a few questions about rats...

[foxysnake]

Probably a stupid question, but just wondering if anyone knows whether rats can abort their own babies?? I've had sum huge preggie females and than they have only had 2 or 3 babies compared to their first clutches of 12 or so babies. Or should these females go on the next menu for the snakes?

Also, I've been told it is possible to keep 2 preggie mice/rats in 1 cage and they will have their babies and rear them no problem. But the last 2 times I did this, 1 mother seemed to hog all the babies - rat had 22 babies under her!

 

[basketcase]

1. they ate them, if it was their first litter its ok, if it happens again knock them. sometimes its the male if hes in there, sometimes its the females or cagemates... find out which one its is and make them snake food.

2. some rats will do this, some wont. a while back... i think it was rodentrancher said 1.1 rats to a cage is best. usually the males help keep the pinks warm and they knock up the female again straight after birth.

 

[steve6610]

hi foxysnake,

I've had sum huge preggie females and than they have only had 2 or 3 babies compared to their first clutches of 12 or so babies. Or should these females go on the next menu for the snakes?

i give mine one chance, if they do it twice, they are snake food,

I've been told it is possible to keep 2 preggie mice/rats in 1 cage and they will have their babies and rear them no problem

i tryed it this way with rats and all i ended up with was bits of baby rats everywhere, the mothers pulled them apart and the ones that survived, most had bits missing, i tryed it this way because i was told it worked, but i soon found out that it was far better using 1 to 1, i leave my pairs together for as long as they breed, this is usally about 6 to 10 months, if you had a couple females together this might explain the reason for not getting many babies when they looked large,
as for mice, they prefer to be kept in a small family of 3 to 4 females

i've been breeding rats and mice for about 20 years on and off, i have always used 1 male rat to 1 female rat, with the mice i use 1 male to 3 to 4 females, i never take the males away,
when they get about 6 months old they are replaced,

any more info you need just pm me as i'm always happy to help out,

cheers,
steve..........

 

[steve6610]

hi again,
just another thing, if they eat their babies from the first litter, they go to snake food, the chances of them turning into good mothers is almost nil......

cheers,
steve.........

 

[africancichlidau]

What Steve said

 

[Shimarah]

Hi foxy,

All my rats are housed 2 females together. Haven't had any problems with the babies.One lot I have share the babies and both sit on them together, another lot build separate nests either end and look after their own. I have one male which I alternate between tubs.
One of my first timers had her babies disappear ( so I assume she ate them) Gave her a second chance and had 13 babies second time round.

 

[foxysnake]

Well I actually have a bathtub with a wire top, I have my stud male and numerous females in that, than take the females out when 'they'r up the duff', and put them into separate cages. I need some more cages, I like the idea of sam(magpie), with the click clak containers. So I might start making some of them up.

Thanx everyone for your suggestions and ideas!!

 

[nuthn2do]

If you're feeding commercial rat food just give them some more protien and they'll usually stop the cannabilism. A few of those grape sized red dog bikkies every second day does the trick.

 

[ad]

I do things totally different by the looks of things.
I have 1 male in a tub who constantly has between 4-6 females in with him at a time.
When I see the gravid ones, I put them in a seperate tub - 4 to a tub.
They co-raise the rats to weaner stage and I put them back with the males and take out the next lot of fat ones. around it goes.
Problems arise only when the young are born too far apart, the older ones bully the newer ones. I tax off the young as they age depending on what size I need, but the litters are generally reducing up to weaner age.
This way also the female gets a rest from the constant cycle when kept with a male full time and allows the rat to be a mum by rearing them.
They still co-nest a lot but share feeding duties.
The food source is a huge key to rat breeding, as nuthn2do says - they wont eat each other if they have the right nutrients.
This system works for me, obviously, but so do all of the above - just got to find one that suits you, with the goal to minimize work and maximize return!
Cheers
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[Koula]

Another reason for small litters is because the rats are constantly popping out litter after litter. It's best to give the females a good month or so rest between litters so she has a chance to recoup and regain her own health levels back up to scratch. That'd probably give you larger litters with healthier babies in the long run as female rats can absorb unhealthy foetuses early during gestation.

It's also not a good idea to have female rats older than 1.5 years popping out young as their pelvic bones begin to fuse togetehr at that age (or so I've been told by fancy-rat breeders) and it makes pregnancy very risky for them.

Is it possible to keep the male seperate from the females so you can set up a planned breeding regime where you have one rat mothering a litter for a month while the other female is resting up?