Small litter

My best breeder female just had two babie's early yesterday her average is 14 has anyone had this happen before? I'm thinking the younger male didn't have enough pop and he's the daddy , When I say young I mean by age cause he's already bigger than the other male. One more thing at first I was worried about her maybe having complication's but she going on with the normal routine. Anyway's the litter of two blow's.

Is she by chance an older female (1 year plus). They do go through rattie menopause type thing and one of the first indications seems to be a drastic reduction in litter size.

If she's acting totally normal then she's probably fine. I'd be worried she retained some babies but she'd soon show signs of extreme discomfort or suddenly die if that was the case. Those two pinks will probably end up quite large as that's been my experience with smaller litters from females that generally produce larger numbers. Was there any sign that she may have actually delivered more but disposed of them herself?

No there were no sign's of canabilism and she's only about 6 month's old.I thought the male's also had a say in litter size , have you heard this before?...... She's a great girl I hope she's fine.

Sometimes they will have small litters. Usually because they are bred too much in a short period of time or they were bred to a sibling.

I'm not sure about the male's effect on litter size. If he's a young male and inexperienced he may have not had much chance to breed her (the bigger females will sort of sometimes kick a small male off them lol). I have noted one very odd thing with my old breeder male. The last three litters he sired before retiring were almost exclusively female offspring....how odd is that! One litter I could see it just being a genetic crapshoot...but three litters from three different females and around 80% female offspring produced.

Just keep an eye on her. If she acts normally then she's probably just fine. If she produces another extremely small litter you might want to retire her as a breeder female as that's just not really very productive for your needs. If that male sires another tiny litter from another female...same with him.

Thank's again Joanna for the great info your great.

Glad to be of whatever help I can Emilio. Rat breeding is actually almost as fun for me as the snakes (some days more fun as rats don't mind if you bug em LOL).