Probably Stolen Rats: Housing, Breeding and Cage Repairs

The Rat Wrangler start is the most direct route. Community scenario data says it begins with a cage, rats and food. The developer unhid this start in playtest patch 48.3.12 in August; before that it was a secret scenario.

The developer's 1.0 preview describes Rat Wrangler with one question: can you grow a healthy 2x3 rat? It is part of the nine launch starts. You can also build a rat operation from other starts through the trading and ranching routes your run allows.

Rats need a suitable cage, food and enough room before you try to breed them. Keep the cage in good repair, since it wears over time. Plan for growth, because a breeding pair can quickly fill the space.

Machines can no longer be placed inside a cage, except cage equipment such as the vacuum robot and feed dispenser. That change came in Update 049. Keep other machines outside.

Check the food dispenser's loaded supply and whether it is running. Food in your storage is not automatically eaten. An empty or switched-off dispenser is a common reason animals go hungry.

Update 049 changed the Gene Scanner's allele colors in the animal tooltip to respect stat direction. A low Hunger Rate roll now shows green and a high one shows red, instead of the reverse. Lower hunger means less food to buy.

Breeding needs a male and a female with the right housing and food. Community references describe this loop clearly, but we did not verify a universal litter size. Results depend on your animals and their care.

Colony output depends on upkeep. A rat farm is not a guaranteed fixed daily return. Track your own numbers before you invest in a second cage.

Use the Gene Scanner's toggle interaction to inspect each rat's traits. Breeding from rats with useful traits shapes your future colony. The tooltip colors now follow stat direction, which makes good and bad rolls easier to read.

Keep notes on which pairs produce the traits you want. Genetics only pay off if you select deliberately over several generations.

Community references associate feeding rats rat meat with prion risk. Our research did not verify a cure. Prevention is the only reliable advice.

Keep rat meat out of the food chain for your colony. Sell it or use it elsewhere instead.

Update 049 reworked animal cages. Wear now scales with the size of the living animals inside. Dead animals, cage equipment and other stored items cause no wear.

So bigger rats wear cages faster. If you are growing large rats, budget for more repairs. Check durability every day rather than waiting for a failure.

Under the Update 049 rules, repairing with scrap restores 50% of the cage's maximum durability, instead of the old flat 50 points. Each ingot size upgrade adds 20 maximum durability and 20 current durability. Use these official numbers rather than figures from older videos.

The same patch fixed a bug that let players upgrade a cage with scrap metal they did not own. Only owned materials work now.

The vacuum robot can sit inside a cage as cage equipment. Update 049 added an upgrade with a Common Electronic that unlocks a built-in incinerator. When it is on, the robot uses double the normal power but destroys the feces in its storage after cleanup.

An earlier playtest patch clarified that the vacuum robot only operates at night and also has a manual function. Plan its power use into your costs.

The developer describes aquaculture as slower-paced, less maintenance and more beginner friendly than rat ranching. If rats feel demanding, fish are a calmer second production system. Both rely on steady upkeep.

See the aquaculture guide to compare. Our tier list explains where Rat Wrangler fits among the starts.

Each day, check the dispenser's food supply and whether it is running. Then check cage durability and repair it if it is getting low. Finally, look at your rats' traits and plan the next pairing.

This takes a minute and prevents most losses. Hungry rats and broken cages are the usual causes of a failing colony.

How do I breed rats in Probably Stolen? Give a male and a female a suitable cage, food and enough room. Keep the dispenser loaded and running.

How do I repair an animal cage? Use scrap to restore 50% of maximum durability, or an ingot size upgrade to add 20 maximum and 20 current durability.

Can rats eat rat meat? Avoid it. Community references link it to prion risk, and no cure was verified.

How do I see rat genes? Use the Gene Scanner's toggle interaction to view their traits.

There is no verified prion cure, universal litter size or guaranteed profit rate. Videos show what creators achieved in their own runs, not fixed values. Treat their numbers as examples.

We will update this guide after the 1.0 release on October 28, including the Rat Wrangler start in the release build.