Caprice Acres Rodentry

Fancy Rats and Mice

Before the Rats

My name is Dona Barski and I am 19 years old and a Freshman in college. I have experience with all sorts of animals and am an aspiring veterinarian.  My education plans include becoming a large and small animal veterinarian.  My dreams have always been to educate people on the proper and humane care of animals.  Over the years I've had many kinds of birds, fish, a few dogs, cats, hamsters, gerbils, small snakes, lizards, turtles, tortoises - and probably more that I'm forgetting. 

My main project involving animals was my goat herd, which I worked with for 7 years. I raised miniature meat goats, American Alpines, and French Alpines. My lines included Alpine Valley, Cozy-Hollow, Pearl Valley, and Grace-Hill, among others.  I would skip school to attend birthings and daily chores included milking 2x per day, hay/water, feeding baby goats anywhere from 6x per day to 3x per day.  I did most of my own vet work including drawing blood, vaccines, castrations, disbudding, and other minor work.  Due to a bad breeder, CAE, a viral arthritis, was introduced to my herd and I had to make the responsible decision to butcher my first two beloved dairy goats because I was not able to expend even more time and money on isolating a separate herd. Plus, I did not want to contribute to the spread of the disease in any way.  

At the end of my senior year,  I made the decision to sell of my dairy goat herd and stop breeding entirely. I knew that I wouldn't be able to skip class anymore for a kidding, and I knew it would be nearly impossible to properly care for my animals and still do well in school.  It almost killed me to see my beloved dairy goats in the hands of someone else, but I knew I was making the right, responsible decision.  They all went to excellent homes and I still am able to see most of them, which helps ease my worries. 

About the Rattery

My rattery started very innocently. I planned on getting a few large snakes, and wanted a reliable food source for them.  I looked into buying frozen rodents locally, but this was cost prohibitive.  I looked into commercial feeder rodent producing companies, but I could not bring myself to fuel such an industry - I can't imagine that all those rodents could be happy, housed in such immense numbers.  I decided though it can be a bit pricier, that the right decision for myself and my small needs would be to raise happy, humane, well taken care of rats.  Raising them myself would be the only way to assure myself that the rats are well loved and well cared for. My rattery is proof that not all feeder breeders are evil. I try to work on educating feeder breeders on the proper and humane care of their feeder rodents.  Snakes need to eat too, but that does not mean that the rodents don't have a right to a happy humane life, too. 

I bought my first pair, Newton and Darleen.  Soon after, I purchased 2 other girls, Ethel and Pook. Pook, a rather normal seeming black hooded doe, is the main reason rats have become a side hobby.  She is excessively friendly, knows her name, likes to give kisses and wants nothing more than to be your best friend. Newton, too, is friendly. His favorite thing to do is play with me, i tickle his backside and he turns around to wrestle.  From there I kept babies from litters or brought home new stock.  I learned how rat genetics work after I got many siamese babies out of Darleen and Newton.  For my 19th birthday my father built me two HUGE cages using a metal shelving unit that we've had in our basement since forever. We put walls on the back and sides, and built screen and wood front doors.  They have turned out excellently and can house a bunch of rats. The sections can be divided and provide isolated areas for nursing does or new stock.  The excellent personality of rats as well as their wonderful variation in genetics that result in many 'project' lines that I can work with trying to achieve a certain color.  My mice are less my pets but are of course still properly cared for and handled humanely.

I now only pair rats with the idea in mind of creating excellent quality pets, and only as an offshoot do I produce feeders mainly for my own use. Many ask how I can love both the feeder animals as well as the animals that consume them.   I do have a few snakes at this point, and I'm looking to expand my collection slowly over time - both of rodents and reptiles. I do not, however, feed live.  All of my reptiles will accept pre killed rodents. CO2 is a humane method of euthanization.  CO2 gas is not painful and actually puts the rodents into a painless sleep and death quickly follows.   Cervical dislocation is also another humane method that involves severing the skull from the cervical (neck) bones, severing the nerve cord. This can be achieved in a very quick motion.