Wolfstep Hollow’s Rattery & Rescue

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Teen baby girls – BONDED PAIR – Must go 🏡 home together.

These two girls are sweet and friendly- they were the only two in their litter. More info in photos 💖

Baby boys available for homing! Info in photos – DM to reserve 💛

Wolfstep Hollow is on temporary hiatus until
further notice.

For more details and info on potential availabilities during this hiatus, please see the comments on this post.

Update on the rats from the hoarding situation in Columbus:

A few weeks ago, on our second trip up to Columbus to rescue the last of the rats, it was brought to our attention that the females, who had been living outside, had been exposed to wild rats. Some of the females were impregnated by wild males, and there was a grown wild-domestic hybrid living in the cage with the other females. This means that all of the females and their babies have been exposed to wild rats and, thus, any zoonotic diseases they could potentially have been carrying. One of the litters that was born after taking the mother in pregnant turned out to be wild hybrids.

Because of this, I no longer felt comfortable placing any of these rats into homes without the guarantee that each individual rat was disease-free, which is completely infeasible to get certainty on. To test one, singular rat for the top four zoonotic diseases wild rats can carry, it would cost $240. Between all the females and their babies we had over 200 rats with potential exposure. Not wanting to risk allowing diseases to spread throughout the domestic rat community in the area, it was my opinion that the most ethical course of action was to mass cull all females and offspring that were exposed. The others involved in this rescue mission disagreed, so against my better judgment, I surrended the moms and babies I'd taken on to them with the promise that they would at least have the adult hybrid tested before deciding to home any of the rats. I am no longer involved in the situation so I can't say whether or not they went through with that testing, but I do know that they still intend to place these rats into homes.

These rats were quarantined in an entirely separate air space from our other rats in the rescue and breeding programs, so there was no cross contamination there.

My advice to you all when adopting rats from places other than experienced, reputable pet breeders is to always ask whether or not there has been exposure to wild rats/zoonotic diseases before accepting the rats into your home.

If you had already expressed interest in the rats we had from these litters, I can help you find other options. We do not currently have other babies available. If you'd like to be updated on young rescue intakes as they come in, let us know.