The name Bloomingfield comes from one of Fredrika Bremer's novels in which it says: "Jermtatter, (i. e. Iron-nights,) is the name applied in Sweden to certain nights about Midsummer time, in which frost appears and breathes upon the blooming fields." Bloomingfield Rattery is run by myself, Amanda, with the help of my father Marty. We are located in Petaluma, California and we specialize in Siamese and Russian blue agouti. Bloomingfield Rattery (since April 2008) is a newer name in the rat world, however rats, with their kissy, affectionate nature have been a part of our lives for almost nine years. Our aim is to focus on breeding the perfect companion pet, paying attention to health, longevity, temperament, and conformation of our lines. We compete in both show classes (judged on type/color/markings) and in pet classes (judged on personality). Pedigrees are kept up to date in a meticulous manner, as are health notes. We keep in touch with our adopters to not only provide support throughout the rats lifetime, but also so we can keep track of the health and temperament of all offspring produced. We offer many thanks to those individuals who have helped, and continue to help us, through our journey.
Husbandry Ethics
All of
our rats receive the best care we can provide for them. This includes:
Breeding Ethics
We believe in breeding for both pet and show qualities simultaneously. Breeding pairs are carefully and painstakingly selected with the goal of improving the line with each generation, and litters are sometimes months in the making. We also limit the number of litters we have at once so that each baby can receive the amount of care, attention, and socialization they deserve while still allowing us plenty of time to play with our older rats. Babies are literally handled from the day they are born until the day they go to their new homes. While we follow AFRMA and RMHF's lead and don't publically condemn or condone culling, we feel it is not necessary to achieve our goals. We believe that careful selection and proper nutrition will ensure that each kitten is raised to its full potential. All of our breeding choices are based on 4 different
attributes:Temperament/Health
As previously mentioned, health and temperament take precedence to show qualities. Rats with poor temperaments or health problems are never bred from, and the health and temperament history of each rat bred by us is recorded in our database to track health and temperament tendencies in each line in order to make sensible breeding decisions in future. We currently use Breeders Assistant to keep records of both health and temperaments. BA is an extremely powerful database that allows us to keep records on pedigrees, date of birth (DoB), health issues, and temperament all in one place.
Health can be broken down into a few parts: longevity and health issues throughout life. While we highly regard longevity we also want rats that are not plagued with various issues throughout their lives. One of the most vital keys to tracking health is to keep in contact with adopters throughout the rats lifespan. This allows us to fully appreciate any issues that occur as a majority and help us better select against such issues.
Type
We use the word "type" to describe any physical attributes of a rat other than its color/markings, such as the shape of its skull and ears, or its bone structure. Type is a very general word and almost every breeder says they breed for type, however we have a very specific idea in mind. When breeding for type we generally favor line breeding and in breeding versus the generally more popular out crossing (in the US at least). We use line breeding as a way of infusing good characteristics into a line. Line breeding will limit the gene pool in such a way that any genetic tendencies in a line will occur frequently. Out crosses are done with caution, however in the beginning of our breeding plans we chose to try and create our own unique line and therefore out crossing has proven a helpful attribute. At this time show quality rats in California are scarce, and therefore we are working mostly on isolating type, versus being picky with colors.
Color
We currently only breed selves and therefore we don't have to contend with perfecting markings. When starting a new line we aim to improve the type, temperament and health of the line before selecting heavily for color, in order to ensure that we are line breeding rats that are robust in every other way first of all.