New additions

[Jay_Bunny]

We went to the store to pick up feeders and I was talking to my fiance about rats and we decided that we wanted a pair as pets and eventually they would turn into breeders to produce feeders for us. So we got a 20L gallon tank with screen top, water bottle, food dish, igloo thing, ect. I'm not sure how old they are, but the store owner said they were weaned and when we fed them last night they went to town on the food we gave them. I'll be looking up their ages to see.

Their names are Goober and Smooch. We had asked for two females but we suspect one is male as there is a slight bulge beneath the tail, very slight, but there. We'll be keeping an eye on him and hope he is actually a she.

If Goober is actually male, what should be done? They are far to young to breed.

[littleindiangirl]

Put them in the palm or your hand and grab onto there tails. Lift the tails up and compare the distance between the genitalia and the anus. The male will look way different then the female by this age (with his butt pillows very much visible). His genitalia will be farther away from the anus than the females.
Your best bet is to take him back and get an actual female. Rats are best in pairs, and if you leave them together, he will get her pregnant way too young.

[Jay_Bunny]

Yea, they have not done anything yet and the earliest I can take him back (if he is indeed male) is tomorrow. I'm about to go out on the internet and find out how old they are.

[Jay_Bunny]

Thanks to the mouse/rat comparison chart put up, I have guessed the rats to be around 4 weeks old. Both weighed in at around 47g.

[littleindiangirl]

Yup, you should be able to tell the boys from the girls when they are compared side by side (or do i mean butt by butt )

[Jay_Bunny]

Goober is definatly a male. His testicles dropped last night and its clearly visable that he's a little boy. We plan on taking him back to the store and exchanging him for a female on Friday or Saturday as those are now the only two days we can do it. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping to find a female with markings or some kind of color.

[SatanicIntention]

If males and females were all housed together, it's possible that female is already pregnant.. It's like a 9 year old getting pregnant.. Not very safe.

I would recommend getting an actual cage rather than a tank. Cages provide the ventilation necessary to keep rats healthy, and tanks just let the ammonia build up. The rats need to be around 5 months of age before they can be safely bred, so why not let them live in a nice well-ventilated, tall, multi-level cage while they are growing up? Both Petsmart and Petco have "ok" cages. Don't buy one of the Coast cages with a built in wheel, rats have broken femurs, tails, and hips in those things. The Silent Spinner wheels are ok, but Wodent Wheels are the best as far as I'm concerned.

Also, if you plan on ever breeding them for feeders, do not get marked rats from the pet store. They are much less likely to be healthy producers in the long run, and can be carriers of megacolon. If you just want marked rats as pets(and only pets), then go for it. Having to euthanize a whole litter of 4 week olds because they are in pain and slowly starving to death isn't my idea of a fun day. If you want to breed rats, find rats that are hooded, self(one color), irish, berkshire, himalayan/siamese, Pink-eyed white/albino. You will have much better luck at healthy litters.

I thought you were breeding mice?

[Jay_Bunny]

We are breeding mice (or at least attempting to). We got the rats as pets first and foremost. We figured if we got two females, we could grow them up, enjoy them as pets and breed them later on for feeders.

I will look for a wired cage at Petsmart. I saw one that was not very expensive. I want marked breeders so I can keep track of them, but other than the petstore where I get my feeders, I don't know where to get marked rats.

Oh a little off-topic but I also picked up this mouse from the store. It came out of the feeder cages but I asked for a colored one for use as a breeder down the road. I forgot to specify male or female and sure enough, its male. I noticed a few odd things about the mouse.

A) It has very large ears in comparrison to the other mice.
B) He has big eyes, kinda more bulgy than regular mice. I saw a picture of an ASF and they looked very similar. I'll try and get a picture of him up for identification.
c) He's really tame. He lets you scruff him and pet him with no complaint. He's eating fine so we'll see if he lives (I've bought two mice from this store in the past for use as breeders and they both died.) This little guy is in his own tub, away from the other mice until we know if he'll survive or not.