Rat Showing

Showing rats is great fun and a very social activity. It is the only chance a lot of rat owners get to meet people who share their love of rats. For anyone who is thinking of breeding their rats, showing is an essential introduction to the 'rat fancy' to learn about the correct type and colours of exhibition rats as well as meeting other breeders and fanciers. You don't have to have rats to show in the varieties classes either, as pets have classes too, where they are judged on things such as temperament. This page has information about shows and showing as well as my own personal experiences of exhibiting.

About the NFRS

Coming soon!

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Rat Varieties and Standards

Coming soon!

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Showing your Rats

Coming soon!

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First time exhibiting

A few days before

The SRC show on 7th December 2009 was my 2nd ever rat show and my first one taking my rats. It’s been over a year since I managed to get to a show due to my old unreliable car, so now I have a different, old, slightly more reliable car I thought I’d give showing another go!

So once I’d decided to make the trip I had to decide which of my rats to take with me. None of my rats are of show quality, so I would have to enter the pet class. As well as them being friendly and cuddly they had to be in perfect health with no sniffles or scabbiness etc. I quickly ruled out 7 of my 9 girls for being either too old, too nervy, a bit snotty nosed, lumpy or just plain grumpy! Sugar, who is a big, beautiful soppy girl would be absolutely perfect for pet classes. She is very chilled out and has the softest, shiniest fur ever. Unfortunately, she has also barbered one of her front legs slightly and I didn’t want to take just one rat on its own all the way to Glasgow so that ruled out the girlies. My group of three bucks have only been with me a month and one is very squeaky with strangers and the other can get a bit dominant when he can smell other boys, so I didn’t think either of those would be suitable candidates. Which left my group of 4. Three of these are brothers and the one unrelated one is a lovely boy, very outgoing and happy to go to anyone for a cuddle, so I thought he would make a lovely pet class rat. Unfortunately, he is a bit scabby and underweight at the moment after squabbling recently with one of the other boys. The one he’s been squabbling with can also get a bit over-dominant, so that left me with the two brothers, Jools and Rupert. These two boys are big, soppy lumps who’s idea of out-time is to sit on my lap or the top of the cage and chill out. I decided they were going.

After making my decision, I found my copy of Ratchat and texted Brenda my entries and hired my show tank. I was really pleased to discover they could be shown in the same tank as I figured they’d be happier with each other for company in a strange environment.

The day before

The list of things to remember for the big day read:

I decided the boys probably wouldn’t appreciate a bath and they weren’t too gross, so I gave them a good wipe down instead with some small animal grooming wipes, paying special attention to their tails! I did attempt to do their nails, but they wouldn’t sit still. I shall have to ask someone next time at the show to help me.

So there I was, with my bag packed, the carrier all clean, boys all clean and sparkly, the car topped up with fuel, oil & water and the alarm set for the morning. Not long to wait…….

The day of the show

The alarm went off at 5am and I eventually left the house about 6am. For once, the weather was on my side and we arrived in Kirkintilloch at about 11am. It took me a further 15 minutes to find the hall and get parked! I’m glad I remembered Brenda’s mobile number!! The boys took everything in their stride, happily accepting cuddles from a fellow exhibitor while I sorted their show tank out and then promptly climbing straight back out before I could get the lid on. They were deposited on the pet table, where I left them enthusiastically sniffing the smells of the boys next door through the lid of the show tank.

I than sat and watched the pros organising all their rats into tanks, matching numbers to a baffling array of varieties. When the judging started I treated myself to a bacon roll and a slice of chocolate cake and we made ourselves comfy and chatted. Everyone was ever so friendly and I was made to feel really welcome. Every so often I’d peer at Toyah judging, wondering what was happing but too shy to go and ask, so I was delighted when she offered to ‘open judge’, explaining what she was looking for to anyone that wanted to come and listen. I scurried round that fast I ended up sitting next to her and writing out her comments on the exhibits. I know what quite a lot of varieties look like, but mostly from photographs and I read all the show reports in Ratchat but with very little understanding of a lot of the comments on the critiques so it was so interesting to watch Toyah as she explained each of the rat’s points, good and bad.

The show finished about 5pm and we cleared up before the rosettes were presented. The boys did quite well, Rupert came 4th in pets and Jools got a special award – ‘cheekiest rat!’ – which I was really chuffed with. I also managed to win a box of rather nice biscuits in the raffle and buy my ratty girls a hammocky thing from the ‘shop’.

I had a really lovely day, everyone was very friendly & the food was brilliant. I will definitely be back.

Article written by Laura Young, 6th January 2009 (published in SRC Rat Chat Jan/Feb 2009)

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