A bevvy of rodent beauties from the Hawkesbury has taken out a swag of titles at this year’s Sydney Royal Easter Show.
The remarkable rats belonging to Sandra McLean of Oakville took out a total of four major titles in the pet pavillion on March 23, including Grand Champion, Champion and Best Pet Rat in Show.
Rivers, named Best Standard Marked Rat by the Sydney judges, was the winner of the 2018 Grand Champion title, while Lucy Lou Rockstar won Best Self Standard Rat and went on to be named Champion. Lucy Lou Priscilla was Reserve Champion, while Lucy Lou Liquorice won first place in the Adult Pet Rat category and went on to win Best Pet Rat in Show.
Ms McLean’s charges are now preparing for their appearance at the 2018 Hawkesbury show, where rat and mouse classes first appeared two years ago.
Ms McLean is the proud owners of around 100 rats, and got involved in the rodent community quite by accident.
“I used to live at Baulkham Hills and I was cleaning out a filing cabinet and found these little baby things. I took them to the local vet and he didn’t know what they were, I didn’t know what they were, so I brought them home because I thought they may have been natives,” she explained.
“They were what is known as a species called Rattus rattus. I kept them and found out later that you have to euthanase them or keep them, so I kept them. I was fascinated by these little things.
“The very first rat show I went to was Sydney Royal 2013, and I discovered the rat community. I became involved and haven’t missed a Sydney Royal since.”
She plans to take around 15 of her rats to this year’s Hawkesbury Show, with a wide variety of classes on offer depending on coat type and markings.
“There’s different colours, different coat types and different markings,” she said. “There’s minks, buff, cinnamon, black-eyed white – or BEW – pink-eyed white (PEW), there’s variegated in all different colours.
“No matter what colour they are, they can go in a standard coat ... we have marked, which means they have a variegated mark or Irish mark on them. We have soft coat, which is velours, powder puffs – they are really soft and fluffy – and we have course coats, which is rex like a rex cat.”
Just like more traditional horse or cattle showing, show rat judges will also look at an animal’s conformation, temperament and markings when deciding on a winner.
“They get marks out of five or 10 or 20 depending on which part they are looking at,” Ms McLean said. “[Judges look at] ears, face, head, eyes, tail, conformation, health and temperament. Temperament and conformation are the biggest scoring. They have got to be healthy, have no parasites, they have got to be clean and have their nails done.”
Owners put much time and effort into preparing their show animals for the big day.
“They have a manicure where they get their nails clipped,” Ms McLean said. “You bath them, make sure their tail is clean. Males rats often get what we call buck grease because they are boys. So we have to make sure they are presented well.”
The animals are placed in small, rat- or mice-friendly clear tubs on the day and handed to stewards, who in turn present them to the judges.
“It’s all anonymous, they shouldn’t know who they belong to which is, I think, very fair,” Ms McLean said. “The judge takes them out of the tub, looks at them, examines them, cuddles them, they do whatever they need to do, to judge and score them.
“They put them back in the tub and after they finish that particular category, the sheet goes to the scorer who tallies everything up and at the end of the day the rat with the best score wins.”
Shows are popular with owners of all ages, with some classes for juniors, and the rodent community was steadily growing both locally and across the state, Ms McLean said.
“[The community] is amazing. People from all walks of life, different backgrounds, different ages, both sexes,” she said.
- Rats and mice will be judged on April 20 in the Apex Building Pavilion at the Hawkesbury Show.
