As a consequence of having one of the oldest and (for reasons that are completely beyond my comprehension) most popular rat sites on the web, I get a LOT of email. Far too much to keep up with, unfortunately. Both lots of rat related email and lots of spam (unsolicited email advertising) from robots that scan the web for email addresses and then use these lists for advertising. Because of the spam problem (in 1999 over half of the email I got was spam) I now use a spam filter which holds new email sent to me until the sender (you) confirms that they are a real person and not a spam robot. So unless you have a very specific question for me and you don't mind dealing with the spam filter (which may require you to visit a web page or send an extra email to prove you're a human) and even then possibly waiting quite a while (maybe for all of eternity) for an answer, I'd like to suggest a better alternative: send your rat related questions to one of the following email addresses. Your message will go to a list of volunteers (myself and about a dozen others) at least one of whom will answer your question, often within 24 hours.

rathelp@yahoogroups.com: This list is for urgent rat questions, such as questions about medical problems. We try to answer these questions as quickly as possible, but when in doubt, see your vet! You may also want to visit the RatHelp list homepage and search the archive.

ratinfo@yahoogroups.com: This list is for more general, less urgent questions. You may want to check the FAQs page listed below before asking!

If after all my discouragement you're still sure you want to send me email, send it to bclee@umich.edu (and please follow any instructions the spam filter emails back or I won't get the message!) and I'll try to respond, really, but it may take me a week before I have time, and if I'm away on a business trip that week I may not be able to get to it until the next time I clean out my email box, which only happens every few months. I'm really sorry . . .