Hello all I wanted to first say Thank you for all the good info on my last post.
I really appreciate the info.

Okay heres what I have decided to do .
I am going to breed both the ASFs and regular rats. Okay that decision made .
Hubbys going to build a rat rack. Okay another decison made.

Now is where indecison comes in .

How many of each should I start out with?
How old should they be?
How big a rat rack do I need?

I was kind of hoping for two pans each kind but not sure how many females to males I should have.

And then with the regular rats I would have to have a female pan and male pan right?

But then I would also have to have one to grow babies out and would need a male pan and female pan right?

My head is starting to spin trying to figure this all out.
Soooo I was hoping some of you guys had some words of experienced wisdom to help me out here so that my head doesn't explode.

I will be needed quiet a few for feeding and I am just not sure where to start as far as numbers and how to house them etc.

We found the small and large concrete mixing pans so far so I figured we go with the large unless we can find med and then depending on its size might still go with large as I guess you can never have to much room huh.

The guy I am going to buy rats from has small , med, large and jumbo in rats. He said the bigger ones were biters on a average. But the smallest ones weren't since they were just babies.
Okay here I would like babies so that I can have them be sweeter but how long would it take to get them to breeding age?

I know I will get 2 males since males can't stay in with the females but how many females should be in each pan?

Also why can't the male stay in with the females? I have read they can't but have never found out why.

I'd actually like to get say a group or two of the small and one group of the med but could I put the small male in with the med male with out problems?

The Asfs are much easier to figure out. 1 male per pan seperate babies if want to . Which I probably will to keep from over crowding. So there another couple of pans I guess.

Although there is the question of how many females to keep for breeding in each pan?

One more question. How often and when do you keep babies back for breeding purposes?

And on top of all this I don't want to get overwhelmed so I am just really not sure how to go about starting this.
I do know I have tendency to over do and like hubby says more is not always better but thats thats how I tend to go so I was really looking to get the wisdom of your experiences to help me out here.

I know I have more than likely left something out but I am guessing by now your heads are probably ready to explode after reading this so I will save any other questions for later if I think of anymore.

I'd really really would appreciate some input into this cause I am kind of hanging here not knowing which way to go with this.

Also if you guys know of any good sites on info on starting out breeding I'd love for you all to send them my way cause I know I have an awful lot to learn before I take this plunge.

I really look forward to your help and want to say I really appreciate your time to answer all my questions.
And I hope I haven't given to many of you a headache
rhsm