Rehoming
We can help you find a good home, or surrender if it’s needed.
Need to rehome your rats?
We’re really sorry you’re in that situation, it can be a really hard decision to make. We know it’s most often because of life changes beyond people’s control, but whatever the reason, we’re a judgement-free space and here to help.
If it’s a reluctant rehome and you can think of any support that would allow you to keep your family together, there’s space built into the rehoming application where you can tell us what that would look like. We’ll help if we can, but even if it’s beyond our ability to fix or find a solution for, your openness about what’s driving the need to rehome will help us make the most impactful choices around what programs to develop or reopen next.
Otherwise, our goal is to help get your rats into a safe, loving home that is a good fit for everyone, with the most minimal stress and hardship on all involved.
Fill out the rehoming form, let us know what’s going on and any info we might need to know, and we’ll work with you to find the right solution, whether it’s helping find a home, taking rats on as surrenders, connecting you with other rescues or services, talking you through a decision or pointing you to the right resources.
Every situation is different, we’ll just meet you where you’re at.
Submit the rehoming form here to start the process.
What is Supported Self-Rehoming?
Supported self-rehoming is a support service we offer as an option before surrendering, where we can help connect you with a good forever home without your rats ever having to go to a rescue or in and out of foster care, unless they genuinely need it. Our ethos has always been that surrender is a last resort, with the first step being keeping families together, so we’re excited to add a service that falls in between those options, and that follows evidence-based best practice on how to do the best possible job of helping people and pets.
The basic process of SSR is that we help you, the person who knows the rats best and loves them most, to find and choose the perfect new home for them. We lean on the resources and experience of nearly a decade running the rescue to minimise some of the risks of DIY rehoming and put your rats in front of a large audience right alongside our own rats needing adoption. While our volunteers help you to get the important information together, your rats get to stay safely with you. When people are interested, they submit an application (or ask us to pass on their existing pre-screening for our adoptions process). Once you’ve had a look at the applications, you let us know who you’d like to be put in touch with, so you can chat and arrange a meet and greet, where you can hand them over yourself if all goes well.
This way, the rats don’t get bounced around rescues and foster carers, you get to have a say in where they end up, and stay in touch if you both agree to it. Important little details like their favourite treats or the way they like their cheeks scritched don’t get lost in the process, and things like their favourite hammock or their meds can go along too if you choose. And importantly, we’re here to support during and after. If the new owner has any issues or changes, they will always have someone to turn to.
SSR is also best for the community. If we can invest our time volunteering to help find a home without the added costs of feeding, housing, vetwork and transportation, we can use our limited financial resources to help rats that really need a rescue! We are 100% volunteer led, funded by community donations, so it’s important to us to respect our community supporters by using our resources to the maximum benefit of the rats.
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Fill out this form, and whitelist hello@rachiesratirementhome.com in your email so we don’t go to spam.
We will use the SSR program to find potential homes and contact you to see if you want to go ahead with any interested parties, or to suggest alternatives.
If SSR isn’t a good fit, we’ll work through the options case by case, such as surrender to us, connecting you to another rescue, mentoring you through a decision or situation, or finding other resources or services.
The SSR program is a volunteer-run community service to help people in need. You won’t be able to sell rats via the SSR. Breeders and pet stores aren’t permitted to use the SSR to dispose of unsellable rats. You may sell your cage etc if both parties agree, but it’s not permitted to require owners to buy anything to adopt the rats.
Once you’re put in touch with the potential new owners, have a chat to ensure that you’re happy with them, as the rescue can’t endorse anyone.
Arrange a meet-and-greet in a well lit, public, pet friendly place, and if all goes well, hand the rats over.
PLEASE tell us ASAP when the rats are safely rehomed, or if you no longer need our services, otherwise our volunteers will be spending time and resources trying to resolve your situation, which slows down the process for other rats and humans who need our help.
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Have a look at the rats available, although you can just tell us more broadly what you’re looking for too.
Fill out the expression of interest so we can pass it on to the owner of the rats you’re interested in. Alternatively, do the full adoption screening with us once and we can use that each time, skipping half the EOI form.
Have a good chat with anyone you’re matched with, to ensure you’re happy with them and the rats, as the rescue can’t endorse anyone.
Arrange a meet-and-greet in a well lit, public, pet friendly place, and if all goes well, acquire the rats. It’s permitted to sell cages etc, but not rats. If anyone asks for money for the rats, or insists you buy their cage or any gear in order to home the rats, let us know. Please also let us know if things aren’t as described, whether intentionally or not. (For example, owners not disclosing or recognising the presence of illness etc.)
PLEASE let us know ASAP if you do adopt rats from anyone via the SSR service, including whether you still want to be offered other rats that fit what you’re looking for, or if you no longer need our help finding rats. Our volunteers don’t want to annoy you with emails if you’re not currently looking, or to think we have more potential homes lined up than we do!
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Supported Self Rehoming isn’t the right fit for all situations. Don’t worry, just be upfront with us when you complete the form, and we’ll work together to find the right solution or recommendation.
Rats that are in acute or emergency medical situations, that are dangerous to humans or other rats, that are pregnant or too young to be rehomed, or who need non-emergency medical care beyond the scope of what would be reasonable to expect an owner to take on, would all be better candidates for other pathways such as surrender. The human side factors in too, sometimes it’s just an emergency.
SSR also may not be a good fit for owners who don’t have the capacity to do their own due diligence in determining the safety and suitability of those they’re matched with. We do our best to pair you with suitable applicants, but we’re not omniscient, so we can’t guarantee or endorse anyone on either side of the SSR interactions. We can help get the info together, flag anything we notice, and make the connection, but you have the ultimate responsibility of deciding who you’re comfortable rehoming your pets to.
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In the past we’ve gotten a lot of surrenders which could have been rehomes, because owners knew we’d take exceptional care of them. We are honoured to have earned that reputation, but we assure you that there are a sea of competent, well supported people out there outside the ones currently volunteering with us.
We don’t keep rats for the sake of it. We get them healthy, ensure they’re friendly, and find them forever homes where they can be someone’s beloved, using the same pool of people we’re advertising SSR rats to. The only difference is, with shelter surrender, they get rehomed twice.
The rescue is just a community of people pooling resources and time to help each other. We have a decade of experience with active and passive screening, identifying and filtering out the bad eggs, which is exactly what we’d be helping you do via SSR.
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When contacting RRH for rehoming assistance, you may receive correspondence from us via email, call or text. If using the SSR program, posts may be put on social media and our website which will not contain your contact information, but may include your general area, name, situational context and photos of your rats. If that would endanger yourself or your animals, please email exec@rachiesratirementhome.com with the subject line "ATTN Angel, urgent rat health advice needed", working information about how to safely contact you (phone or email) into the email, and we will do our best to handle the matter as safely and discreetly as possible, and connect you with appropriate services if it’s safe to do so.
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Absolutely! DIY rehoming has some risks and difficulties, but if you can do it safely it can be quicker than using the rescue’s support services. Feel free to adapt any part of our resources that could help, and we’ve prepared some advice and resources for DIY Rehoming here!
It can be difficult to rehome rats safely. We’ve seen many people over the years taking on pets through Gumtree and social media for snake food, breeding, resale and even as part of larger scale hoarding or animal abuse situations. Here are some tips to hopefully prevent your rats ending up in any of these situations.
Tips for safely DIY rehoming rats:
Put all the right information out there! Be upfront with health and behaviour information, but also what you love about them.
Never rehome rats on Gumtree. People who have been removed or banned from rat community spaces and pet rehoming services can freely use Gumtree to do whatever they like. Many are very practiced at giving all the right answers, and there’s no way to know what will happen once the rats change hands.
There are very few places left to safely self-rehome rats. We are only aware of one Facebook group called Australian Rat Rescue. (Other rehoming groups have been formed in the past by people removed from the main spaces. If a group seems fringe or abandoned, please be cautious.) Please let us know if you’re aware of any other safe groups or resources for self-rehoming.
Ask good, open ended questions and take time to consider and clarify any potential red flags. (Open ended questions are ones that are answered conversationally, as opposed to closed ended questions which can be answered with short or yes/no answers, providing very little insight.) Have a look at this article on potential red flags!
Do you get put on the spot easily by social pressure/guilt tripping? You may want to write a list of questions to ask before you meet face to face. If you need time to process and consider their words or research answers, email might be better. Feel free to copy off our application forms to create your own list or screening questions!
A picture speaks a thousand words, just be sure to reverse-image-search things like cage pictures, or you could ask them to take a selfie with it.
Trust your gut if things aren’t adding up or if people aren’t meeting you halfway, it’s absolutely normal and necessary to do due diligence when giving your pet to a stranger. If someone pressures you to give them your animals, has zero interest in knowing anything about the animals but strong interest in getting their hands on them, or tells you it’s insulting or unnecessary to ask questions, they’re not the one.
ALWAYS meet during the day in a well lit, public place. If possible, bring someone along for support. You can back out at ANY point until they actually change hands, so if you get there on the day and get a bad feeling or you don’t like the way they treat you or your rats on the day, you can leave.
Studies show that there’s no correlation between what someone pays for a pet, and the quality of care, retention rate or how much they value them, so don’t rely on a rehoming fee as a quality control. What really makes a difference is good, open ended screening beforehand.
If you’re rehoming on your own, we hope this gives you everything you need to do it safely.
If you aren’t having any luck rehoming by yourself, or need support, consider reaching out. Supported Self Rehoming services exist where you can get assistance to rehome safely, such as PetRescue’s tailored service for finding the right rehoming pathway, or our own SSR service.
There are also other rescues around. We recommend Animal Welfare League Queensland as an alternative for those in our area. If you know of other places we could recommend in the South East Queensland area, please encourage them to reach out so we can get to know a bit about their values and process! Here’s an article on what to look for in a reputable rescue.
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If you are thinking about rehoming your rats because you're going away for an extended period please consider boarding them instead.
We do not board animals directly, but do recommend Connie’s Rat Sitting Service - Connie's Rat-Sitting Service | Facebook as an excellent boarding option for your rats. You can also contact Connie’s Rat-Sitting Service via email at Connies.boarding.service@gmail.com.
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If we can secure sufficient funding or space to reopen a community hub, we would be able to once again offer a safe, supported space to conduct meet and greets, to have rats health checked and parasite treated by volunteers, and to stockpile gear and supplies to be shared out to those in need.
RRH is currently closed to surrenders as part of a two year plan to take a year rest, then spend a year redesigning our programs to operate decentralised (thank you rental crisis!). We are scheduled to reopen intake in May 2026, with capacity determined by volunteer numbers and funding.
After May, we intend to let the existing support programs (SSR, direct surrender/foster/adopt) sit for a while until we have everything well optimised and demand seems to plateau out. After that point, which support service we reopen next will be determined not only by resources and opportunities at the time, but by what people using the rehoming services are identifying as the biggest gaps in what they would need to keep their families together.
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Surrender Information
With surrenders set to reopen later this year, you can find information on our shelter surrender process below.
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Just tell us honestly as much as you can, it makes it much easier to ensure the rats get the care they need, are less stressed, and are paired with the right future home. We don’t shame people and we understand that the vast majority of surrenders are loving owners whose lives have taken unexpected directions.
The more open and accurate information we have, the easier and better care we'll be able to provide from the start, especially for rats with medical needs. Remember, we aren’t judging, so if your rats haven't had vet care, have been outside or living in a mouse cage, or have mites/lice, respiratory illness, aggression - PLEASE tell us. If we don’t know what is happening for your rat, it could put our volunteers or other rats at risk. The more we know the best we can support your rats in their transition and keep everyone safe.
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There is no fee to rehome your rats with us, but donations are essential to our continued capacity to provide this community service. If you have the capacity to donate - money is the most valuable, however we also appreciate unopened rodent specific food, substrate (kiln dried, dust extracted pine shavings and recycled kitty litter), rust free rat safe cages and clean enrichment, toys and equipment.
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Rehoming begins when you submit the rehoming request form. Once received, our team of dedicated volunteers will contact via email to discuss your options (community support, supported self-rehoming, or surrender).
We always seek first to keep families together, and where that is not possible, rehome ratties through our Support Self-Rehoming program. In the event a rat needs to be surrendered to the rescue, each rat is assessed and provided with any medical, social, nutritional and behavioural care they require through a foster carer. Our goal from that point is to care for the rats, hopefully until they are healthy and happy enough to be adopted.
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Rachie’s Ratirement Home takes a very strict approach to euthanasia. We will never euthanise a rat due to capacity issues or because they cannot be rehomed. We do however, reserve the right to provide humane euthanasia to rats who require it for medical or extreme behavioural reasons where there are no feasible treatment or care alternative which would enable a good quality of life.