It is my belief and with lots of experimenting....that sets of 12 are the ideal number. What a lot of feeder breeders forget is that rats need a break after you wean a litter. They need time to regain weight, bone mass and minerals. Keep in mind there is only about a 2 week period when you can feed rats before they grow to big to be what most on this forum consider the perfect size feeders.
Here is how it works
* I typed this out in another thread and Thanks goes to Richard <Halfdawg> for this graphically version and littleindiangirl (for the initial layout - I think?)
Quick explanation of what you are looking at: The male goes in with the first female for 2 weeks (after 21-23 days the female gives birth, 4 weeks later the babies are ready to be fed off and the female gets 4 weeks to "vacation" - to gain weight, bone mass and nutrients before the male comes back to visit. Every 2 weeks the male moves to another tub.
http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ngCalendar.jpg
So why 12? Because 12 is the number of weeks it takes for one female to start the process and complete the birth, weaning and rest before starting over. So with 12 breeders that means every week you will have 1 litter ready to be fed off. If you assume 10 weaned babies each week (this is a very broad average) you can then figure out how many sets of 12 you need. ie. if you need 20 feeders per week you need 2 litters every week so that means twice the number or 24 breeders, need 30 feeders you need 36 breeders, etc. etc.
I have this same setup but using 5 females for each week (60 females total) and for the past 3 years and have always had the correct number of feeders needed (any excess are sold off to a local pet store or friends)
You can work with less females but you will stress their bodies by over breeding them without the necessary rest period so they will die quicker and produce less.
This system is designed so you produce all the feeders that are required each week...you can have less breeders if you want but the risk is the need to occassionally buy extra feeders (bad week, small litter, sick breeder, etc.) or to feed F/T on occassion.
Hopefully this information helps anyone considering breeding and with the question of How many?
Attached Files
File Type: xls My_RAT_Schedule2(1).xls (31.5 KB, 8 views)
