Our Policies

Our Policies

It is our goal here at HERO to produce healthy, even tempered, breed standard rats. We breed for the best in temperaments, health, and longevity over colors/varieties. Our rats are our pets first and foremost and breeders second - and are treated as such.

Our primary purpose for breeding rats (aside from, obviously, a deep love and respect for rats as a species and as pets), is for betterment. We breed with the AFRMA standards in mind, and temperament is a priority for us. As we have recently relocated to this coast, and coming off of a several year breeding hiatus, we are working with all new (to us) breeding stock. This means these lines, while not 'new' to the reputable breeders which they hailed from, *are* new to us. For the first 3-5 generations we simply cannot give information such as expectations of longevity (this is why it is so important our adopters are willing to stay in contact with us), etc. That being said, we do not adopt out rats who are not personable, friendly, have a zero-bite history and are in good health to the best of our knowledge.

Here at HERO:

You must be 18 years or older to adopt from us. We are supportive of children having rats as pets - and the rats we raise here are raised around (and being frequently handled by) children ranging from 5 years old to teenagers! However, as such, we understand that children cannot be solely responsible for pet guardianship; and the younger end of that should not be allowed to handle pets unsupervised. If you adopt from us for your child(ren) please know that YOU are primarily responsible for that pets safety and health. Furthermore, there is always the possibility of zoonotic disease (diseases that can transmit from rats to humans). For this reason, if you have a child under 10 in the home, I encourage you to directly monitor that proper hygiene is observed when handling and cleaning enclosures.
HERO is a "Closed Rattery," meaning to prevent infection, disease or illness from entering our mischief of rats; we do not allow the public to enter our home. This is for the safety of our rats & our family and is not negotiable. If you are adopting from us, we will meet you outside of our home and provide hand sanitizer for your use both prior to handling our rats and after handling them, at your request. We will only bring the rats you are adopting at the time of pick up; not any others from our home. We do not offer the ‘pet store experience’, as, again, we do not wish to bring any illness/etc into our mischief. During COVID19 we will only meet families willing to wears face masks. Our home address is private, and will not be provided for any reason.
We do not offer shipping - as Florida is a very hot state. We welcome out-of-state adopters who are willing to drive to pick up their babies. We DO typically take several road trips throughout the year (and will be doing so more frequently again once our family is eligible to be vaccinated for Covid19). This enables us to sometimes meet adopters if they are in an area we are driving through/to. Message us directly for more information. If we are delivering rats to you out-of-state on one of these trips, the following applies: (1) Adoption fees must be paid in full before we begin the journey, (2) You must purchase a carrier from us - + you must bring your own water bottle to switch out when we deliver the rats to you, (3) You must adopt a minimum of 2 same-sex rats, and (4) There is a flat delivery fee of $20 per household.
Our adoption fee ranges from $15 to $75 (adoption fee listed in each pup's bio).
All of our rats are adopted out under a strict No Breeding Contract, unless otherwise stipulated.
If you are a breeder looking to procure one of our rats, contact us directly for more information.
We do not offer refunds. If you need to return your rat(s) for health issues, you may do so within 7 days from the date of adoption. If the rat(s) you are returning have legitimate heath problems - you can take home another one of our available rats of equal or lesser value at that time or reserve the right to a future adoption (of equal or lesser value). If you need to rehome a rat you adopted from us because your life circumstance changed/etc - contact us directly to arrange for drop-off.
We will not breed female rats prior to 4 months of age. Female dwarf rats are generally not bred until they are 6 months of age.
We do not cull pups from our litters. We will only have an animal euthanized if it becomes incurably ill, is advanced in age and in discomfort (quality of life care) or aggressive toward humans.
We do not accept rescue rats at this time. We might be able to point you in the right direction, however, so do reach out if you are in a bind. Back in California, we used to rescue almost as much as we bred, but since too many viruses have taken hold in the rat world (such as the Seoul Virus) we are unfortunately no longer rescuing. This is to ensure the rats in our mischief remain free of disease and illness. We intend to begin serology testing our rattery annually, to ensure this as well. We will, however, always take any of our rats back if you can no longer offer a safe, healthy home for them.
We will not adopt out baby ratties prior to 6-8 weeks of age. Most of our rats are ready to go home at 6 weeks; however Dwarfs and most Harleys stay until they are at least 7 weeks.
We offer a health guarantee, on each pup adopted, of 7 days from the date of adoption. If your pup should become ill or perish, we will replace that pup with one of our available pups or one from a future litter (of equal or lesser value).
We will not knowingly adopt out a pup(s) who is of ill health.
We ONLY adopt out rats in same-sex pairs, unless you have other rats currently in your home. We do require proof of this before adoption of any singletons and will still very rarely approve. Rats are very social animals and need to be housed with at least one other rat to be happy. Three same-sex rats is the lucky number (less dominance spats, etc). This goes for both males and females. We furthermore suggest a minimum of 2 rats, as the quarantine period once you take them home (4-6 weeks) would be very lonely for a singleton. Human companionship is not the same as same-species companionship.
We ask that if at any point you can no longer care for your rat(s), HERO has first right of refusal to reacquiring the rat(s) .
We will NOT sell our rats as feeders, breeders of feeders, or for research of any kind.
If you are a talent agent looking to 'rent' any of our rats for a film production; we require a member of HERO be present with our rats on and off set, at all times. Inquire directly if seeking animal actors with particular trained behaviors (coming when signaled, reaching up, running, etc). Furthermore, our rats CANNOT interact with any rats from other sources (this is to ensure no animal-born illness is transmitted to our rattery upon the end of filming).
We require that if you are a rat breeder and intend to use our pup in your breeding program in the future, that you use our prefix on the rats name (i.e. HERO "Rat Pup"). In addition, we ask that you notify us when our rat is bred, so we may have the option of adopting from you!
If you are looking to put a Hold on a pup in our Nursery (who is too young yet to leave his/her mother), just send us an email! Holds on specific rat pups begin sometimes as early as 2 weeks of age (whenever the rats colors start to come in & after we have selected our keepers). We will accept 2nd holds on our rat pups in case the 1st hold backs out of the adoption - until a Reservation Fee has been paid. If you place a 1st Hold on a pup, a $10 non-refundable deposit (+ paypal fee) is required by the time they reach 2 weeks of age. This Reservation Fee is applicable if you are reserving up to 3 rats. If you reserve 4+, there is a $20 non-refundable deposit (+ paypal fee). This money goes toward the total adoption fee for that animal, except for the added PayPal transaction fees.
We reserve the right to refuse or deny adoption of our rats at our sole discretion for any reason.