Reptile & Amphibian Forums

True story -

I was in the pet/feed store and a lady came in carrying a cage of two adult rats and a bunch of young ones. She walked up to the girl behind the desk and says "I came in here a couple of months ago asking for 2 female rats as pets 'cuz I didn't want any babies. You sold me these two as females and they have obviously had babies. Your sexing was wrong and I want you to buy back everything rats, babies, cage and all."

The girl behind the desk said that she could buy back the rats to be used as feeders but would not buy back the cage and accessories 'cuz the pregnancy was not her fault. "I have raised rats for over 10 years; I know they were female when I checked them. What you have to realize is that certain types of rats kept in a single sex colony can change sex so that they can breed."

Has anybody else seen a gender changing rat. I should have bought the ones she brought in 'cuz I want one. They sure would be nice to have; you would never have to worry 'bout the male-female ratio, they would simply change sexes to meet their needs. Oh, and think about how easy that would make breeding for specific coat traits - you wouldn't have to worry 'bout having a male and female of each trait. If you only had two females of a rare trait you could keep them together long enough to cause a sex change in one and breed them ('course it would suck if they both decided to switch sexes and you suddenly had two males on your hands).

Isn't it amazing what the idiots at the pet store will say to avoid blame?
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Russ

:

Did you burst out laughing right there while she was giving her little speech?
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Anna

The Zoo
Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Gray Ghost & Pink
1.1 Amel - Parker & Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
1.0 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo Agouti - Moon
1.0 Silvered Black - Pluto
1.0 Powder Blue - Corner
0.1 Dumbo Siamese - Lily
Plus the breeders & babies
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

I can't help but wonder if the pet shop employee believed what she was saying, or if she was just trying to "pull a fast one" on the customer.

Maybe she should have told the customer that those rats came from San Francisco, so they change sex regularly.-LOL

Rodney

:

I think that store worker was watching too much Jurassic Park. TO my knowledge no mammals of any kind change sex after birth. Unless it is born a hermaphrodite. Mostly likely one of the rats was male or one of the females was already pregnant when sold.

My local petstore washes it's hands of incorrectly sexing their animals stating that they do not sex the animals and won't guarentee selling a particular sex. Just as well I know how to sex my own mice/rats/guinea pigs.

The woman was lucky that the store would take back the rats, most won't give refunds for any animals they sell. (or at least the petstore in my area won't). The cages she could use for other rats or pets, if the woman took the time to learn how to sex rats herself.