Some questions about rat Shows...

[SonyaFancifulRats]

Having never been to a Rat Show before, I had some questions...
1) I understand there are strict quarentines to keep sick rats out of the shows. Hopefully everyone follows the rules and no rats carry disease in. What about if a person had sick rats at home, and went to the show.. wouldn't it be possible for them to carry disease there, on clothing, shoes, hands?  Maybe not likely but possible?  

2) Are all the rats entered in a specific category "perfect"?  Like if I had a Dumbo bareback rat, who had a lovely body type.. could he win anything even if he had a spludge of color on his side?  Could he be entered as a type (  Dumbo) and be judged as that, and if so would his markings  reflect on his score?  Are they judged seperately for markings, and if so to be entered in this category would they need to be without Faults ( Like  the dot of colored hair ) ?  So I guess I'm saying would this hypothetical rat be disqualified or simply get deductions?

Just curious about these things as I have never seen a "perfect" rat in person and never been to a show. I don't own the aforementioned Dumbo rat and am not planning on showing, this is pure curiousity!!

[Suebee]

As for the first part, that is the responsibility of the person to wash their clothes and themselves and not contact their rats before they come to the show.

Markings and standards are specific to each individual club. The Rat Fan Club is not a club that does these kinds of shows, therefore we don't have judging standards -- we're pet-focused. For standards, you need to contact the particular club who is sponsoring the show, and ask them where he would fit in.

There are also usually pet classes for rats with less-than-perfect markings, but stellar personalities.

[Spiralgirl]

1) I understand there are strict quarentines to keep sick rats out of the shows. Hopefully everyone follows the rules and no rats carry disease in. What about if a person had sick rats at home, and went to the show.. wouldn't it be possible for them to carry disease there, on clothing, shoes, hands?  Maybe not likely but possible?

Quarentine is one of those things that if done properly can be effective to stem the spread of disease.  We are fortunate that here in the NW our rat club is still pretty small and we know most everyone that comes to the shows....and everyone is responsable about following proper quarentining procedures.  We also do health checks at the door to ensure that all ratties registered and quarentined are indeed healthy.  We also wash our hands and wipe down tables with sanitizer between every rat....handled, checked, showed, or judged.

I think the problem comes from large shows and organizations...where it becomes less about the ratties and having fun, and more about winning ribbons.  This is a situation where I feel that people are more willing to cut corners, and not follow proper procedures.

I also I'm pretty strict in general to protect my ratties.  I don't allow most people to pick them up...especially at shows.  I also don't handle strange rats...and I definitly don't play with ones at pet shops...quite often the source of most rat diseases.

2) Are all the rats entered in a specific category "perfect"?  Like if I had a Dumbo bareback rat, who had a lovely body type.. could he win anything even if he had a spludge of color on his side?  Could he be entered as a type (  Dumbo) and be judged as that, and if so would his markings  reflect on his score?  Are they judged seperately for markings, and if so to be entered in this category would they need to be without Faults ( Like  the dot of colored hair ) ?  So I guess I'm saying would this hypothetical rat be disqualified or simply get deductions?

Judging varies from club to club.  As I'm a judge for PacRatsNW, I can give you a general run down on how I would judge your hypothetical rat.  We judge on a 100 point scale, points are taken off for faults, and then the final total tallied.  We judge the whole rat from condition, color, body, and how well it fits the type catagory it was entered in.

Your rat: dumbo bareback with splash on side with a great body (when I judge, I work my way from the outside in, I feel this allows me a better sense of the rat over all when it comes to judging body and type)

1. tail - clean, no lumps, no bends or kinks, round not blocky, proper length(about the same length as body)

2. eyes - set well on the head, not too bulgy or squinty, clean

3. ears - proper placement, for dumbos not too lowset on head, no tears or nicks, for dumbos no creases or folds and of a large enough size for the head

4. head - for dumbos broad between the ears and tapering down to the nose, not too short or too long, well proportioned with the rest of its body

5. temper - not too fearful, points off for peeing on the judge (no, not really!), some skitishness is expected

6. condition - body clean, nails clipped, tail clean

7. body - proper size for age and sex(we require ages on all rats being judged), not too fat, not too thin, for dumbos not too blocky or hippy, proper placement of all the body parts, overall harmony of how the rat is put together

8. color - color as entered correct, how well the color matches the standard, no white/silvering/banding where there should be none

9. marking - marking as entered correct, how well marking matches the standard, no other markings where the rat should have none, how even the markings are

So for your hypothetical rat say she did great in 1-7 and only got one point off.  In #8 her color got a point off for having some silvering(quite common).  And then in #9 I would take 2-4 points off for the size of the mis-mark...say it's smallish, smaller then a dime, then I'd only take off 2 points.

So she got a total of 4 points off out of 100...then she gets an over all score of 96 and a blue ribbon.  But to win her class she would have to have the best score out of all the rats in her class when the judging was over.  And in the case of a tie in points...it generally goes to the rat who best fits the type.  Our club has two judges for every big class, so that final determinations aren't too much based on personal choice...also we're not allowed to judge classes that we have rats entered in or rats we've bred entered in, to cut down on favoritism.

[SonyaFancifulRats]

Thanks so much for that explanation! That really answered all my questions that I have been wondering about for three years now

I guess because I have never seen in person a perfectly marked rat and seldom in pictures, I was curious about how they had enough "perfect" ones to have a show! ( Probably there are more where there are higher concentrations of breeders. )

Apparently there have been too many problems in New England to hold shows ( I wouldn't risk it) so I just haven't had a chance to go and observe.

Thanks again!!

[Spiralgirl]

Shows help us breeders detemine which rats to breed, and which rats or lines to purchase from....to better arrive at the "perfect" show winning rat.

In fact I had a dumbo doe win second best(Reserve) of show...I was going to breed her sister next, but instead I bred her to another dumbo rat who won his section at the show.  Out of that litter of 11 one was Reserve of Show...the one I kept out of the litter would have done really well at the show as well, but I kept him home from the show because he had a touch of diarreah(which turned out to be from too much human food).