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Here's a query: Does anyone know what a "fancy" rat is? My mother and I visited a pet store a few months back. They had two windows: rats, and fancy rats.
"Fancy" is just the rat equivalent of "pedigree", except that you can't have purebreed rats, since the genetic lines are tangled (or, more precisely, clumped in a lvoely warm pile of fur). So, if your rat looks a bit unusual - it's apricot, or has extra-bushy eyebrows, or whatever - you can take it along to a fancy rat organisation and see if it passes their requirements to be a fancy rat rather than just a rat. There's no hard and fast rules, and different clubs have different standards.
Fancy rats are also often bred for temperament - that is, they are bred from calm and friendly stock - whereas food rats (rats you buy from pet shops to give to pet reptiles) might be less stable, because it doesn't really matter.
So, "fancy rat" really just means "rat that costs more and has some attempt to breed in desirable characteristics". It may also mean "rat that can be entered in fancy rat competitions", but will not necessarily pass muster at all contests. |
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