So..! Could you tell me what you think?

[Seneschal]

Okay...here's the deal; in October I ended up with a rat--refusal to feed--and kept it, and rather liked it. In November, I decided I'd try my hand at breeding them to help take care of feeding my snakes. So, I've been buying supplies and rats and such and raising them up...on January 4th, I got my first litter! It was a litter of 10 from an older albino girl, by a completely gray male. I fed two off before sexing, and the remaining eight were 5 males and 3 females. All were solid on the top with white feet and white patches on their undersides except for one pure white albino female. I was so happy!! I didn't take pics and tell everyone because I'm superstitious and didn't want to get anyone excited until I was sure everything's alright. They're about 6 weeks old now and only the 3 females are left of the litter---except for the friendliest male, a grey who's now the pet of my friend. His name is Moose. XD

In any case..! The whole point of this is to give you a rundown of what I've got them in...at the moment I have 4 adult females, 2 juvie females, 3 young girls (they're going to be feeders, I just want to get them a little larger for my adult BPs), and one adult male. One of the females is pregnant (I almost wrote gravid, lol) with her first litter, and I have her separated from the others in a 10gal tank with plenty of food and water and a sock and a pipe thing that's enclosed on most sides except the top and one hole she can get in and out of on the sides. She's built a nest inside it and seems to be alright there, although she's holding very still and breathing quickly; I have it set up so that I can look in the top of the tank and see her, without disturbing her. I think she's in labor. The tank is in my bedroom, which is dark and very quiet with low traffic...is that alright for her? It worked for the last litter but I don't think it was her first litter, either. I was thinking that since the girl from the last litter, "Orange", is robust, gaining her weight back, and energetic, a wonderful mommy and still lactating, if the new mommy "Blewie" isn't able to handle it on her own I'll put Orange in with her to help. They know one another and get along well...is that a reasonable idea?

As for the rest, I have two really big 3 level cages--each of them about 3' tall by 2' deep and 3'6'' wide. I feed them out of hopper things...it's a lot less wasteful than what it used to be with bowls. And water bottles...there's about 2'' of this soft, absorbent bedding on the bottom (which apparently makes for wonderful burrowing XD) and have put some toys in it. I give them a mixture of several different types of food augmented by liquid vitamins in the water, table scraps, carrots, salt blocks and mineral blocks. I provide dog bones for them to chew on; there are 2-3 females per cage (I've got the two juvie females away from the male at all times; when he goes into the cage, they go into the other) and have him on a rotation schedule where he rotates to the other cage every two weeks.

My plan is to feed off male offspring before their testis drop, or if I can't, separate them into another 10 gal with plenty food and water until I can feed them off.

Does that sound like a good set-up? I made sure to get the male from one store, and the females one or two at a time at different stores. I don't want any genetic mixing; I plan on replacing the adults slowly with females I've produced, later on; however none of the 3 female young I have at the moment have the disposition I am looking for; I don't think I'll be holding back any of Orange's offspring, because she's not the most friendly rat out there, and only one of her babies was very human friendly, although I've been handling them regularly since they were 5 days old. I'm going for disposition over anything else, and have had to take a few rats back to the store to trade for something else because of biting; my breeders are also pets, and I won't keep an animal that isn't friendly.

Does it sound like I'm doing alright..? Or do you have any advice? I've been making sure that all of the rats are either solid or hooded, no facial markings. Thanks! I know this was long, I just wanna make sure I'm doing things alright.


XD Oh, and no pics because I'd have to go to walgreens to get them onto a cd so I could get them onto the computer, which I don't have time for today.

[Freakie_frog]

Sounds like your on the right track to me.!

Keep it up those little buggers get addictive

[rabernet]

Sounds good! One of my breeder male rats is also named Moose! LOL

[Seneschal]

Thanks! I was worried I wasn't doing something right. I'm glad to hear it all sounds good!

Haha, two Moose! XD I'll be sure to let Marie know. I am going to advise her to get Moose fixed though. I've heard it's better for the animal. Hopefully soon I'll get some pics for you guys. ^-^

[Starbaby]

^spaying is only helpful for the females because it reduces the incidence of mammary tumours. It won't do much for a male so Moose should be okay, testis intact.

[Ginevive]

It sounds like you have things going right. Congrats