Should I separate males and females when they are weaned??

My first litter is ready to wean but i dont know if i can let them together or separate them
what you guys do?

also if you can tell me a easy techniques on how to sex them im having trouble :(

thanks

I'm tuning in to this as I am wanting to know also. I had a litter on Superbowl Sunday and another litter 3 days later. They are just about weaned now and some of the pups are being used to feed my baby snakes but I do plan to keep a few of the babies n use as breeders also. I am trying to feed all the ones I know are males to the snakes and will borrow my daughters Pet male rat to service the ladies every so often.

Jayare

I wean at 3 weeks and separate males and females into their own tubs.

As far as sexing them, it takes a bit if practice and experience to get good a that. I look at a few things.

1. The distance of the urethra to the anus. Males will be further spread out and females will be closer.

2. Looking for balls or lumps. Males will either have balls, it you can see two lumps at the base of the tail where the balls are still inside.

3. Hair growth. Males will be completely hairy down there while females usually have a straight line of no hair from the urethra to the anus.

4. Sometimes when the rodent isn't too hairy, you can see nipples on the belly. Dont confuse with the navel, all rats have a navel.

It is easiest to hold them side by side and compare. Separate males from females based on the features I listed above, then recheck. Once separated try comparing a male and a female, and you should see the difference.

Im having difficulties sexing them i see them exactly the same 😔

Check this out - http://angelratdesigns.com/sexingrats.html

One bit of advice I can give about sexing young rats is to not pick them up by the tail to do so. Males pull it all in when you do so and to the inexperienced eye they'll look just like females.

Basically you're looking at the urethra bump; on females it will be right up next to the anus, and on males you'll see a defined gap between the urethra and the anus. What you should probably do is just pick up two at a time and look pretty closely at each one side by side. You'll see what the link Tsandford provided was talking about eventually and once that clicks sexing becomes really easy.

Also yes, separate them out at weaning.

Nothing like the power of pictures for sexing http://www.afrma.org/sexing101.htm

As for separating them it depends how long you plan on keeping them, I don't feed anything older than 5 to 6 weeks therefore I do not separate my feeders once weaned.

Now holdbacks it's a different story.

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Originally Posted by Deborah

Nothing like the power of pictures for sexing http://www.afrma.org/sexing101.htm

As for separating them it depends how long you plan on keeping them, I don't feed anything older than 5 to 6 weeks therefore I do not separate my feeders once weaned.

Now holdbacks it's a different story.

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This is exactly what I needed thanks