Association of Colorado Rat Enthusiasts (ACRE)

Quarantine is something everyone owning a pet rat should be concerned about when going to an event that has rats in the building. Quarantine tremendously reduces the risk of infectious disease to your animals. Since most sickness and disease is spread easily in a building by handling or from the discharge of a rat's sneeze, you need to be careful! And so do we!

ACRE requires all rats who will be attending one of our events to be quarantined for a minimum of 4 weeks before they are allowed into our events. This means that you may not visit a pet shop that carries rodents or bring in any rodent into your home for a full 4 weeks before the event. This is a requirement, not a suggestion! During that 4 week quarantine period you must watch for any signs of illness, such as: redness coming out of the nose, eyes or ears, sneezing, snot, itching, lethargy, lack of appetite, swelling or any death in the colony. If any of these signs occur, we recommend taking the animal to the vet immediately for proper treatment. If this does happen, you will not be able to attend this event.

Furthermore, after an event we recommend quarantining your animals for an additional 2 weeks after an event. This is to keep your colony safe at home.

You cannot be too safe with your animal's health. It is too easy to put your rat's health at risk. ACRE is very strict on all quarantine procedures when entering our facility. In addition, if you are planning on bringing rats to an event, we will require you to let us know ahead of time that you are planning on attending. We have a form for you to fill out beforehand. This will tell us who is coming, from where, and from what source did that person obtain their rats as well when they obtained the animals. This form must be filled out and submitted to ACRE no later than 6 weeks before any scheduled event.


All breeders will be required to desist breeding rats before and after the show to prevent the spreading of disease. When we post a new event, we will post the cut off dates for breeding before and after the show to provide a healthy environment for your colony and for the other members of the club. We will be setting the cut off dates so that you will not be adopting rats out or allowing rats to leave your home 2 weeks before and after the event. Also you will not be allowed to put pairs together for breeding until 2 weeks after the event, given your colony is healthy at that time. Two weeks after the event if your colony is healthy, you may adopt rats out that are currently in  need of homes.

ACRE is NOT responsible for any sickness your colony may obtain as a result of visiting one of our events!