I built a proper enclosure with 3 separate cages to breed some ratties, bought 4 small females and a small male to try my hand at breeding. Enclosure seems fine, they have access to mazuri 6f breeder pellets in a hopper, water in a typical water bottle, decent substrate, and a chewing log. Going to figure out some sort of exercise wheel soon.
Where I realize my thinking may be flawed is...I realize they are social animals and need to establish pecking order and so on to form a cohesive colony. So I bought young rats, 1 male 4 female, so they could grow together and breed later when they are already a good colony. I realize having the male alone in a separate cage (which I can do) would make him lonely and antisocial, but leaving them cohabitating can mean early bad litters...my intention later is to have 2 mothers each in 2 cages and leave the third for weaned grow-ups, and alternating the male between the two female cages...should I instead leave all 4 females together and leave the male in with them, or separate the male but leave the 4 females together? Not sure which is best, seems there are pros and cons. I am prepared to have 1 or 2 bad early litters if that's an ok thing to do, I figure maybe the new moms will take some time getting used to momhood anyways.
I'm probably wrong, can a pro weigh in please?