Question about breeding age and female rats in general

[artgecko]

Hey guys,

I'm not breeding feeders yet, but have 2 males (pets) currently and am going to adopt some pups at 4 weeks old next Saturday. I have the option to get males or females or both.

Here's my issue... I don't want to breed yet and do have cage space to house genders separately. The ones I can adopt will be more socialized and healthier than my current males and thus better potential pets or breeders.

The earliest I might look into breeding would be in about 9 months when we (hopefully) will be in a house with more room and I can setup more caging, etc. At that point, I still won't be wanting to produce lots of babies, (I'll probably only have 2 snakes that could consume rat pups at that point) but I would be breeding to get future hold backs to start a colony with.

Would 9-10 months be too old to breed a female assuming that I only want 1 litter from her? Also, what do you guys think about females personality-wise in general? I've heard males are more chill and better "pets" and these would be mostly pets...

If females aren't awesome as pets and would be too old to breed at 9 months, I'm assuming I'd be better served to wait to buy females to breed later (although it is hard to find females in my area) and just get males that could still be used to breed when I get those unrelated females.

Also, assuming that I could look at these as potential breeders, I've considered getting some of both genders so that I might be able to select a good male and female to breed to start a colony with.. Would beginning a colony with 2 siblings be too close of a relation?

Thanks for your advice guys!

[EME]

You can breed hundreds of generations of rats with no problems, I know some people who never outcross bloodlines and have zero issues, others feel the need. But no breeding siblings will not cause any issues at all

[artgecko]

Thanks for the input!

One other wrench to throw into the mix... The litter are all blue dumbos... some hooded / berkshire, some selfs. Not sure if this means that all future generations would be blue and /or if this would be a negative thing.

[EME]

Nope not negative at all, just the genetics they carry, and yes all would have the potential to exhibit those traits, easy to outcross though if you want a bit more variety

[Rhasputin]

If you have no problems in the line, they usually don't just start popping up for no reason. If you have a line with problems, it can be hard to breed them out but once you have a nice healthy line you can basically inbreed all you want with no problems. Just watch out for tumors.

my rule of thumb for age, is: If the rat is healthy and strong, and has produced healthy litters, she can probably keep going. If you can see that your rat is getting older, and looking run down in -any- way, I would skip breeding. Breeding past 1 year is perfectly fine, even up to 2 years is fine if the rat is healthy and not looking ragged.

[artgecko]

Would there be any problems in waiting to breed until close to a year of age? I don't want litters for at least 9 months... At that point, the female would be close to 10 months old being bred for the first time.

I don't know what stock these came from, but did not notice any sneezing, etc. when I saw them last week. I don't know about tumors, etc.

[KING JAMES]

I have heard two different thoughts on the age of the females being bred. One side argues that a "responsible" breeder wont breed a female rat till she is 10-14 months old (this is done to allow time for any possible health issues to rear their head as well as to tell the personality of the rat if you are breeding for more of a pet approach than a feeder approach) The other side argues that waiting to long for the female to have pups can prove detrimental as the body adapts to the lack of birthing (things harden and shrink...not scientific terms but you get the point lol) I personally breed them shortly after they are physically able.Mine are usually in the 8-10 week range when they first get prego, this young age will lead to a smaller first litter but it gives me a quick idea of what kind of mother the female will be...I would rather feed off a bad mother after 4 months of feeding that waiting 16. But yes the age yours will be will be perfectly fine for a first litter.

As far as not sneezing that is good, hopefully they have no respiratory issues. Sorry I kinda went off topic a bit but I started typing and went with the flow

[artgecko]

Thanks for the info king james.. I think I am leaning towards getting some of both sexes, waiting to pick the best m / f, and then breeding them at least once to get my first real breeding stock to work with.

I would like to breed good quality rodents, both in temperament and health, so that I could sell them as pets as well as use some for feeders. With the few snakes I have I could probably get away with just 4-5 litters a year supplying me with all I need and could easily hold back the best temperament / health animals to keep as pets or for future generations. I think a stable colony of 3-5 breeding females will be my eventual goal, but for now I'll plan on holding these girls for a while and seeing what they are like before I breed.

Thanks again for the great advice!

[sorraia]

As long as you start with good rats, there is absolutely NO problem with starting later. You might get smaller litters, but that also partially depends on the line.

When I bred pet/show rats, I ALWAYS waited until a minimum of 6 months to breed females. Many times I waited until they were 8-10 months old. For me, as a "picky stuck up snobby pet breeder", this not only allowed me to monitor the line and see how it is developing over time, but also allowed me to limit the number of litters I had, and as a result the number of babies I had to place. If I didn't already have a problem in the line or with a particular rat, I never had any problems waiting this long. I had one line that did have smaller litters (average about 8), but I had another related line that tended to have larger litters (average around 10-12) even when bred at a later age.