Rat rack breeding question?

I made a 6 tub rat rack last week and I just have 1.3 rats in a tub now. but Im trading a guy a small boa for about 30 med. rats and I want to keep and breed as many as I can without making a new rack. and I will just kill the rest but I wanted to know if I could do 6 groups of 1.4 in each of the 6 tubs and leave all the moms and dads of each 1.4 group in the same tub without taking the males and females out into there own tubs when they give birth and until the babies are weaned ? Thanks

No, it would be way too crowded with 5 adults and even ONE litter raised to weaned, much less possibly 4 at a time. If they are the standard size concrete tub, the most I have in one is 2 females with babies.

Agreed! Ideally I'd keep one mama per tub, especially if they're having litters in the double digits. I keep two per tub since I have hairless and they'd probably freeze to death in my a/c.

Agreed with others. I personally keep one mom and litter in their own tub. I know others have had success raising multiple moms and litters together, but my personal experience is that sometimes more passive moms will let more domineering moms raise their litter. If there are too many babies, that one mom may not be able to feed all of them. The babies either won't grow as quickly, or may not survive. Each rat has 12 teets, but can feed more than 12 babies. However if you have one mom trying to raise two litters of at least 12 babies each, that can get a little harder, especially for smaller or first time moms.

I'm not sure what size tub your are using but I use the black mortar tubs from Home Depot and I only keep 2 females in each tub with litters. I rotate 1 male through the tubs so the most they have is 3 adults at a time. I feel like this is the absolute most I would keep In a single tub. Especially as most of the tubs can have 20-30 babies at a time in them.

We use the large black concrete tubs as well. However, we keep a 1 : 4 ratio in them. Once a female is gravid or has a litter, we move her and the babies into their own separate tub. Works well for us, hope this helps.

I tried keeping multiple moms in the same tub as they give birth. You'll lose half the babies from them 'baby hoarding' and end up with as many as if you had 1 mom alone - and you'll have to clean out dead pinkies daily. Not pleasant.

Find a way to keep the moms alone during birth and until the babies grow fur.

With 6 tubs, I'd keep 3 females per tub in 4 tubs and rotate a male every 3 weeks between them. As the moms get ready to give birth separate them 1 in the original tub and 1 in each of the 2 empty tubs. By the time the next tub has hit 3 weeks you can put the moms with all the babies back in the original tub. This gives you room to take the next tub and split it - 1 mom in the original tub and 2 in the empty 2. After 3 weeks put them all back etc.

4 tubs - 3 females each. 1 male - 3 weeks per tub. As you move the male, split the 3 females from the previous tub and put the 3 separate females back in their own original tub.

You're welcome :)

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Originally Posted by MrLang

I tried keeping multiple moms in the same tub as they give birth. You'll lose half the babies from them 'baby hoarding' and end up with as many as if you had 1 mom alone - and you'll have to clean out dead pinkies daily. Not pleasant.

Find a way to keep the moms alone during birth and until the babies grow fur.

With 6 tubs, I'd keep 3 females per tub in 4 tubs and rotate a male every 3 weeks between them. As the moms get ready to give birth separate them 1 in the original tub and 1 in each of the 2 empty tubs. By the time the next tub has hit 3 weeks you can put the moms with all the babies back in the original tub. This gives you room to take the next tub and split it - 1 mom in the original tub and 2 in the empty 2. After 3 weeks put them all back etc.

4 tubs - 3 females each. 1 male - 3 weeks per tub. As you move the male, split the 3 females from the previous tub and put the 3 separate females back in their own original tub.

You're welcome :)

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I've not had problems with any dead rats or babies keeping 2 moms together like you described, even with different litter ages in the same tub. The only exception to this is when I introduced 2 separate moms with litters in to the same tub AFTER they were born. The moms killed each others babies. Their next litter and so forth were fine together.

I think this may be them having time to get used to each other before the babies arrive. I've bred hundreds, maybe thousands of babies and this was the only time I've had a pinky/weanling die and each tub has 2 moms

I could have a mom or two that are just hoarders and would not say I have massive experience anyway. Either way I do prefer to split the moms for birth.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrLang

I could have a mom or two that are just hoarders and would not say I have massive experience anyway. Either way I do prefer to split the moms for birth.

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True. I would also love to have a tub for each but you have to do with the space you have.