Cull day - for those that cull their own rodents

[Jonno from ERD]

I know others think differently but IMO that is way too young for a female. Other than having smaller babies, they may not be mature enough emotionally to deal with looking after a litter.

Rats unable to emotionally deal with looking after a litter? I've never heard of that but it's pretty funny

I have seen this method used on one of the most productive, professional rodent colonies in Australia and it works very well. Never has a mother rejected her young.

 

[Australis]

i cull my mice and rat at what ever size i need.
you can sort of double clutch rats. the females will lay a second litter when the first is just being weaned.

Thats how i breed mine - keeping females constantly pregnant - which keeps them constantly productive.
Let nature take its course -

 

[bigi]

Those rats are breeding like rabbits

 

[Vixen]

Rats unable to emotionally deal with looking after a litter? I've never heard of that but it's pretty funny

I have seen this method used on one of the most productive, professional rodent colonies in Australia and it works very well. Never has a mother rejected her young.

I mean mentally ready. If they are too young they won't know what to do, and will possibly just eat the babies or just abandon them.

But if you thinks that funny then ok..

 

[Jonno from ERD]

Sorry Vixen, I didn't mean to offend you. Rats are instinct animals, even in the wild they are designed to exploit good seasons by multiplying quickly. I've never seen a young rat abandon their young, and about one in every 250 or so will be cannibalistic regardless of the age they are mated. The cannibals are culled immediately so they don't introduce that tendency into the colony.

 

[Vixen]

Sorry Vixen, I didn't mean to offend you. Rats are instinct animals, even in the wild they are designed to exploit good seasons by multiplying quickly. I've never seen a young rat abandon their young, and about one in every 250 or so will be cannibalistic regardless of the age they are mated. The cannibals are culled immediately so they don't introduce that tendency into the colony.

Its fine, I know some people have different methods on breeding rats. =)

I believe you when you say yours are fine with rearing litters at a young age - but in my experience ive seen bad results from doing so with friends who have kept rats. Maybe you have a different strain which is more capable of this?

Just didnt want everybody out there forcing all their young rats into pregnancy after reading this, what works for some people doesnt necessarily work for others.

 

[mcloughlin2]

Rats are more then capable of breeding at very young ages. They are made to do so. If they didn't have a good chance of breeding that young that trait would have been removed from the population (Survival of the fittest)

I would strongly suggest culling down the size of the batch to help the female out as while its natural for them to breed young, one trait that isn't natural is producing 20 babies a go when they are still growing.

 

[Clitybangspython]

???????

My females are currently 15 weeks old and theyre still barely big enough to breed.

just wondering what you feed your breeders if you arnt feeding the proper rat pellet it think its called gr2 i just get it at the local stock feed

it is basicaly a steroid and pumps the rat up realy quickley i breed them to sell and sold a batch that i had just weaned to a pet store i kept the best looking pair of females witch had a grey hood and white body when the pair i kept had their first clutch i took some more in there and offered them i saw the ones i had sold originaly and they wernt even sub adults yet thats how quickley this stuff works

 

[Vixen]

just wondering what you feed your breeders if you arnt feeding the proper rat pellet it think its called gr2 i just get it at the local stock feed

it is basicaly a steroid and pumps the rat up realy quickley i breed them to sell and sold a batch that i had just weaned to a pet store i kept the best looking pair of females witch had a grey hood and white body when the pair i kept had their first clutch i took some more in there and offered them i saw the ones i had sold originaly and they wernt even sub adults yet thats how quickley this stuff works

I tried barastock rat and mouse feed, but I had worse results with that plus they didnt really like it. I heard this is a new mix theyve made, and arent doing the gr2 anymore?

At the moment im feeding them on biomare cubes and high protein dog kibble.

 

[BJC-787]

i have 2 snakes and have just decided to breed my own rats, i work in a pet shop so any surplus i can sell at the shop. i was reading that you should start breeding them at 10 weeks old and retire them at 6 months old.

 

[Kimbully]

6-8 weeks is average age of sexual maturity, but mice can breed well until one year old or about 8 litters, rats are the same if not older if they have good diet and conditions etc.
The easiest way to determine retirement is when the litter sizes start dropping.

Kim

 

[GrumpyTheSnake]

Firstly, I usually cull my rats according to weight, except for the really little ones.

Small Pinkie - day old
Large Pinkie - up to 5 days old
Velvet - roughly 7 - 10 days old
Fuzzy - 14 days
Hopper - 25 -35 g
small - 50g
Medium - 100g
large - 150g

These are the different sizes that I need for my snakes, so this is how I cull them. I have noticed that the Doolittle range are quite small, and different sizes per bag too.

As far as breeding goes, I have breeding pens, with 1 male to 6 females. When a female is ready to drop, she is taken to a maternity tub for birthing and rearing. Once she has done her job, she is put back into one of the pens. They are all cycled through all the males. My oldest girl is nearly 18 months old and is still producing 10 -14 babies per littler.

I have tried every concoction out there... the pig + pony mix, the grains, the vegies.... you name it I've tried it. And when it comes down to value and health of my stock.. Baristock is still the one for me.