Present techniques for renal transplantation in the rat include a period of 20–25 minutes warm ischemia. Our method combines a recently described sleeve anastomotic technique for the renal artery, conventional end‐to‐end anastomosis of the renal vein, and implantation of the ureter into the bladder. This has resulted in a reproducible ischemic interval of 12–14 minutes. Plasma creatinine and histological features in animals sacrificed from 10 to 30 days after transplantation were within normal limits with no evidence of ischemic damage. A further advantage of the technique is that kidneys can be exchanged between the donor and recipient. It is recommended that this procedure, which reduces the ischemic interval by up to 50%, should be learned and employed in studies of renal transplantation in the rat, especially if such studies include the prior administration of cyclosporine, which may aggravate the effects of ischemia. © Wiley‐Liss, Inc.