Bad batch of breeders...

I am NOT a happy camper right now!

We've produced thousands upon thousands of babies over the past couple years. Never had a real issue. Worst we ever had was one mother cull off a few of her babies who then took care of the rest of them (she ever fostered a litter right after!). Well we recently got all new breeders since our old stock was getting older and less productive. Besides the rats, nothing has changed in our setup. Every last one of these females are bad mothers. I'd understand if it were one or two, but we're talking over a dozen and its just this batch we've had problems with. They either abandon or eat their babies every time. We tried breeding them twice to be sure it wasn't a fluke. We've even had a couple some crank out severely deformed babies. I have to believe that this is a problem with the rats themselves. Well, time to feed all these off and start over from scratch I think.

Anyone else gotten a batch of breeders that simply weren't any good?

You said you got all new breeders. From where? Why aren't you using your own to replace the older ones?

I have 3 blood lines in my colony, I never have to buy rats ever, just raise up and start new groups.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

I have 3 blood lines in my colony, I never have to buy rats ever, just raise up and start new groups.

---

I have 4 breeding sets, ALL from different people. I have only mixed them twice now. I only have about a half years experience breeding but IMO it's best to build your own..

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by JohnNJ

You said you got all new breeders. From where? Why aren't you using your own to replace the older ones?

---

Yeah, we got them from a local guy. Up until then we had always had our own stock from a handful of original lines which we always replaced with offspring we bred. We always took great pride in our feeders and pet quality rats and took great care in selectively breeding them so as to avoid any inbreeding as well as for different breeds that people wanted as pets. They were always top notch rats, but we had a drought of feeders around our area a few months back. Production slowed way down with our original breeders and we were forced to feed off all of our own stock to feed our snakes. It sucks, but it happens. Trust me, we would have never done this if we weren't forced to by circumstance. We were hurting bad for rats and a guy we know had some one day so we jumped on them and then this happened. Beggers can't be choosers I suppose. The drought seems to be over now so hopefully we will find some better quality breeders in a few days at the expo or locally.

It isn't the end of the world, just a little sour at our bad luck because we are now back at square one. I guess this makes up for the amazing deal we got on a 1,200ish gram female mojave, 1,000ish gram female lesser and 1,500ish gram male pastel and all their supplies (feeders, tubs, thermostat, heat tape, etc) here a couple weeks back. :D The good news is we at least have feeders until we get back up and running again.