Rat Information

History of the Fancy Rat

   Fancy rats are often thought to be vermin, food for snakes, and dirty animals.  Those fuzzy little rodents that many people have come to love and cherish have an interesting and unique journey they went through before they could be the animals we love today.

  Rats belong at a large group of species that make up the rodent family.  The fancy rat that we keep as pets are domesticated versions of the Norway Rat, Rattus norvegicus, which are also known by a variety of other names including brown,  common, and sewer rat .  They were named the Norway rat by the English, who thought they had come from ships from Norway.  It is actually believed that the Norway rat originated in Russia, near the Caspian Sea, although there are other theories that they could have originated for other places, such as Japan or China.

   Rats are often considered the villains who started the Black Plague and many people to this day turn their noses up at rats as pets because they are "dirty".  Fancy rats, however, are incredibly clean animals of a different species then the ones who are associated with the Black Plague.  The Black rat, Rattus rattus, was the dominant rat species in Europe and happened to carry a flea that was the host of the plague disease.  The Norway rat was not this type of rat and is actually associated with helping to halt the plague by aggressively chasing out the Black rat from cities around Europe.

   It is believed that rats were kept as pets as early as the late 1700s or early 1800s, with the first records of breeding being recorded in 1800s.  Ratting, where dogs were placed in pits with rats to see how many they could kill in a certain amount of time, was a popular sport at the time and many rats were captured and bred for the sport.  A rat-catcher by the name of Jack Black is credited with being the first man to breed these rats and sell them as pets.  It is generally believed that he took interest in the rats whose colors were not the normal wild color, such as white or black and bred them.  When he bred the rats he found different colored rats were produced and he kept those and bred them further, starting the development of the colors we see today.

   The popularity of rats has grown since then.  Rat based clubs have slowly begun to get more popular and over the past decade or so rats have become recognized as wonderful pets for both children and adults.

This information has been incorporated over years of learning about rats through reading and personal communication with breeders and fanciers.  I no longer know who told me any particular piece of information and cannot site the source.

Last Updated: 06/05/05

Melissa J. Cowman © 2005