Rat breeding size

[zoomin31]

I recently acquired some rats I am not sure there age I had a friend pick them up for me. This is my first time trying to breed rats. how many grams would be a good size to start introducing females to males.

[SlitherinSisters]

I personally would just go ahead and throw them together. People say they can get pregnant when they are still babies, but I've never had that happen. I throw the keeper girls in with the male once they are weaned. Their bodies are pretty good about knowing what they can and can't handle. I actually just had a female have her first litter a couple weeks ago and she had 17! This was her first litter and she's been in the tub with the male since she was weaned. I believe she is 4 months old so that puts her at 3 months old when she got prego, not 5 weeks like some say will happen. She is the size of a medium female rat. No harm no foul IMO. You'll hear a lot of opinions on this site, this one is just mine

Males can definitely breed at 5 weeks though. I was slow about taking my weaners out of the mom's tub, I gave her a couple weeks of R and R by herself, put her in the with male and noticed a couple weeks later that she was pregnant and about to pop. I thought, what on earth is going on here!

[Orlandoflor]

I have them with the male after they get weaned they don't have any problem have babies to early. Currently had one who had a litter her first one and she is as big as my adults and I had my male in their since she was small and all her cage mates.

[tomfromtheshade]

I have my rats on a replacement system where they go in with the males when they are 16 weeks old, and they are replaced by new 16 week old females when theya hit 64 weeks old. If they are pregnant when they are 64 weeks old they get put into small birthing tubs and I use the babies for pinks and then "retire" the mom.

However, my system is pretty intensive because I have a lot of rats. If you only have a few you can just throw them together and get them producing. Its hard to screw up rat breeding on a small scale.

[jason79]

I personally would just go ahead and throw them together. People say they can get pregnant when they are still babies, but I've never had that happen. I throw the keeper girls in with the male once they are weaned. Their bodies are pretty good about knowing what they can and can't handle. I actually just had a female have her first litter a couple weeks ago and she had 17! This was her first litter and she's been in the tub with the male since she was weaned. I believe she is 4 months old so that puts her at 3 months old when she got prego, not 5 weeks like some say will happen. She is the size of a medium female rat. No harm no foul IMO. You'll hear a lot of opinions on this site, this one is just mine

Males can definitely breed at 5 weeks though. I was slow about taking my weaners out of the mom's tub, I gave her a couple weeks of R and R by herself, put her in the with male and noticed a couple weeks later that she was pregnant and about to pop. I thought, what on earth is going on here!

I agree.. I have never had a female give birth at too young of an age, and I do not separate males from females after they are weaned. They will not breed until they are ready for babies. Some aren't good mothers at first but there is no way to know until they give birth, in my opinion its not about size. If they don't do well on their first litter I give them one more chance if they do bad the second go around then there gone.