Note on rat growth

At 3-4 weeks of age I put 40 rats and 3 mothers into a shared cage with food and water.

Their weights were from 40-60, most being in the 40-50 gram range.

One week later the lightest weighed 75 grams, and the heaviest was 110 grams.

Milk + all you can eat food = good I guess :) The mothers would all lay down and nurse once or twice a day that I noticed. Trying this again. For how little the mothers nurse in this situation I think it is almost as good as staged weaning, but a little easier.

Once they hit 40 - 50 grams and start hammering the solid food they usually really take off ... I pull them and feed them out before they make it to 50 though .. if I don't get them by then, they're usually too big the following week.

-adam

Yeah, this is the first few big groups Ive let start growing, so I was surprised by the leap in weight.

Cool:D

I have been weaning mine in the 35 gram range, keeps them from growing too fast. I use and sell more in the 40-50 gram range, so I don't want them to get too big too fast. :)