one more question?

When do you guys sort your rats? Ive been trying to sort threw our babies and keep males and females separeted because I would like to keep the females and raise them to be breeders but im feeding off the males once they get large enough. But im having alot of trouble sexing them. I look for nipples but I just dont see them until they start to get to large sizes. Is there any sure fire easy way to tell if they are males or females?

Not sure if this would be helpful, but any time I refrost mice or rats, or even see all sizes at the store, the males got the balls LOL. So, look for their "package"? I'm no expert with rodents, but that's what I've noticed when I go to pet stores and defrost my mice & rats.

but see when I pull them out of the bins its like the balls get sucked up. Sometimes when I pull open a tub I can see a few with the balls hanging out but when Im trying to sort them in diffferent tubs I cant ever tell

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Originally Posted by Denial

but see when I pull them out of the bins its like the balls get sucked up. Sometimes when I pull open a tub I can see a few with the balls hanging out but when Im trying to sort them in diffferent tubs I cant ever tell

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Hmm, that's kind of confusing. Well, I would say sort the ones that you've noticed do have the balls into a separate bin and each time when you go into a bin look for rats with the balls hangin' out so you can put those into the separate bin with the other males.

http://www.ratz.co.uk/sexingrats.html

site has some great pics

You can pick them up and give them a light squeeze to pop them out.
You can also tell by the size placement of the "bump" under their bum. Theres a larger space between the bump and bum on a male, the bump is also a little larger on males

Once you breed more you'll be able to tell instantly ;)

One thing is, if you can, hold them with their feet on your palm and with your other hand under their Armpits, you should see their baby makers drop.
Also what Matt said is very true, thier parts are differently spaced apart on males and females.

Thank you guys Ill have to back out today and recheck I think I know what your talking about with the different spacing.

Just takes time and practice. I was awful at telling my first few litters of mice apart, even with pics online but now do pretty good. If you let them crawl on your hand for a bit and calm they will usually drop them, or just judge by the spacing.

Great advice and the exact link I would have used as reference.

As far as when to separate them? My weaned and small tubs are "co-ed"...I move to the medium holding tubs around 90-100g. That is when mine get sorted as that is also around the time when reproduction can become an unwanted issue. It can actually happen a little sooner than that I think but I haven't had any issues doing it this way with unexpected feeder litters.