I also used to have a pet rat. I have never met a fellow rat person before. I picked my rat up in a pet shop as a baby. He was cute and very smart. He was being sold as snake food, which was why I rescued him.
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We own a pet shop and sell lots of mice and rats.....but unfortunately most of them do go to snake owners.
If I am working in the shop, (usually once a week), and if anyone comes in to buy one which I know is going to be snake food, I just tell them that the ones we have are "breeders" and not for sale. Just cant bring myself to sell one, knowing its doom.
I told one customer that, one time, and then he said " well, I will just have to buy a guinea pig then"......I was flabergasted.....told him to go buy his snake food somewhere else.