What are rats for in Probably Stolen?
Meat. You breed and grow them, butcher them into cuts of raw meat, and sell or use the meat.
Probably Stolen Rats
In Probably Stolen, rats are livestock you raise for meat. Start with the Rat Wrangler, buy the Ranching favor from Joe Wild, or catch them with a Mouse Trap. Keep a male and a female together to breed, feed them from a Livestock Feed Dispenser inside their Animal Cage, and toggle on the Gene Scanner to see each rat's genes. Never feed rat meat to rats: that is how Prion Disease starts, and the demo's game data has no way to remove it.
How to raise rats in Probably Stolen
For what the game is and every guide we publish, start at the Probably Stolen guide hub.
- Fastest start: the Rat Wrangler begins with an Animal Cage, rats and food.
- Any other start: Joe Wild's Ranching favor gives you a starter kit and a weekly rat seller.
- Feeding: put the dispenser in the cage, load food and press start.
- Breeding: pick parents with the Gene Scanner and neuter the rest with a Wire Cutter.
- Prion Disease: keep rat meat out of the cage and out of the dispenser.
Probably Stolen rats at a glance
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| What rats are for | Raising for meat. Source: In-game text. |
| Rat Wrangler start | Starts with an Animal Cage, rats and food. Source: In-game text. |
| Any other start | Buy Ranching in Joe Wild's network: a starter kit now, then a Rat Rancher visits once a week. Source: In-game text; the demo's game data shows it is not locked. |
| Catching rats | A Mouse Trap, ideally with cheese inside. Source: In-game text; player reports. |
| Housing | An Animal Cage, repaired with Scrap Metal and expanded with Metal Ingots. Source: In-game text; the Update 049 patch notes, September 14, 2026. |
| Feeding | A Livestock Feed Dispenser placed in the cage. Source: In-game text; player reports. |
| Gene Scanner | Shows the two gene copies behind each of six stats. Source: In-game text; the demo's game data. |
| Prion Disease | Caused by eating rat meat; no way to remove it in the demo's game data. Source: The demo's game data; player reports. |
How to get rats
There are three ways into rat ranching, and only one of them needs a particular start.
Start as the Rat Wrangler. This is one of the starts you can pick in the demo. Its story says that "To the Mentor's annoyance, you developed a great passion for animal ranching. Rats, more specifically." You begin with an Animal Cage, rats and food, so you can breed and feed from day one. In the game data the start also gives you a Meat Cleaver, a Blue Labeler and a bottle of Livestock Immunity Serum, and it already counts as having Ranching from Joe Wild.
Buy Ranching from Joe Wild. On any other start, open Wild's Network and look for the Ranching entry: "Wild will refer you to a Rat Rancher who will visit you once a week. Immediately receive a Rat Ranching Starter Kit. (Unlock Rancher Content)". Many of Wild's other favors are marked "Unavailable In Demo Version", but the demo's game data does not lock this one. You still need enough Wild's Favor and Credits to buy it.
The Rat Rancher who visits is the Retired Rat Rancher. In the game data he sells the Animal Cage, the Livestock Feed Dispenser, a Meat Cleaver, a Blue Labeler, the Cleaner Robot, both livestock serums, the Gene Scanner, a Wire Cutter and pairs of rats, sometimes including rats with better Growth Rate or Expected Litter Size.
Catch them with a Mouse Trap. The trap's own text says "Putting some cheese inside will probably help." Players report leaving a trap in the store overnight and sometimes finding a rat in it the next morning, with cheese making a catch more likely. They buy traps or pick them up at the Dumping Grounds, and since Update 049 a Mouse Trap fits in a bag. Two caught rats of opposite sex are enough to start breeding.
Housing rats in the Animal Cage
The Animal Cage is "A small cage for housing animals. Doesn't look particularly comfortable, but probably nicer than what some people have in the Lower Levels." Its tooltip tells you how to keep it going: "[Use Scrap Metal to Repair]" and "[Use Metal Ingot to Expand]", with a count of the upgrades you have left until it shows "[Max Size Reached]".
The UPDATE 049 patch notes of September 14, 2026 reworked the cage. Wear now depends on the size of the live animals inside; dead animals, cage devices and anything else you store in it cause no wear. Machines no longer fit inside, only cage devices such as the feed dispenser and the robot that cleans up after the rats.
That robot is the Cleaner Robot (the Update 049 notes call it the Vacuum Robot). It "Automatically collects Animal Feces from its surroundings during the night", and with a Common Electronic you can upgrade it to unlock a built-in incinerator. What to do with the droppings is covered in our guide to getting rid of animal waste.
How to feed rats with the Livestock Feed Dispenser
The Livestock Feed Dispenser is "A machine that blends food into stored calories for livestock." It is the tool that lets you keep more than a handful of rats.
- Put the dispenser inside the cage with the rats. It is a cage device, so it fits.
- Load it with ordinary food such as Nutrifruit or packaged food.
- Press start to blend the food into the dispenser's "Stored Calories".
- Leave it. Players report that the rats in the same cage eat from it each night, and that without a dispenser a rat eats a whole food item at once.
Never put rat meat in it. Meat from a butchered rat is stored separately from other calories, and any rat that eats from a dispenser holding it can catch Prion Disease. If it happens, press Empty: that clears the stored calories and the contamination with them. The same goes for feeding rat meat to rats directly. The Prion Disease section explains why.
Rat breeding: pairs, neutering and names
Rat breeding needs nothing more than a male and a female in the same container. Players report that the female becomes pregnant overnight, that one male can father litters with several females, and that the rat tooltip then shows a pregnancy meter. Babies start as infants and grow through juvenile, adolescent and adult to elder.
Control it with a Wire Cutter. Players use a Wire Cutter to neuter rats they don't want breeding; the tooltip then shows "Neutered". A common setup is one cage of chosen breeders and separate cages of neutered rats being grown for meat. Players also report no visible penalty for breeding within the same family line.
Label your cages. The Blue Labeler is "Used to rename an item.", so you can name cages, rats or cuts of rat meat to tell breeders from growers at a glance. What else it is good for, and who notices a changed label, is in our guide to labels and appraisal.
Breed for better genes. The developer's April 2026 announcement, made during the closed beta, said rat genes "can be all improved via selective breeding". The Gene Scanner is how you choose which rats to keep.
How to read the rat Gene Scanner and rat stats
The Gene Scanner "Can be toggled on to reveals the full genetic makeup of an animal." With it on, hover over a rat to see its genes.
The six rat stats. The rat tooltip lists Growth Rate, Expected Litter Size, Immunity, Max Health, Longevity and Hunger Rate. Mature rats also show a separate Fertility line, which is a seventh inherited gene in the game data.
What the numbers in brackets mean. In the demo's game data, each stat line gets two extra numbers in brackets while the scanner is on: the rat's own two copies of that gene. The stat itself is the average of the two. A baby gets one copy from its mother and one from its father, picked at random, and either copy can mutate a little on the way. Players working through it on Discord reached the same reading: the first number is what the rat has, the two in brackets are what it can pass on.
What the colors mean. Since Update 049, each gene copy is colored by whether it is good for that stat. Low Hunger Rate shows green and high Hunger Rate red; before the update it was the other way round. Players report that for the other stats, higher is better.
Serums change the rat, not its genes. The Livestock Steroid Serum "will slightly boost an animal's growth rate, but at the cost of increased hunger and reduced immunity", and the Livestock Immunity Serum "will slightly boost an animal's immunity but at the cost of increased hunger". Serums come in doses, and Update 049 lets you combine two bottles. Players report the effect is temporary and is not passed on to babies.
How to cure Prion Disease in Probably Stolen rats
There is no cure. In Probably Stolen, Prion Disease is a rat illness that shows as "Prion Disease" in the rat's tooltip, and the demo's game data has no way to remove it once a rat has it. Players have not found a cure either. The fix is prevention.
What causes it. In the demo's game data, a rat can only catch it by eating meat from its own species, either directly or from a feed dispenser. Only meat you get by butchering a rat counts. If that meat came from a rat with Prion Disease, or the dispenser already holds it, the rat catches it every time; otherwise a rat with higher Immunity is less likely to. Players report the same: the meat that caused it came from butchered rats.
What it does. In the same game data, it lowers the rat's Growth Rate, Immunity and Longevity, and it does not spread from rat to rat.
How to stop it.
- Keep rat meat out of the cage and out of the dispenser.
- If rat meat went into a dispenser, press Empty.
- Butcher infected rats rather than keep feeding them; meat from an infected rat carries the disease to any rat that eats it.
Ordinary disease is different. A rat with low Immunity can become "Diseased". It loses health each day while sick, and in the game data it can recover, more readily with higher Immunity. Players report that crowding, droppings and short rations make it more likely, and that sick rats can infect their cage-mates. Watch for the "Immunocompromised" and "Overcrowding" statuses in the tooltip.
Butchering rats
Players report that butchering takes a bladed tool such as a knife or the Meat Cleaver, and that it turns the rat into cuts of meat. Bigger rats give bigger cuts, and customers will not buy live rats. The cuts are Raw Meat (Standard), Raw Meat (Small), Morsel and Small Morsel. The Skinning Knife's own text calls it "The perfect knife for a veteran rancher."
Version notes and limits
This page describes the free demo before the update the developers announced for October 19, 2026. The developers have said nothing public about Prion Disease or the Gene Scanner's numbers, so those sections rest on the demo's game data and player reports. Two things are still open: whether the demo update or the full release on October 28 changes rat ranching, and what the exact chances and amounts behind it are, which this page does not give.
The October 19 demo update triggers a recheck of the Ranching favor, the Gene Scanner, the item text and the Prion Disease rules on this page, and the full release triggers a recheck of everything. A changed rule is added with the date it was checked.
Probably Stolen rats FAQ
How do I start raising rats without the Rat Wrangler start?
Buy Ranching in Joe Wild's network for a starter kit and a weekly Retired Rat Rancher, or catch rats with a Mouse Trap baited with cheese.
How do I catch rats?
Leave a Mouse Trap in the store overnight. Players report that cheese inside makes a catch more likely.
How do I breed rats?
Put a male and a female in the same container. Neuter the ones you don't want breeding with a Wire Cutter.
How do I feed rats?
Put a Livestock Feed Dispenser in their cage, load ordinary food, press start, and the rats eat from it overnight. Never use rat meat.
What does the Gene Scanner show?
Toggled on, it shows each stat's value plus two numbers in brackets: the rat's own two copies of that gene, which it can pass on.
How do I cure Prion Disease in my rats in Probably Stolen?
You can't: the demo's game data has no way to remove it, and players have not found one. Keep rat meat away from your rats and empty any dispenser that held it.
Can I get a bigger Animal Cage?
Yes. Use Metal Ingots on the cage to expand it, up to a maximum size, and Scrap Metal to repair it.
How do I get rid of rat droppings?
The Cleaner Robot collects them overnight, and with a Common Electronic it can burn them.
When should I butcher a rat?
When you want meat and don't need it for breeding. Bigger rats give bigger cuts, so neutered rats grown for meat are worth feeding for a while first.
Sources and version history for this guide: Probably Stolen sources and versions.
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