Weaning!

[Aeries]

I'm currently able to feed all my colubrid snakes with my little rat colony. I have one adult male BP that I still buy rats for, and so I've been thinking about raising up some of the babies to a suitable size for him. How old do you typically raise the babies to? Also, this will be the first time I've ever had to wean babies before! Do they make an automatic trasition to adult food, or will they need something different for a bit? Thanks!

[llovelace]

You can wean them at 4-5 weeks old, make sure they are eating and drinking on their own, then move them to a new enclosure

[t-Roy]

what does wean mean? Does it mean separate? Im guessing that just from reading the above.. There are still some terms I don't know.. Waiting for appropriate topics to ask.. Thanks.

[llovelace]

weaning is taking from the mother.

[frankykeno]

Weaning - the act of substituting other food for the mother's milk in the diet of a child or young mammal.

Usually once the rat pups eyes are open they will follow their mother and try her dry food and her water bottle. They will continue, however, to line up for the milk bar until you remove the mother rat, even long after they really don't need her milk. In the wild, a nursing mother rat would just abandon her litter at some point to force them to wean off her milk. In a captive breeding population you need to do that for her by removing her when her pups are around 4 or 5 weeks old and can do fine without her.

[Aeries]

Thanks for the advice!

[llovelace]

Weaning - the act of substituting other food for the mother's milk in the diet of a child or young mammal.

Usually once the rat pups eyes are open they will follow their mother and try her dry food and her water bottle. They will continue, however, to line up for the milk bar until you remove the mother rat, even long after they really don't need her milk. In the wild, a nursing mother rat would just abandon her litter at some point to force them to wean off her milk. In a captive breeding population you need to do that for her by removing her when her pups are around 4 or 5 weeks old and can do fine without her.

You put that soooo much better thank you, I been up all night trying to catch escapee mice lol 1 more to go, these cats are useless!

[Ginevive]

I wait until thei eyes are open and they are very active; what could be called the "rat hopper" stage. I make sure to see them all eating solid foods, and able to drink from the water bottle; then I just remove the mother into a cage that it without earshot or sight from the babies. It is no that difficult

I have had to "emergency wean" babies that were a tad on the young sige before. They still had the "dim" look with their eyes noly partially open. I used moistened lab blocks and made sure that they knew how to use the water bottle, and they were fine. This was in the case of a mother that died while nursing; but the babies were fine.