quik rat question

[Morelia_man]

does everyone leave the male rat in with the female?? if so why do u do this? is it so that the male can help care for the babies??
and is it the same with mice??

cheers
charles

 

[byjungle]

I had three female rats with one male, they bred like crazy, dont think the male looked after the young at all, he just went from one female to the next. I had this huge female that stole the babies from other mothers and looked after them.lol

cheers
mark

 

[Morelia_man]

so you kept them all in the one enclosure?
and left them all in there?

cheers
charles

 

[Magpie]

I do sometimes. Depends on what ratio of males to females I have. No, it's not so that he can help, it's so that the females are pregnant again straight away rather than waiting till they wean. This means you get a litter every 3 to 3 1/2 weeks rather 6. Some males are not suitable for this, they will eat the babies or disturb the females so much, the babies die of neglect.
With my mice, I have a colony of 8 females and a single male. They stay together full time and the babies are reared communally by the females. I have no problems with canablism there but in tis case, the male must stay in there all the time. If you take him out and put him or another male back in later, they will kill all the young.

 

[Morelia_man]

what size enclosure do u house your rats in. i have two females and a male in a cage about three foot and i have separated the females as soon as they have kids. i just tried to put the male in with one of the females so that i could put them all in together but it was not succesful. after about a minute the female was trying to bite him and attack him.

cheers
charles

 

[byjungle]

When i had them, i kept them in a plastic tub with mesh on top, about 3ft by 1.5ft. Maybe i was just lucky with no fighting as i had babies every week with the male in there. Maybe you should put your male in the tank when the females havent had their babies yet, when they do have babies leave him there and see what he does.

cheers
Mark

 

[Guest]

I breed mice and i keep em in this HUGE thing with about 5 males and 40 females and when they get pregnant i put them in lab containers and then when the babies are ready to wean i put em in a weaning tank wich is real huge and there in there till there adult and i put the females back in the breeding tank to get pregnant again so i when the babies are adult i take em to get them gassed and all together i think i have roughly about 60-80 breeding females.

 

[Morelia_man]

when u say huge, what sorta dimentions we talking bout??

cheers
charles

 

[Guest]

sorry i didt give the size, about 4-5 foot by about 4 foot.

 

[almaron]

I just leave the males in all the time. Rats and mice. If you do separate, do like Brendan, and pull female out before she has babies. Then when you reintroduce them, put the female back in the males cage, not the other way around. That will cut down on the aggression, as males aren't territorial about females, like the females are with a male.

Never had any trouble with the male rats chomping on the pups. Just don't add a male to a cage with nursing pups, even if they are his own. Either keep them together from the start, or wait till they are weaned. Rats aren't so bad about this as mice, but better safe than sorry.

About as far as helping the male will go is sleeping on the pups, but I don't think it's to keep the babies warm as much as himself. Male mice tend to be more helpful with their babies.