Coastline Pets Rattery
While we are closed rattery (meaning we do not let adopters visit) for the health and safety of our rats, we invite you to take a virtual tour below
What Sets Us Apart
What sets us apart as a rattery is our commitment to high standards and ethical breeding practices. As an AFRMA-registered rattery, we adhere to their guidelines, ensuring that we prioritize the health, safety, and temperament of every rat. We focus on producing well-socialized rats with excellent temperaments, creating healthy great companions.
Our breeding program is carefully planned, and we consistently exceed industry standards by maintaining a safe, stimulating environment for our rats. With our transparent and responsible approach, customers can adopt with confidence, knowing that every rat from our rattery is raised with the utmost care and dedication.
Breeding
We take pride in our breeding practices, prioritizing the health and well-being of our rats. Females are bred only when they are of appropriate age and size, and males are not bred until at least six months old.
Each pairing is carefully planned months in advance, with clear goals in mind to improve traits or preserve qualities in the line. We breed intentionally, ensuring that every rat is healthy, well-socialized, and has an excellent temperament. Our commitment to quality ensures that every rat from our rattery is of the highest standard.
Enrichment and Exploration
We believe that enrichment and play are essential for the happiness and well-being of our rats. At Coastline Pets, our rats enjoy plenty of time outside their cages exploring and engaging in a variety of activities. We provide safe and stimulating environments for them, including supervised play in our playpen, leash time for exploring new spaces, and even water play for those who enjoy a little splash! These activities not only keep them physically active but also mentally engaged, ensuring they lead enriched and fulfilling lives while in our care
Trick Training
At our rattery, we believe in keeping our rats mentally stimulated, and one of the ways we do this is by teaching our breeders tricks. While some of our rats prefer extra pets and treats, others love the challenge of learning new tricks and practicing their favorites. Their enthusiasm for learning inspired us to create our own line of trick props, which we now offer for sale in our shop. These props are designed to encourage engagement and mental exercise, helping our rats stay sharp and happy.
Take a look at the video of our boy Bleu showing off one of his favorite tricks—his love for learning never fails to impress!
Air Quality
We are committed to providing our rats with the best living environment possible, including top-notch air quality. To achieve this, we’ve installed a carbon filtration system with additional filter layers to ensure clean, fresh air. We've also chosen a setup with noise reduction features to keep the environment peaceful and stress-free for our rats. Additionally, we use a large humidifier to maintain optimal humidity levels, and our rats have their own dedicated room in our home equipped with central heating and air conditioning to ensure consistent comfort year-round.
High Quality Diet
In addition to Mazuri lab blocks, our rats enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables to promote balanced nutrition and enrichment. Fresh produce provides essential vitamins, minerals, and hydration, supporting their health, coat, and immune system. We carefully select safe options to keep their diet diverse, ensuring happy, thriving rats.
Additional Amenities
Emergency Safety
We prioritize our rats' safety with comprehensive emergency measures. Our setup includes fire protection, a temperature and humidity monitoring system, and designated emergency evacuation travel carriers. These precautions ensure we can act quickly to protect our rats in any situation.
Photography Studio
Our photography setup includes a professional lightbox with adjustable lighting and light filter panels, paired with high-quality cameras and equipment. This ensures we produce color-accurate photos, allowing customers to see the exact appearance of the rat they are selecting.
Rattery Cleaning Apparel
To maintain strict cleaning quarantine measures, we use designated aprons and rubber shoes for each room, minimizing the risk of transferring illnesses or pests. These items are easy to disinfect, ensuring a clean and safe environment. Additionally, we regularly use nitrile gloves as an extra layer of protection for cleaning.
Live View Camera
We have a live-view camera system in our rattery room that lets us check water and food levels, monitor our rats’ well-being, and ensure all equipment is running properly, all from our phones.
Auto Day/Night Cycles
We use an automatic light timer in our rattery to maintain a consistent day-night cycle, supporting our rats' natural circadian rhythm. This ensures they get the proper balance of light and dark for their overall well-being.
Record Keeping
We use both paper and electronic record keeping to stay organized. A calendar in our rattery room helps us track day-to-day notes, which we later digitalize, while we also maintain detailed digital records for lineage, litters, and breeding events.
Treat Dispensers
We keep treat dispensers readily accessible in our rattery, making it easy to reward our rats with snacks during interactions. This helps build trust, encourages positive behavior, and provides mental stimulation.
Robotic Vacuum
We use a robotic vacuum system to minimize food dust and bedding debris, keeping the floors clean on a daily basis. In addition, we manually vacuum and mop the floors weekly to ensure the rattery room remains spotless and hygienic.
Vitamins and Supplements
We craft custom seasonal treats packed with essential vitamins and supplements designed to support our rats' immune systems and promote healthy, shiny coats. These treats play a crucial role in helping to reduce the risk of mycoplasma flare-ups, a common respiratory issue in rats.
Preventative Treatments
We prioritize our rats' health by using preventative treatments to keep them pest-free. All rats of appropriate age are treated with kitten-strength Revolution (Selamectin), protecting them from fleas, lice, mites, and preventing secondary issues like worms.
Rotating Disinfectants
We maintain a sterilized environment by rotating disinfectants monthly, reducing the risk of resistant bacteria. Additionally, we use heat steamers for deep cleaning, ensuring thorough and efficient sterilization on dedicated cleaning days.
Handmade Toys and Hammocks
We handmake all of our rat hammocks using double-thick fleece layers for comfort and durability. We also create our own fleece shelf liners, using absorbent, rat-safe materials for added protection. Additionally, we make all of our own toys to ensure the highest quality and safety for our rats. Crafting everything ourselves allows us to fully customize each item, ensuring it meets the specific needs of our rats while maintaining top-notch standards.
Boxes and Tubes
We believe in providing our rats with a stimulating and engaging environment. To keep things fresh and exciting for them, we maintain a surplus of disposable boxes, packing paper, and cardboard tubes of all sizes. These materials allow us to create custom enrichment items that encourage natural behaviors, providing mental and physical stimulation.
We frequently change up their cages with new setups, ensuring they have plenty of opportunities for exploration, climbing, and problem-solving. Our rats always look forward to cleaning days, as it means new toys and activities to enjoy. This constant variety helps keep them happy, healthy, and mentally engaged.
Rattery Room 360°
Take a tour around our rattery room, where we offer a nearly 360-degree view of our setup. We have three Critter Nation cages, each three units tall, providing spacious and comfortable homes for our rats. In addition, we have two custom smaller cages and two rack systems. The rack systems are specifically used for breeding, as they allow us to isolate and closely monitor specific males and females. We also use them for nursing mothers, giving them a quiet, peaceful space to care for their young.
The bins on the rack systems are easier to clean, enabling us to maintain a higher frequency of cleaning than with our regular cages. Their one-level design also prevents any accidents with young babies, ensuring their safety. Once the babies are eating solid food and old enough, they are separated by gender and moved into a Critter Nation cage for more room to grow and thrive.
Inside the Cages
Take a glimpse around a typical Critter Nation cage in our rattery. These cages house our current breeders, retired breeders, grow outs, and available rats, and each one is designed to offer a dynamic, enriching environment. We provide a large litter box filled with pelleted bedding in every cage. While we don’t specifically litter train our rats, they usually learn to do so on their own, often mimicking each other’s behavior.
In addition to the litter boxes, we use large cement mixing tubs filled with kiln-dried wood shavings, which allow our rats to dig, burrow, nest, and search for treats. Since we handmake all of our toys and hammocks, the setup in each cage is constantly changing to keep things fresh and engaging. Everything is attached with easily movable brackets or clips, making it simple to reconfigure their environment as needed.
For feeding, we use a combination of scatter feeding and custom 3D-printed food hoppers, ensuring the pelleted food stays dry and clean. We also exclusively provide water through bottles to maintain a hygienic water source, keeping everything as clean and safe as possible. To further streamline our care routine, name clips are placed on each cage to help us quickly identify and track the genetic information of our rats, ensuring efficient management of their care.
On Hand Medications and Equipment
While we work closely with a trusted veterinarian, we understand that with our larger number of rats, it's essential to be prepared for any situation. My background in animal rehabilitation has taught me the importance of having the right tools on hand for both minor illnesses and emergencies.
To ensure quick action when needed, we keep a variety of medical supplies ready, including probiotics, wound care products, critical care food, subcutaneous fluid administration equipment, antibiotics, pain medication, eye ointments, and skin care items. We also have essential tools like stethoscopes, otoscopes, nebulizer setups, nail trimmers, Kwik Stop, cotton swabs, medical instruments and more.
