate about adopting cats and dogs from shelters/rescues or getting them from REPUTABLE breeders.  We occasionally foster and/or rescue dogs and cats and find them loving forever homes.  We will post any foster pets on the site to help get them adopted!