The history of fancy rats: how rats became pets

Where do pet rats come from?

Every pet rat is descended from the brown rat. The RSPCA explains that domestic rats are descendants of the brown rat, which is why their biology and behaviour still closely match their wild relatives. What changed them was people: well over a century of choosing the calmest, friendliest and most interesting-looking rats to breed from. Our guide to what a fancy rat is covers the pet you see today.

England was not the first place to keep rats for fun. The National Fancy Rat Society (NFRS) records that rats were domesticated in Japan from around 1654, in the Edo period, and that a Japanese guidebook on breeding fancy rats, by Jyo-En-Shi, dates from 1789. It describes rats bred to be black headed, black-eyed white, and black with a white crescent.

Who was Jack Black?

Jack Black was a Victorian London rat-catcher, and the man most often named as the first breeder of pet rats. The American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association (AFRMA) credits "Royal Rat Catcher Jack Black" with the first truly domestic rats, bred and sold between the 1840s and 1860s. The NFRS says he held a contract for the Royal Parks and barracks from 1825 until after 1854, and suggests his real name may have been Samuel Bastick.

He liked a grand title. His handbills, as recorded by Henry Mayhew, read "V.R. Rat and mole destroyer to Her Majesty". The NFRS adds that he called himself the King's or the Queen's rat-catcher, depending on who was on the throne.

How did rat-catchers end up breeding pets?

They kept the odd ones. Catching wild rats for a living, Jack Black and his fellow Londoner Jimmy Shaw (also spelled Jemmy) now and then came across rats with unusual colours, and kept and bred from them. The NFRS notes that both men worked in the rough rat trade of the day, which is where those odd-coloured rats turned up.

Black told the writer Henry Mayhew about his collection in London Labour and the London Poor. In his own words, he had "bred the finest collection of pied rats which has ever been knowed in the world", in "fawn and white, black and white, brown and white, red and white, blue-black and white". The NFRS records that Shaw kept "some piebald, and others white with pink eyes", and that he handled his rats "without the least fear".

Who bought the first pet rats?

Young ladies, mostly. Black told Mayhew: "I've sold many to ladies for keeping in squirrel cages." He also said that, years before, he had sold them "for five and ten shillings a-piece". Of a batch he sold to a showman, he said: "They got very tame, and you could do anythink with them." That last line will sound very familiar to anyone who keeps rats today.

Who was Mary Douglas?

Mary Douglas is the woman who turned the pet rat into a show animal. The AFRMA calls her the "mother of the rat fancy", and the NFRS says she "was really the founder of the rat as an exhibition animal". She came from a well-to-do family: her father, Henry Douglas, was a vicar and Canon of Worcester. She bred hare rabbits as well as rats.

In 1901 she asked the National Mouse Club, founded in 1895, to admit rats. It agreed, and the first rat class followed that autumn.

What happened at the first rat show in 1901?

Fifteen rats were shown in a single class at the Aylesbury Fanciers' show on 24 October 1901, the NFRS records. The judge was Walter Maxey, and Mary Douglas won with a black and white rat that the NFRS says "we would now call a hooded". The AFRMA simply dates the first fancy rat classes to the autumn of 1901.

Douglas kept championing the rat. In 1907 she gave the National Mouse Club a silver cup for Irish rats, known as the Irish Cup, the NFRS says. The early show rats were "basically albinos and black hooded", with Irish and agouti rats also available. Fawn rats followed, with the first show mention at the Barnsley mouse show in July 1911. You can see how far colours have come since in our guide to rat breeds, types and colours.

Why did the early rat fancy fade?

It lost its champion. The NFRS and the AFRMA agree that interest declined after Mary Douglas died in 1921. The NFRS's early history says the rat fancy "had already passed its peak" by 1916.

The club's name changed twice, and the sources do not agree on exactly when. The NFRS history says the National Mouse Club became the National Mouse and Rat Club in 1912; its early history page says around 1911. The AFRMA says the club was reorganised in 1929 and dropped the word rat from its name, while the NFRS early history suggests 1934, though its author says there is no direct proof.

How did the National Fancy Rat Society begin?

At a bus stop, more or less. The NFRS tells how Geoff Izzard and Joan Pearce, a teacher, met at a bus stop after the 1974 London Championship Show, and the society grew from there. An earlier attempt, the International Fancy Rat Council, set up by Eric Jukes in 1969, came to nothing, and a proposal for the National Mouse Club to take rats back failed to win the two-thirds majority it needed.

The NFRS held its inaugural meeting on 13 January 1976. Its first committee was Eric Smith as President, John Strutt as Chairman, Joan Pearce as secretary and treasurer, and Geoff Izzard as show secretary, with Roy Robinson as genetics adviser. Its first exhibition was at the Bradford Championship Show a week later, and its first rats-only show was held on 15 April 1978 in Grove Road, Surbiton.

In the United States, the AFRMA says the first club, the Mouse and Rat Breeders Association, appeared in 1978, and the AFRMA itself began in 1983.

Fancy rat history at a glance

What does this history mean for pet rats today?

That the friendly rat on your shoulder is the result of a long partnership. The rats Black described as getting "very tame" were the start of a line bred for calm, curious, people-loving animals. The RSPCA describes today's pet rats as highly intelligent and sociable, with strong memories, and says they should never be kept alone: a pair or trio of same-sex rats is the usual start.

A few things have changed for the better since the days of squirrel cages:

• A roomy cage with several levels, not a small wire box: see our rat cage setup guide.
• At least one companion rat, because rats are deeply social.
• Hides, shelves and things to climb and forage, so their clever minds stay busy.
• A varied diet and regular handling, which is how the tamest Victorian rats were made.

If you are new to rats, start with our pet rat care hub, find out whether rats make good pets for you, and read our rat facts for more surprises.