woohoo!

one of my breeder rats had it's babies today. I counted nine of them, but there may be more. Everytime I try to get a good pic of them , the other female bites me. I think she's due soon...

I'll get some better pics when she lets them roam around...

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/9290/img1900ki8.jpg

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2006/img1899vq6.jpg

Looks like a nice healthy first litter. Congrats on your entry into rodent breeding! :)

Thanks! I hope they all make it, I notice the other female will go ever and drag one of the babies away, and just leave it there. So I use my little tongs and put it back with the rest of the litter (I'd use my hand but they attack everything that comes within a few inches of them) So now i have 2 things to look forward to. 1. The other female's litter 2. What they all look like when they grow up.

That's why I keep my females one to an enclosure once I see they are heavily preggie and until they wean the resulting litter. I did try keeping mothers and litters communally but never had any success with it myself. I either had babies being drug back and forth which can injure delicate pinks or I had one mother overburdened with nursing both litters while the other lazy female laid about eating and not helping much. The other issue is that I like seeing which litters are best so keeping the moms seperate gives me a sense of what rat pairings are the most productive (litters aren't getting mixed up). I have a bunch of used 10 gallon tanks that work perfectly as maternity tanks.

I breed our females in pairs so once they are done with the pups the two females go into an enclosure to rest and eat for a week or two, then they cycle back in with one of our stud rats for re-breeding. That way if I have one female with too many babies or whatever, I can share out litters between two nursing females.

Congrats!! That looks like a happy and tired mommy! More pics as they grow?

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Originally Posted by Pork Chops N' Corn Bread

Congrats!! That looks like a happy and tired mommy! More pics as they grow?

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but of course!

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

I had one mother overburdened with nursing both litters while the other lazy female laid about eating and not helping much.

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Thinking about that situation cracks me up...although if someone would nurse my child...I to would lay around and eat all day! :sunny:

Cool..! Rat breeding is very rewarding (esp. free food for your snakes.) Just make sure that you put them in a different cage once the babies are crawling; they can get through bars!

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Originally Posted by Ginevive

Cool..! Rat breeding is very rewarding (esp. free food for your snakes.) Just make sure that you put them in a different cage once the babies are crawling; they can get through bars!

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The bars on my cage are about 1/4" apart. I don't think they could fit through as pinkies... Although, Adult mice did fit through there...