Breeder Male, Acceptable Weight Loss?

Hello everyone,

So I have one male this season that is scheduled to breed 4 females. So far he has gotten one to a prelay shed and locked several times with another female. He started off this season around December at a fat 1100g he continued eating while locking until mid January but only enough to hold his weight. Since then he has dropped to 950-980g. I have been sticking to a 3 on 3 off schedule and occasionally doing 3 on 5 off.

I can provide some pictures of him tomorrow afternoon. [Edit] I can get pictures on here by Wednesday due to him being paired up now.

My question though is how much weight is an acceptable loss in a male during the breeding season before you pull him out due to health concerns? Does anyone have a rule of thumb (body weight percentage) or do you go by a visual indicator of some kind?

Thanks,

Personally, if my males lose more than 10% body weight, I pull them for the season. In your case, I would probably stop pairing your male. I have a male who hasn't eaten in 6 months and is still breeding at 900g. However, he's only dropped maybe 10g so he's still allowed to rotate.

He should have been pulled by noe honestly. Anything more than 10% is to much. Also just so you know for the future. He can breed more than one female at a time. What I mean is when you are pairing him and say he is lined up for 5 females like yours is then you can place him with the first one for 3 days and then 3 off and the next round would go in with female 2 and so on and just keep rotating through the females. Gives me a better feeling of more females becoming gravid and less time with the male off feed as well as less stress.

knowledge is earned not learned

My apologies, I didn't dig through my records before posting. I should have been more thorough. I've got him down as 947g starting in January. Then reaching 1036g full with a small rat in him in the beginning of March. Then he went off feed. And now he is sitting at 983g completely empty.

So is the 10% rule a general consensus still?

Again, I'll get pics on here later this week. Really try to leave them alone when they are paired up as to not waste his time in. Have thunderstorms coming through here tomorrow.

He was rotating girls by the way but since this is my first year I tossed him more heavily to those I saw locks with. He has been with all of them but I've only seen locks from two. Now that the one girl has hit a shed I'm pretty certain she is gravid based on all of her behavior throughout the season. Feels nice to be able to focus him on less females now.

Weights should always be when empty... so your male has actually gained weight. When he has eaten you are weighing him and his food not just him.

knowledge is earned not learned

Yeah, no idea why I weighed him full that time but the small rats I feed off are 40-45g so that was his highest weight over the last three months when you account for that.