Are Roof Rats Legal in Guam? Keeping, Breeding & Selling

Keeping / owning   Unregulated / unclear

Confidence: Medium · Last verified 2026-06-13

Bare, non-commercial possession of a LOCALLY trapped rat is technically lawful and unregulated, but there is no lawful way to acquire a captive-bred pet, so practical reality is no-pathway. The wildlife code makes it unlawful to take/buy/sell/transport/possess any wild or feral animal (5 GCA §63121) EXCEPT as authorized; §63118 expressly lists ‘Rats’ among ‘Unprotected Wild Animals’ (with wild dogs, wild cats, reptiles), and 9 GAR §11120 states that ‘Taking or holding live wild animals or birds is unlawful with the exception of the Unprotected Wild Animals… listed in 5 GCA §§63118 and 63119’, so holding a rat is permitted. Rats are also not a licensed ‘Pet’: 10 GCA §34101(e) defines ‘Pet’ as only ‘a cat or dog,’ so no license/microchip/rabies-cert applies. The catch: a CAPTIVE-BRED pet roof rat can only be obtained by import, and DOAG’s Species Listing bans ‘mice and rodents for breeding or pet sale.’ So while keeping a rat already on-island is not itself criminalized, there is no lawful source for a domesticated one.

Sources: Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (Guam Dept of Agriculture), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (Guam Dept of Agriculture), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (via FAOLEX), Guam Dept of Agriculture (Animal Health / Animal Control)

Breeding   Prohibited

Confidence: High · Last verified 2026-06-13

Breeding roof rats on Guam is effectively prohibited by two independent layers. (1) Import: DOAG’s Species Listing for Importation specifically bans ‘mice and rodents FOR BREEDING or pet sale’, breeding-purpose rodents are the named target, and founder stock cannot be lawfully imported. (2) Public health: the Rodent Control Act (10 GCA §37101) requires every occupied building/property to ‘be maintained so as to avoid harborage or breeding places for rodents,’ with no carve-out for intentional or domesticated rodent breeding, and §37106 lets the DPHSS Director make rules and act against ‘rodent harborage and rodent breeding areas.’ A captive breeding colony of rats is textually a prohibited rodent breeding place. A commercial breeder would also need a Sanitary Permit (10 GCA §34202) that DPHSS could not lawfully grant for an activity §37101 forbids; the §34202 ‘individual sales by owners’ carve-out does not cure the §37101 harborage problem.

Sources: Guam Dept of Agriculture (Animal Health / Animal Control), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (via FAOLEX), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (via FAOLEX)

Selling or giving away   Prohibited

Confidence: High · Last verified 2026-06-13

The DOAG Species Listing bans rodents ‘for breeding or PET SALE’, commercial distribution is the exact disallowed purpose. There can be no legal supply chain because import of stock is barred. A pet shop would need a Sanitary Permit (10 GCA §34202) but could not lawfully stock rats given the Rodent Control Act’s harborage prohibition (10 GCA §37101). Non-commercial gifting faces the same wall: there is no lawful captive-bred source, and a recipient who later released the rat could implicate the giver in the release of an actively-eradicated agricultural pest. (Note: 10 GCA §34202 exempts ‘individual sales of animals by owners’ from the commercial-permit requirement, but that exemption cannot supply lawful stock and does not override the import ban or the harborage prohibition.)

Sources: Guam Dept of Agriculture (Animal Health / Animal Control), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (via FAOLEX), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (via FAOLEX)

Transport & import   Prohibited

Confidence: High · Last verified 2026-06-13

Import, the binding cross-border layer, is closed. 9 GAR Title 9, Div. 1, Ch. 1 subjects ALL animals entering Guam (even from the U.S. mainland) to Territorial-Veterinarian inspection and bars entry until cleared/permitted, and DOAG’s Species Listing places ‘mice and rodents for breeding or pet sale’ in the BANNED column, accepting rodents only as mice for research / brown-tree-snake control. There is no individual variance, quarantine pathway, or spay/neuter exception for a pet rat, unlike pet rabbits, where the same list accepts spayed/neutered animals; for rats the species itself is treated as the biosecurity threat. The Customs & Quarantine Agency physically enforces the border; banned animals are confiscated/destroyed. Releasing or turning an animal loose is independently barred (9 GAR Ch. 1 no-release rule). Internal transport of a lawfully-possessed (locally caught) rat is not separately permitted-regulated, but any escape/release during transport exposes the owner to liability under Guam’s anti-abandonment/wildlife-release law. (The DR also discusses EXPORTing a locally caught rat via a DAWR Certificate of Origin plus a federal USFWS Form 3-177; that route is administrative and practically infeasible given the rat’s pest/parasite status, not the operative bar for a prospective keeper.)

Sources: Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam, Guam Dept of Agriculture (Animal Health / Animal Control), Guam Customs & Quarantine Agency / DOAG

• Treat import as effectively closed: a pet roof rat is a banned ‘mice and rodents for breeding or pet sale’ species, with no spay/neuter or individual-variance pathway published
• If you want to test the door anyway, ask the DOAG Territorial Veterinarian in writing whether any individual entry permit/variance exists (and cite the altered-pet-rabbit precedent), expect denial
• Never release a roof rat (R. rattus is an actively-eradicated invasive on Guam and a food source for the invasive brown tree snake)

Where: Guam Dept of Agriculture, Animal Health Section / Territorial Veterinarian (Quarantine)

Source: Guam Dept of Agriculture (Animal Health / Animal Control), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam, Guam Customs & Quarantine Agency / DOAG

• Understand that maintaining a rat-breeding colony reads as an illegal ‘rodent breeding place’ under 10 GCA §37101, independent of the import ban
• Confirm with the DPHSS Division of Environmental Health whether a clean, secure indoor pet enclosure (single non-breeding rat) is treated as a regulated ‘rodent harborage’ before relying on the bare-possession gap

Where: Guam Dept of Public Health & Social Services, Division of Environmental Health (DEH)

Source: Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (via FAOLEX), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (via FAOLEX)

• Possession of a rat already on-island is lawful (5 GCA §63118 + 9 GAR §11120) and needs no pet license (10 GCA §34101)
• But there is no lawful way to obtain a captive-bred domesticated roof rat, import is banned (DOAG Species Listing)
• Keep any rat strictly contained; never release it (active invasive-rodent eradication on Guam)

Where: Guam Dept of Agriculture, Division of Aquatic & Wildlife Resources (DAWR); Dept of Public Health & Social Services, Division of Environmental Health

Source: Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (Guam Dept of Agriculture), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (Guam Dept of Agriculture), Compiler of Laws, Judiciary of Guam (via FAOLEX)

On Guam, you cannot legally obtain a captive-bred pet roof rat (Rattus rattus). The block is the import layer. The Guam Department of Agriculture (DOAG) runs a closed, positive Species Listing for Importation (Mar 9, 2023), and that list places “mice and rodents for breeding or pet sale” in the banned column. The only rodents allowed in are mice imported for research or brown-tree-snake control. Every animal entering Guam also needs Territorial Veterinarian clearance (9 GAR Title 9, Div. 1, Ch. 1), and a banned species cannot pass that clearance. There is no published private-keeper permit pathway, and even the common fancy rat (Rattus norvegicus) is barred, so there is no lawful way to bring in, breed, sell, or give away a pet roof rat. Bare possession of a locally trapped rat is technically lawful (5 GCA §63118 lists “Rats” as Unprotected Wild Animals and 9 GAR §11120 allows holding them), but with no lawful acquisition pathway for a captive-bred pet, the practical effect of the import ban is prohibition. Guam also has an established invasive-rodent and brown-tree-snake problem, so any change faces a high bar. Never release any animal.

The ask: Ask DOAG, in writing, to (1) confirm whether a single captive-bred, altered (non-breeding), microchipped, health-certified domestic rat kept solely as an indoor pet falls under “mice and rodents for breeding or pet sale,” and (2) consider amending the Species Listing for Importation, or granting an individual entry permit or variance under 9 GAR Ch. 1, to allow such an animal under strict conditions (sterilized so it cannot breed, permanently indoors, microchipped, with a no-release/biosecurity agreement). DOAG’s own list already accepts “pet rabbits that have been spayed or neutered” while banning intact rabbits, which is the same kind of altered-pet condition requested here. This is a cost-benefit question for Guam to decide, not a result to demand: whether the limited additional risk of a few sterile, tame, indoor-only pets is outweighed by the companionship they would bring. The relevant facts: a sterilized animal cannot found a wild population; the black rat is already established on Guam, so a permitted pet introduces no new species; and Guam already permits cats and dogs, which are also non-native and documented to harm island wildlife, because their companionship is judged worth the trade-off. DOAG is asked only to evaluate this specific, narrowly conditioned question, which may not yet have been formally considered, not to disregard Guam’s invasive-species concerns.

Where the lever really is: This is branch (b) as a regulation, not a misread. The prohibition is not a bureaucrat misapplying an unclear rule: DOAG is correctly applying its own Species Listing for Importation, which bans “mice and rodents for breeding or pet sale.” A complaint that the agency got the law wrong will go nowhere, because the agency is reading it as written. Unlike a legislative statute naming the species, this ban lives in an administrative positive list that DOAG itself owns, adopts, and can amend (DOAG’s import regulations sit under 9 GAR Title 9, Div. 1, Ch. 1, promulgated under the Director of Agriculture’s authority). The realistic lever is therefore a rulemaking or list-amendment petition, or an individual entry-permit/variance request, directed at DOAG, asking the agency to change its own list, not to reinterpret a statute. The strongest hook is DOAG’s own precedent on the same list: it already distinguishes altered from intact animals (spayed/neutered pet rabbits accepted, intact rabbits banned), which is the sterilized-pet condition requested for a rat. The primary target is therefore DOAG and the secondary target is a Guam senator: senators have oversight of DOAG, and given Guam’s invasive-rodent and brown-tree-snake sensitivities, political backing may be needed to move a list amendment. Frame the request as a list amendment or conditioned variance, not as the agency applying the law wrong. Guam is the hardest US jurisdiction for this ask because R. rattus is an established invasive pest there, so the strongest realistic version of the request is a narrowly conditioned individual variance (sterilized, indoor-only, microchipped, no-release) rather than a broad delisting.

Where to send it (more than one channel helps):

• Guam Department of Agriculture, Animal Health Section (Territorial Veterinarian / Quarantine) (executive / agency), quarantine@doag.guam.gov
  DOAG owns and can amend the Species Listing for Importation that contains the ban, and the Territorial Veterinarian issues entry permits/variances under 9 GAR Ch. 1. This is the only office that can change the list or grant a conditioned variance, the correct primary target for a positive-list ask. Lead with DOAG’s own altered-vs-intact rabbit precedent. Email is the current official quarantine inbox; the same page hosts an official feedback form (phones 671-300-7965 / 671-300-7966).
• Guam Legislature, Senators Directory (contact your senator) (legislature), official contact page
  Senators have oversight of DOAG. Because Guam’s invasive-rodent and brown-tree-snake sensitivities make a list amendment politically charged, a senator’s backing can help move DOAG to consider a narrowly conditioned variance or rule change. Secondary channel; use the official directory and contact your own senator, no individual is named here.

A starting-point message, please put it in your own words; a short personal note carries far more weight than an identical form letter:

Subject: Status and possible conditioned pathway for a single captive-bred pet domestic rat

Dear Guam Department of Agriculture, Animal Health Section,

I am writing about the Species Listing for Importation, which places "mice and rodents for breeding or pet sale" in the banned column. I would like to keep one captive-bred, tame domestic rat solely as an indoor companion animal, not for breeding and not for sale or any commercial purpose.

These animals are bred in captivity over many generations, are hand-tame, live their whole lives indoors in a cage, and are never released. I understand Guam's invasive-species concerns and am not asking the Department to set them aside. I am asking it to weigh one narrow question: whether the limited additional risk of a single sterile, tame, indoor-only pet is outweighed by the companionship it offers. A sterilized animal cannot found a wild population, the black rat is already present on Guam, and Guam already permits cats and dogs, which are also non-native and documented to harm island wildlife, because their companionship is judged worth the trade-off. Whether the same trade-off is acceptable for one sterilized pet rat is a judgment for Guam to make. The same Species Listing already accepts "pet rabbits that have been spayed or neutered" while banning intact rabbits, which is the same altered-pet condition I am asking the Department to consider for a single sterilized rat.

Please confirm in writing (1) whether such a single pet animal falls under "mice and rodents for breeding or pet sale," and (2) whether the Department would consider amending the Species Listing, or granting an individual entry permit or variance under 9 GAR Ch. 1, for one altered (non-breeding), microchipped, health-certified pet kept permanently indoors under a no-release agreement.

I respect Guam's invasive-species and brown-tree-snake concerns and am asking only about one tame, captive-bred companion that cannot breed. I would welcome any conditions that would make such a pathway possible.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your village/contact]

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