We all know someone who doesn’t like rats with pink/red/ruby eyes – more likely the former two than the latter in my experience (people are often surprised by just how dark ruby eyes can be). Having owned and bred many (especially PE) over the years, prepare yourselves for word vomit. Yay.

Many people, I imagine, have a reaction to paler eyes which they can’t control. Perhaps they associate them with the glowing eyes of a wild animal in the dark. Perhaps they just don’t like them aesthetically – which is fine.

Here I’m going to talk about the influence of certain ideas touted on the internet (i.e. I’m not attacking anyone for having a reaction that they can’t control).

Yes, their vision is poorer than black-eyed rats - this is not to say all PE rats are blind, or that BE rats can’t be blind!. All rats have fairly rubbish vision.

Certain black-eyed rats can also display the head-swaying classically seen in PE rats (c-locus varieties with the dominant Black Eyed gene, for instance).

P/RE rats should not have drastically different temperaments to their BE counterparts.

From 2007 to 2013 I bred a line of Champagne and Silver Fawn. As well as doing rather well on the show bench (in both Pet & Varieties classes), they made very good pets all round. I clicked so well with them, and I don’t think I’ll ever have another line I like as much for their personalities.

Am I biased because they were my favourite line ever? Absolutely. But I also wonder if the amount of PE/RE rats sourced from poor backgrounds has an influence on what people say about them.

I’ve had this conversation a few times:

Them: “PE rats are shy and nervous.”

Me: “That’s not been my experience. How many have you owned and where were they from?”

Them: “I had one once from Pets At Home.”

…aaaand therein lies the issue, for me.

Sweeping statements are an issue in general, I think (how many times have people claimed their agoutis were more ‘wild’ than their ‘prettier’ coloured rats? Or that dumbos are more ‘laid-back’?), but perhaps this one winds me up because it’s closer to home?