My first breeder male about at the end of his road.

kinda sad about my first male i picked up for breeding. i got him off CL about a year & a half ago he was some ones pet & they were getting rid of him for free. he is a dumbo & was handled a lot so he has alway been super nice.they told me he was about 1 1/2 when i got him so i know hes old & had a long full life. but anyway about 3 months ago i put him with an unwilling female & she defended herself & cut his face pretty bad & that was the last time he tried breeding. now he seems to sleep more & more & his movement is getting more labored he seems to be not lifting his rearend when walking. he doesnt seem to be in any pain so im not sure what to do with him. I know some breeders would say hes no go & i guess as a breeder hes not. but should i just gas him so i know he isnt suffering or just let him live until he dies on his own?

As hard as it might be, I would go ahead and put him down. We had a similar situation and my youngest son buried him.

Sad times.. Sounds like he lived a pretty good life under your care tho.. :)

I depends on how your feelings are with him like all my main guys i started out with I would never feed off. If they got to old and was in pain like that I think I would put them to sleep with some Co2.

wait you said you have had him for 1.5 years and the people said he was about a year and a half when you got him so that makes him 3 years old i thought these things lived way longer

well i dont have anything large enough to feed him to hes a huge old man & since hes been around the longest i dont know i could do that anyway. i have been thinking about putting him down but on the other hand he is a rat & the rats are "food" so i have also thought about putting my own ad on CL so someone else can get some use from him.

i dont really know the life expectancy of them but from what i have read female breeders only live about a year to a year & a half & males 2 -3 . plus the people i got him from said they fed him table scraps never rodent food so im sure that wasnt the healthiest for him.

just sounds like hes old if he was in pain the other rats could tell and they would kill him
so if he means that much to you i would say just keep him in till he goes

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Originally Posted by rigan1990

wait you said you have had him for 1.5 years and the people said he was about a year and a half when you got him so that makes him 3 years old i thought these things lived way longer

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Don't forget he's been a breeder for a good chunk of his life, a lot of males take a toll on their body when they breed a lot.

Well it all depends how you look at it.

From the pet owner stand point I would let him leave the rest of his life and wait till he dies of old age.

From the feeder breeder stand point I personally retire my males at 9 months, 12 at the very most. Breeding take it's toll on males and I breed rats as feeders so high productivity is my goal.

Seems like you are attached to him so you could let him leave the rest of his life as a pet however it really depends on the quality of life you think he will have and you are the only one that can be judge of that.