Taking too long to get pregnant?

Hi there.. just started breeding rats for my baby snakes.. but wanted to know if i'm doing anything wrong? I left a male with 2 females in a 10 gallon tank together with a hide for close to 3 weeks now.. the females still look the same size? was wondering if there's some do's and dont's that i'm not aware of! thanks!

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Originally Posted by adam_degel

Hi there.. just started breeding rats for my baby snakes.. but wanted to know if i'm doing anything wrong? I left a male with 2 females in a 10 gallon tank together with a hide for close to 3 weeks now.. the females still look the same size? was wondering if there's some do's and dont's that i'm not aware of! thanks!

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First are you sure the female is old enough to breed.
Second if they are getting to warm the they aren't going to breed.
Third it takes longer than a week for them to start showing signs of being preggo.

I've had some of my rats not even show before they actually gave birth. And I've had some that I caught eating their babies and I didn't even know they were preg. I've also had some that took almost 6 months before they ever got preg. Mother Nature is messy unpredictable business.

I've been breeding natal rats for over a year and it takes them just under 2 months from the time i add the male until they drop their litter so it's good to have different females dropping litters at different times so you always have a supply. just be carefull about knowing which are male and female. accidental breedings can lead to over population faster than you might notice. my natals drop 15 at a time.

the females are about 130g and the ambient temp is about 75.. so then its cool to just leave them all together until they pop?

how big should the female be until she's ready? cause i have another female still growing she's about 45g, when will she be ready to get thrown in?

3 rats in a 10 gallon is a bad idea...

small space...almost no airflow....


just not good.