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Breeding rats

D

Delmer

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Hello All

I need some help I have breeder rats (will not yet )
I have them in a rack set up with large plastic tubs they are housed
by them selves and when I put the male in at around 8:00 or 8:30 in
the evening the female pushes him away the temp in the room is
75 and the humity is around 60% I don't know if that maters but
I need help I have had them about 2 months now and a few of them have bred with the male but didn't have babies could I have a bad male all the rats are about the same size any way any help
you can give would be great thanks for your time
 
I breed my rats by keeping colonies of 2.10 and taking the females out when it is obvious that they are knocked up.

I have never heard of it being done as you have explained, and that may be the reason for no babies.
 
you have 12 rats in one tub and the males don't fight I didn't know
you could do the rats like the mice this is probably my problem
what size tubs are you using thanks for your time
 
I have 4 colonies each in 45 gallon glass tanks.

I have yet to see any fighting and I've had them set up like this for about 2 years.

Good luck.

P.S. I will post pics as soon as I can find them.
 
I have 17 colonies of rats setup and I have them in a rodent rack in dishpans with 1.2 in each tub and I always leave the males in there and they have been producing like mad.I do rotate males from time to time but the males stay in with the females.And they are doing awesome I keep my room temp around 65 to 70 degrees.I have 55 snakes and I produce more than plenty!!.I have my mice setup the same way but they are 1.5 and they have done awesome in the pick the white tubs are my rats and the top row is the mice colonies.I also feed mine Mazarri(SP) rodent chow.Hope this helps,
 

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If your using smaller tubs~ only use one male.

I run 1.3 (sometimes .4 but gets crowded) in these cement tubs. I never remove the male or any of the females, I just pull the pups.
 

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I never thought of just running two males to a bunch of females in one cage... I have an old bunny cage that is approximately the size of a 50 gallon.... I could easily set it up so that I have a lot of rats in there.... I think I would be more likely to pull two female rats at one given time and put them together, but that's just me. (this needs thinking about?!) At the moment I have my rats in inconvenient wire cages, but have been hoping to convert them to a rack system soon.
 
I do it exactly how Cheryl does. I keep 1.3 and 1.4 in each cement tub and so far, I haven't had any problems at all. I did try 1.5 for a little while but they kept running out of food and getting dirty too fast.

Rats are very social and don't mind mixed company as long as you don't keep them isolated for so long and introduce adults. So yes, you can keep males together without trouble.

However, for breeding purposes, keeping 2 males in a harem is bad. If you don't pull the females out before they deliver, the males will kill the babies to ensure that the offspring will be theirs next time. They're just like lions.
 
If you don't pull the females out before they deliver, the males will kill the babies to ensure that the offspring will be theirs next time. They're just like lions.
Click to expand...

I miss at least 1 or 2 females with babies IN THE COLONY TANK a week, and sometimes the babies show color before I get them and the mother out. But I have yet to have the males eat the babies.

It could be my "special" rats though .....lol
 
I guess I must also be lucky with the rats..lol...That would be alot of work having to pull the females out before they have lil ones..Now sometimes when I setup a new mouse colony they kill the lil ones and when they do I feed the killer..lol..And I have even taken babies from another momma and put in with a different mommy.Heck I have waited to late to pull out the weaned rats and that mother have a new litter and everything was still cool..And they say the father and mother killing the babies stems from the food they are eating.I know before I started feeding this mazuri rodent chow I had mice that would eat the babies.Thats was when I was feeding dog food mix..But since the switch mice colonies are doing alot better.
 
Here is a pic of the rodent rack using the cement mixing tubs that I use for weaned rats.
 

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I see a lot of brutality in the Mice tubs, but mostly the rats are pretty mellow. I don't even worry about what tub I put a baby rat back into, if there are babies of about the same size in that tub, that means there is a nursing female and they will take care of the pup. If I see one tub with a lot of pups and another with only a few, I redistrubute to even them out. Never a problem.

The only reason I would say be carefull with rats is with adult males. I made the mistake once of dropping two breeder males in the same box ~I was actually getting ready to retire those old boys and I just put them both in the "To be gassed" bucket with some younger rats that were being gassed. Next thing I knew there was screaming and bloody rat everywhere. These old boys were BIG adult male rats intent on killing each other!! (No, the females were not in there with them, they get retired several weeks after the male. There were younger rats in the box with them, both male and female) I was afraid to reach in there and seperate them. I finally upturned the bucket and snatched one of the males by the tale when the fell apart! They were only able to get at each other for less than a full minuite, but both rats had large wounds and were covered with blood.

It may be okay to rear to males together, but DO NOT put two strange adult male rats together.

NASTY!
 
No, no...let me clarify...LOL!!

Rats are wonderful mothers and if there is only one male in a single group of females, then everything will be fine. I switch litters around all the time too. But, I would not dare keep babies with 2 males present in the same tub. They do have the nature to act like lions and if you've gotten away with it, more power to you. LOL!!
 
Helpful info in this thread but what are cement tubs and where do you get this Mazuri diet from?..Thanks

Bthacker
 
Dusty/Al-

I'm curious to know how many rat pups you get out of your set-ups (weekly or monthly) and how long it takes for them to get to a good size. Do you find this a cost effective way to keep a steady supply of rats? I can only imagine that the specialized rodent food has a price tag to match.

Also, do you keep the littermates together until they are at the size of feeders you want?

What happens when you get a cute one? :D

Thanks,
 
Brett anytime..


And Steven I dont know fer sure what i produce a month but I feed around a 105 snakes and have plenty left over that Jeff uses or someone else around here.I have like 14 colonies of rats at 1.5 per tub and they throw lots of babies .And the rodent food is 16 bucks a bag if we buy 20 bags so it isnt to bad but it more than pays for itsself since they dont waste it.And I have some bigger tubs I keep the weaned rats in and I make sure theya re about the same size.And if we get cute one sissy my lil girl keeps them..lol...Oh yea and I feed some of those snakes at least twice a week....lol...Hope this helps.

I have been meaning to try and firgure out what i produce a month but havent had time...
 
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