About Pymatuning Valley Rattery
NOTE: These are just examples, there are more cages in the room, and they are all set up similar to the ones pictured.  I plan on getting better pictures as soon as possible.
How do I care for so many rats!?
The rats of PVR are provided with top notch care, housing, food, and attention.  I used Martins Cages, and highly reccomend them. The rats have a variety of stimulating toys, to keep them active and entertained.  They have mutliple Bird Toys, perches, igloo's, hammocks, and so much more! I feed Mazuri Lab Blocks and Beneful OR Natural Choice Lite dog food as a staple, this is fed free choice (meaning its always there if the rats want it).  I also feed Suebee's mix, once a day (usually in the evening).  In the morning my rats are provided with baby food for breakfast, every other day.  They gets fresh Pea's on a regular basis, and also cooked pasta, scrambled eggs, and broccoli and cheese upon occasion.
I use a variety of different beddings, i'm still trying to find my favorite.  I mostly use Yesterday's News, i have found it to be the best on odor control.  However its not very comfortable for the ratties, and i have to provide them with Eco Bedding, Carefressh, or shredded newspapers for nesting materials.  Most of the time i do use Carefresh, depsite the fact that it does give off an odd smell, i find it to b the most comfortable for my babies.  I use Apsen bedding for when mothers give birth, because other beddings are hard to nest with and/or stick to th newborns.  I clean my cages, every other day or two, by dumping the bedding and wiping down the levels and toys.   Once aweek the cages are stripped, scrubbed with Vinegar, same with the toys.  Hammocks are swapped every other day, and either washed or thrown away and replaced with new.
I have a Rat Room where almost all of the rats are.  Any babies, or sick rats, are normally moved to the Living room for a more stimulating environment.
I n the hot months the room is adequately cooled, and the rats are provided with other means of staying cool (pea fishing).  I try to open the window and provide fresh air as often as possible.  When nobody is home, a small radio is turned on in the room, at a low volume.  This gives the rats something to comfort them when the house is missing our voices.
All rats are given AT LEAST an hour of Free Range/Playtime in one given day.  They are able to run around the rat room, supervised, whenever i am in there.  Otherwise we set up toys and such on the bed or couch, and let them run crazy.  I spend most of my time in the rat room, when i am not studying or working.  Select Rats are able to have run of the living room and kitchen.  These rats are cage trained(go back to the cage t go potty) and come when called, in most cases.  I am always right there, supervising them, because rats are unpredictable and the living room and kitchen are NOT rat proof.
Pictures of cages at bottom of the page.
Showing?
I do not show my rats.  I breed towards show standards, but do not feel comfortable taking the health risks invovled with showing.  I would feel bad about keeping a rat in quarantine for so long, before and after each show, they would spend their whole lives in seclusion from the activities of a regular rat.  I do not disagree with showing, it is just not for me and my rattery.
Speaking of Quarantine...
We Quarantine all new rats for a minimum of 3 weeks.  During this time they may be vet checked and/or treated with Revolution to be rid of any parasites.   With such a big colony, it would be devastating for a disease to spread.  We take EVERY precaution possible.  I have very strict Quarantining guidelines.  Nine times out of Ten, i only see the rat that is in Quarantine two or three times.  I dont like taking the risk of carrying something home with me.   It is hard, especially with the excitement of having a new rat.  But, I am very confident in the person caring for the rats in quarantine, and I know its the right thing to do, for me to feel safe.  PVR also closes the rattery each year for three months, so there is less chance of a disease lurking and being passed to other ratteries.  During this time NO litters are bred (this ruins the whole process of QT), no rats leave the rattery, and no rats come into the rattery.  I think this is a practice that all breeders should participate in, IMO.  Its just stupid to bypass something so simple.
What do you breed for?
This is always a tough question to answer.  I breed "for" a better rat, in every way.  Temperment, Health, Longevity, Type, Color.  There are so many factors that play into it.  But most people are meaning what types and colors of rat are bred here.
Russian blue and its dilutes: Includes Russian Blue, Russian Dove, Rusian Silver, Russian Beige etc.  This is a new line here, and is still being established.  I plan to add this to the High White line, eventually.
American blue and its Dilutes: This line also plays into the Siamese Line  line listed next.  This line consists of: American blue, Platinum (mink and RED based), and Russian Silver.  This line also plays into the High White Line.
Siamese: This is our oldest and most established line.  We are now pausing our focus on this line, because it is so advanced and all the others need more work.  This line consists of : Seal Point Siamese, Blue Point (russian and american blue), Platinum Point, and occasionally: Mink point.
High Whites: This is what we try to mainly focus on, although solid marked rats are beautiful as well.  There are so many problems with High White rats, normally.  We want to change that.   This line consists of so many colors and markings right now, its impossible to list them.  We are working on brining out "safe" blazes (reccessive blazing), and are slowly making progress.  Eventually i want this line to consists of mostly Blues (russian and American) and their dilutes.  These colors look stunning on a white marked rat.  My HW rats are mega-colon free to date.  We work with only safe markings, which are related to capped, varigated, hooded, and dalmation.

We DO NOT breed Manx (tailess), and have no desire to ever start.  We do not breed FOR hairless, but they do occasionally pop out in litters.  Right now we do not work with Dwarves, or UK colors.  These rats are being imported and are still new to the US fancy.  I do hope to acquire Burmese rats, and possibly black eye'd himalayan and siamese rats, somewhere along the line!

Still under contstruction!