rat breeding question

No problem, but Rebecca brought up a good point. The best my rat collection ever did was when I bred single females. You could swap the male between the two females just fine if you are having problems with the two females being put together, but they will most likely get over any by the second or third litter, at least mine seem to being doing so.

Also, another benefit of keeping the females apart and rotating the male, you will have a more consistent supply of rats. For example, one litter every two weeks versus two litters the same week once a month ... if that makes sense. It will cause the female births to stagger.

I haven't noticed any problems with the two females in the same bin... but if it ends up being an issue I could always separate them I guess.

Thats probably good for the mothers too, not to have one litter right after another.

"Personal question" not trying to hijack your thread but do you keep your females separate from the rest of your stock when they become pregs or do you separate them from everyone to prevent stress, does it even matter?

With a young female this is sometimes the result in the first litter! Do not be alarmed, I have been raising my own rodents for three years now and I have had a few new moms do this if they were a bit young on the first litter.
I always have a two female ratio in my breeding bins for rats and have never had a problem please remember rats are a very social animal and in some cases both mothers will care for the pups at the same time together. Now there are times when an agresive mother needs to be seperated but that does not sound like anything you are experencing.
On a side note, I have also had a mom give birth to one or two pups and then birth four or five more five to six days later! I know this sounds strange but it has happened more than just a few times.

Kyle.... I've never separated the females when they give birth from the other two in the bin. Like Preacher said they are social animals and unless there is an aggressive female then no actions need to be taken....

Preacher - Thanks for the information.... I'm going to chalk this up to small female first littler. Guess I'll wait until she pops out her second litter and see if the numbers improve.

Lots of good info here in this thread!

I do seperate after birthing, put the female and babies in a tub by themselves and I've had far less baby stompung and eating. Seems to make them more secure by themselves, even young first time mothers do well when seperated.

Ill probably do just that. I just started out and only have a 1.2 pair right now there in a big apple herps Med size rat breeding tub along with 8 small feeders. Do you think that is too crowded? I'm only trying to supply my small collection of 2 400g bp's for now until I get the space to expand. Plan to also freeze and seperate the pair when I build up enough stock. What do you think?

Should have just made my own thread... sry p8ntballntballrman