Do you separate pregnant rats?

Hey guys,

My adventure into breeding rats continues.

I'm fairly sure my biggest female is pregnant. She is currently is a large lab tub with the stud male and a adolescent female (future breeder).
Since she appears pregnant should I isolate her? or just remove the male? or will mom and her babies be ok with the other 2 in the tub?

i have a very simular set up 1 male 2 breedable females and one future breeder both of my females are really pregnent but i think that im going to leave dad witht them ive ownly heard that a male will eat babies if his diet is poor

I always separate my prego mama rats. This way, I know if their young disappear, I know who did it. Eating young = culling. Males and other females tend to nibble on them as well. Also, mama rats will fight to the death for their young, so why put that additional stress on them?

Just my opinion.

Trey

I keep the mom alone with her litter for two weeks and then I put two or three females with similar age litters together in a tub until the pups are weaned at 3 or 4 weeks. Then I remove the adult females and give them a little break before I put them back with a males. I move the weanlings out to male/female grow out tubs at 5 weeks which usually isn't very many because they've all been fed off or frozen. I try not to keep anything bigger than a medium unless it's for breeding.

I'd take the pregnant female out when she looks ready to pop. As soon as she gives birth, she goes in heat and the male will impregnate her immediately after. This means that she will give birth again before the current litter may be weaned. This really puts a lot of stress on the mother rat and her health as a breeder.
Trust me, this has happened once with my breeders. I usually keep them together up until the last week before she gives birth.

All depends on how you want to breed your rats....

I keep 1.3 in every tub with their young, and retire females 8 months to a year of breeding.
If you want production, that's the way to go... Easy, and you don't have the headache or expense of keeping mom rats seperate.
I did to the seperate mom thing a little last year, I hated it. Too much work.

i seperate them because upon giving birth the mom bleeds animals are animals and it can and will triger fights.just today i notice the rats fighting and i went to look and sure enough one of the females had a baby and blood was present at first i thought it was from them just fighting but soon found a new born baby in the mix so i pulled out the mom and her baby and seperated them.i have 1.3 set up and left those 4 together just to see what would happen as a test and sure enough they will fight and babbies will be eatin.asf rats are so diffrent there what you call family rats.they take care of eachother.lol.but deff take mom out.or take the test yourself..everyoone will have a diffrent experience so try and see.kepp a eye on them.

I do 1.6 in my groups no separating. This keeps a steady supply of rats for my freezer and live eaters. Never have i had them fight or anything. One group all 5 females and male went awol on the litters so i culled them.

Keeping them together keeps production up and steady. When you separate and reintroduce i noticed they dont breed as often. As this is what i did and didnt get enough rats.

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Originally Posted by jasbus

All depends on how you want to breed your rats....

I keep 1.3 in every tub with their young, and retire females 8 months to a year of breeding.
If you want production, that's the way to go... Easy, and you don't have the headache or expense of keeping mom rats seperate.
I did to the seperate mom thing a little last year, I hated it. Too much work.

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My view of the work is the opposite.

I have to clean tubs with multiple rats every week. Harem style breeding, like you use, requires me to move several adults and babies to a clean tub every week which causes stress for the rats and extra work for me.

I put each pregnant female in a lab cage alone and I don't have to clean it until the babies are almost two weeks old plus any days before she has the litter. Less stress for them and less work for me.

At that point I just move the mom and pups to a tub with one or two other females and pups. Everybody gets along and it's easier to keep on the pups when they're younger.

I move my females into .2 in their own tubs that are closest to the same size or drop day. This works well for me and both moms feed and care for all the babies. Even litters that are a few days apart are indistinguishable after a few days together. I give my moms a break off and do not have them pregnant and nursing a litter. The females last longer and have healthier litters IMO.

Regards,

B