Equipment questions for breeding rats!!

I am thinking about breeding my own rats and have researched alot of the old threads pertaining to this. I still have a couple of questions. I have seen people use the cement mixing tubs for their rats, what size are they? I went to Home Depot and found two different sizes one was about $5 and the other larger one was about $10 each. Also what do you use for your breeding nest boxes? How big? Do you put anything special (nesting material) in the nest box? When removing pups etc. Do you use your hands or tongs? Do mothers get defensive during this? And finally how old are pups when they are considered weaned?

Sorry for all the questions! Type one and think of two more!! LOL!!

I don't know about the cement mixing tubs, but I don't use nest boxes for any of my rodents. They just build nests in their bedding. Besides, nest boxes are just one more thing to clean!

I just collect the babies by hand and have never been bitten. HOWEVER, I have seen a mom rat take a huge chunk out of a lady's finger when she was moving the mom and babies to a new tank. Most rats seem pretty calm about it, but there are a few out there get really nasty when they have babies. I only have one pair of rats now, but in the past I just weaned the babies when the moms were expecting the next litter. I don't really know how old they were, but probably around 5 weeks.

Another question to add to the list. LOL!! How old will rats get and about how long are they considered viable breeders?

Thanks for all replies!!

I breed them in the tubs you can get them from home depot I make a rack for 5 and a jug on top I use 1/4 inch line and from home depot used for sprinklers its black and 1/2 wire for the mesh I can take some pics and show you if you send your email cant load here I put 1.4or 1.5 in them and watch the moms the can get mean if I can help more let me know not many people like me here but ohwell I still sleep at night lol Tyrone

Lol.... like Paul said most rats are pretty good about not biting. I have ran into some mean momma rats though. Aggressive biters are quickly culled from my colony. Behaviorial traits like biting do pass down to their young so I kill the aggressive rats off and never let them breed.

Rats are typically able to be seperated from their mothers at 4 weeks and be able to eat nothing but solid food. Also a smaller litter will grow a bit quicker than a larger one.

Most of my breeder females usually live around 18-22 months. Males almost always make it to 24 plus months.

I start breeding my girls at about 4 months of age, although they are capable at around 10-12 weeks of age. Around 16 months or so they start slowing way down on production. You will start getting smaller litters and they seem to go into heat less frequently. Once they have a couple small litters (6-8) back to back I know it is time to retire them.

Males are capable of breeding at about 8 weeks. They usually are not prolific breeders at that age though ( Kinda like us at age 13. Capable, but dont have a clue as to what we are doing). At around 12-14 weeks they are good to go though. I retire my males around 18-24 months depending on the individual.

I've recently had to change the method I was using to breed the rats. I've got a big rack that holds the biggest Van Ness litter pans. I'm thinking it has 32 tubs in it but I can't remember exactly.
I was just housing all my breeders in the tubs and moving males around to keep the females bred. It was working well, but I've let the colony grow and have too many rats for that now.
I put an old rack I had back into service. It holds four of the biggest concrete mixing tubs from Home Depot. Now these tubs hold 6-8 females and a male. I pull pregnant females out and put them in one of the litter pans to raise her litter. After weaning she goes back into one of the breeder tubs.
One of the big tubs holds just males. I swap males in the breeder tubs periodically so one male doesn't run low on ammo. I also pull from the male tub when I need a large feeder rat.
This makes it easy for me to monitor a females production rate, and be able to cull easily when litter size gets low. The rare female that kills her young can be singled out quickly too.
The drawback is you have to keep on top of the breeder tubs. You don't want your females giving birth in there as it can be a little difficult to be sure exactly who the mother is.

When I move the pups I use my hands. All the pups get messed with several times before weaning when I clean the tubs. So far none of my females have ever given me a problem with bothering their young.
As far as how old they are at weaning, I'll just take everyone else's word for it. I have too many litters on the ground at any point to keep track of when they were born. I just judge by their size and how much they eat on their own to tell when to wean them.
I also don't mind letting the female stay with her litter for a few days or a week after weaning just to rest a bit before being thrown back to the males.

I went back to home Lowe's the other day to get some more of the concrete mixing tubs to make a grow out rack. I saw some of the cheaper ones. If they are the same as what you mentioned, then I wouldn't use them. They seemed too flimsy to hold up over time. The plastic they were made from is much thinner than in the more expensive tubs. If they will be suspended in the rack then the weight will get them. If you use support under the rubs though then they might work fine.