Breeding Rats (Males:Females)

I heard that when people breed rats they have the cage set up with 1 male and like 10 or more females. Does that mean that all the rats will get pregnant when doing this? So, if I did this and say 10 rats got pregnant i would have about 200 babies? Wow.

:eek: Whoa! Noooooooo 1:3, 1:2, 1:4. Otherwise you're probably going to have some SERIOUS crowding issues (and odor! Phew! problems) unless U have a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge tub
Yeah, they'd all end up pregnant at the same time, there might be baby stealing, and other problems w/that many females all together. Plus, once the pups are born the female can be bred back immediately and that's REALLY stressful for the mother....nursing and gestating at the same time.

I don't know where you "heard" that. Personally I wouldn't want one male in with that many females and why would you want that many rat all being born at the same time unless you were planning to euthanize and freeze litters at a certain age. There's nothing I can think of big enough in a normal home to house 11 adult rats plus all those offspring in a reasonable manner. You'd have the craziest mess of females producing offspring that you couldn't figure out whose babies are whose, figure out if any particular female is a good or poor producer, etc.

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Originally Posted by jwk811

I heard that when people breed rats they have the cage set up with 1 male and like 10 or more females. Does that mean that all the rats will get pregnant when doing this? So, if I did this and say 10 rats got pregnant i would have about 200 babies? Wow.

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In some of my tubs I keep 1:5 ... most are 1:4.

This tub would probably hold more than 1:10 however their would be a number of problems involved with that many females together. The tub is 60"L x 36"W x 12"T. (yes that little blue thing is a pepsi can)

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../bigtub001.jpg

As far as 200 babies from 10 females ... If you find females that average 20 pups per litter let me know ... Id have that stock flown in or even drive to get it. Most females average around 12 per litter ... Some of mine have up to 16 per litter or as low as 8 per litter ... Most first time females will have small litters also.

Bryan