woohoo!

[Shaffer]

one of my breeder rats had it's babies today. I counted nine of them, but there may be more. Everytime I try to get a good pic of them , the other female bites me. I think she's due soon...

I'll get some better pics when she lets them roam around...

[frankykeno]

Looks like a nice healthy first litter. Congrats on your entry into rodent breeding!

[Shaffer]

Thanks! I hope they all make it, I notice the other female will go ever and drag one of the babies away, and just leave it there. So I use my little tongs and put it back with the rest of the litter (I'd use my hand but they attack everything that comes within a few inches of them) So now i have 2 things to look forward to. 1. The other female's litter 2. What they all look like when they grow up.

[frankykeno]

That's why I keep my females one to an enclosure once I see they are heavily preggie and until they wean the resulting litter. I did try keeping mothers and litters communally but never had any success with it myself. I either had babies being drug back and forth which can injure delicate pinks or I had one mother overburdened with nursing both litters while the other lazy female laid about eating and not helping much. The other issue is that I like seeing which litters are best so keeping the moms seperate gives me a sense of what rat pairings are the most productive (litters aren't getting mixed up). I have a bunch of used 10 gallon tanks that work perfectly as maternity tanks.

I breed our females in pairs so once they are done with the pups the two females go into an enclosure to rest and eat for a week or two, then they cycle back in with one of our stud rats for re-breeding. That way if I have one female with too many babies or whatever, I can share out litters between two nursing females.

[Pork Chops N' Corn Bread]

Congrats!! That looks like a happy and tired mommy! More pics as they grow?

[Shaffer]

Congrats!! That looks like a happy and tired mommy! More pics as they grow?

but of course!

[TheAudOne]

I had one mother overburdened with nursing both litters while the other lazy female laid about eating and not helping much.

Thinking about that situation cracks me up...although if someone would nurse my child...I to would lay around and eat all day!

[Ginevive]

Cool..! Rat breeding is very rewarding (esp. free food for your snakes.) Just make sure that you put them in a different cage once the babies are crawling; they can get through bars!

[Shaffer]

Cool..! Rat breeding is very rewarding (esp. free food for your snakes.) Just make sure that you put them in a different cage once the babies are crawling; they can get through bars!

The bars on my cage are about 1/4" apart. I don't think they could fit through as pinkies... Although, Adult mice did fit through there...