Looking for a little help please.

[MikeM75]

I have been trying to get some rat breeding going for about 2 months. I recently built a rack that holds 3 tubs high by 3 tubs wide, the concrete mixing tubs from like Home Depot. I have been doing 1.4 in 6 tubs, 2 grow out tubs, 1 tub being used for a meternity tub. I use Swan brand Kiln dried Pine Shavings. I feed Mazuri 6F. I have an automatic watering system that I flush the system about twice a week just to make sure there are no bubbles that could prevent one of the valves from working correctly and I test each valve about once a week. I do keep them in my garage, and my thermostat shows that it gets down to about 55 degrees in there at night right now, so I put my space heater in there so when it is supposed to get too cold I can turn it on for them.

I purchase my stock from a pretty big vendor here close to where I live, don't want to say the name and risk making this more complicated. I have made purchases and then had them die within a week. 1 example is I purchased 6 "colossal" males and like 20 "colossal" females to get my breeding going. Within 1 week 5 males and 3 females died. Obviously my first thoughts are oh crap what am I doing wrong, but there were about 20 pinks in my racks when I bought these guys and all of them did fine through the whole thing, so I honestly have no idea. I am not sure if the ones I am getting from him are too old already or not in the greatest health... I just don't know.

I clean out the grow out tubs twice a week because there are more in there and the tubs get dirty quicker. The normal 1.4 and maternity I clean out each weekend. When I am cleaning them out I use a Clorox wipe to disenfect and spray some Clorox Anywhere Hard Surface in there right before I put the shavings back in it. If you look up the Anywhere Hard Surface it says it is safe around food so I really hope it is safe around my rats.

My problem that I am having is some of my little guys are looking under nourished and skinny. Not a lot, just 2 or 3, but that is too many for my liking. And I still get a dead rat in my tubs about once a week.

There water is clean, I do put about 4 drops of bleach in the water system when I fill it up, it is a 5 gallon bucket.

I give them snacks every 1 to 2 weeks like spinach leaves, graham crackers, and I just gave them some pasta noodles that have not been cooked because I read somewhere they like uncooked spaghetti so...

I am out there with them everyday talking to them and petting them picking a few of them up to hold them. I have a hairless that I swear looks like he has rex and dumbo, he is soo damn cute, bought him as a feeder and just couldn't do it when I actually looked at him and now he is a breeder. I also had a black rat come out of one of our litters that I thought was too cute to feed away so I kept him to be a breeder male and he is doing very well, getting plump.

As I am typing this out it seems like I try to disenfect too much, but if bleach was a problem wouldn't all of them be showing the same signs? I truly want to fix whatever I am doing wrong. I can not STAND for my guys to be hurting from something I am doing incorrectly.

I looking for help, I really want to do better. I have read and researched many many hours over the last 3 months, which brings me to here today.

I would really appreciate any help you could offer.

Here are a couple pictures.

Here is Dumbo (my daughter had to name him.)



Here is our pure black.



Here is the set up I am using.

[slithering house]

ive learned i dont know if its like this for all or just me if the temps arent 70 degrees or so they dont breed atleast from what im seing on my end with my rats and when its too cold they use up their stored fat that could be making them lose a little i put a heater in my shed and their doing great you could try raising the temps hope this helps good luck

[spitzu]

I have a similar problem with rats. I think it's the pine. I've bred thousands of ASFs and they do fine on the kiln dried pine, but everytime I throw a rat in one of the tubs it dies within a week.

I'm going to try again tomorrow, but with aspen.

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[boadaddy]

Could be a combination of things really. Temps should be in the low to mid 70's for optimal breeding results. Why do you add bleach to the water system? Never heard of doing that before. I use diluted bleach to clean but never used the wipes, are you using bleach full strength? Are you letting the tubs air out?

How old were the rats that you started with? Could of died of old age? I've been breeding rats for about 2 years and produced easily 6,000+ rats. I breed mine on kiln dried pine and keep my temps in the mid to upper 70's and have never had any problems like you describe. The hairless is a dumbo (not a rex) and the black looks like a self.

[Xbloodrain67X]

Sorry but Colossal sized rats are usually referred to as "Retired breeders".

Try buying medium/large rats and breed those.

[PitOnTheProwl]

sure wish i could help there.
have you heard any of them sneezing?
i know I have lost some here and there when they get too cold. they start looking really skinny almost like starved.
I havent had any problems with kiln dried pine

[Simple Man]

I agree with both the issue of pine and the huge rats being retired breeders. You should raise up some groups of mediums. My rats stay on aspen in my 50 degree garage and I'm having healthy litters regularly. Best of luck to you!

Regards,

B

[MikeM75]

I have read from somewhere, I thought on this site, that other folks do it to prevent algae from growing and stopping up the water lines. I also saw on one of those survivor type shows where they put bleach in their water to kill bacterias and stuff so I figured with such a small amount it should be safe.

The temperature is an issue but that is only the last week to 10 days that it has been colder, these issues have been going since I started.

I did purchase medium females the last time I went, about 3 weeks ago. Hoping the younger females will last longer and be in better health.

Also something I thought was strange, when I placed my order he said he didn't have ANY females bigger than small, which made me think they must have died for whatever reason, i.e. bad health / environmental issues, but of course I have nothing to base it on other than my other purchased rats dieing for no apparent reason.

[MikeM75]

The only one I hear doing anything like sneezing is my pure black one. It is strange, he seems very healthy. Gaining weight and running around with the ladies.

[Homegrownscales]

Personally I would halt the bleach to see if that could be poisoning them. I know you said its some but not others. Perhaps some are just more sensitive to the bleach. I would think as long as your lines aren't getting natural sun attn they wouldn't grow algae. Again dealing with a fish tank that's just what I've noticed.
So perhaps it's a little overkill.


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