Tricks to produce more rats?

Then it should really help that I replaced my breeding females with younger rats that are not from Petco.
(Was the only place to get them around here until I made a new contact)

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Originally Posted by Kingofspades

Then it should really help that I replaced my breeding females with younger rats that are not from Petco.
(Was the only place to get them around here until I made a new contact)

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I would think so, petco rats in my area are not something I'd want to breed unless I had no options.
Most of the time the petco/petsmarts in my area have nothing but fully grow black hooded rats that they ship in from who knows where...

#1 - Doggy Bag dog food is fine for rats. People will tell you that it isn't, but do yourself a favor and look at the macronutrient breakdown and the list of ingredients. I would venture to say that I have more rats than anyone here. All of my rats eat ONLY Doggy Bag and they produce like it's going out of style.

#2 - Genetics will play a huge roll in how productive your rats are. I only select breeding stock from litters of 12 or more. I also won't breed rats that bite. I won't breed rats that chew. I won't breed rats that eat their young. You have to make rules and cull heavily in the beginning.

For whatever its worth, I have 600 females breeding full time now. If anyone here has more rats than that I will take my comment in point number one back. Also, all of my breeding stock now are Russian blue self dumbos, PEW hairless dumbos, black self dumbos, or black and white manx. I don't have any "regular" rats left. Its all about culling heavily in the beginning. I culled HARD for two years and I have exactly what I want now. If you do the same you will be pleased.

Another thing is a steady room temp that they are in. Ive noticed with my rats and mice when temps fluctuate a lot up and down they dont breed very well.

When i figured that part out and got the room to stay consistent 81F all year i get litter after litter consisting 12-18 pinks per litter.

Look on Craigslist for people selling their fancy rats. A lot of the time you will find Russian Blues, Siamese, Dumbos, etc. Most only ask a few dollars for females, even super nice ones.

From there, hold back traits you like, cull the others. The only thing that is a guaranteed cull for me is mother's that eat their young. I don't care if it's their first litter, it will certainly be their last. I produce an average of 14 babies per litter though. I didn't really hold back offspring of the females that produced well on purpose, but I ended up with high litter counts anyway.

In my opinion, even as a rat pet owner, Doggy Bag is fine for feeders. I have a friend with around 300 rats and he produces very large litters on Doggy Bag. His adults all appear pretty healthy as well.

One thing I noticed about Doggy Bag is I waste much less. The Pedigree fell through the hardware cloth a lot and got peed on, so it got wasted a lot. Doggy Bag doesn't.
And it seems to fill them up more. They're eating less of it, but still eating (meaning it's not just them not eating the food).

I think my colony will be better now.

Rats are hard to get on Craigslist around here. People either flag the ads, or it's one of those "NO SNAKE OWNERS" ads...and I am a bad liar. Haha.

I went to TSC and got some of this Doggy Bag food and rats loved it but i loved it much more since its bigger than the reg dog food i was using and doesnt fall through the hardware cloth. Might just stick to it for good...right now im just using as a supplement to veggies and other mixed items.

Well, Tom and I seem to be alot alike, but at the same time, alot different....

I have used DB in the past, but found that between the waste of the small chewed up pieces falling through the mesh and being wasted, the rats loved it, and ate more of it, pretty much making the savings moot(in my opinion). Plus, they seemed to have greasy hair while they were on it also.
I put two racks, side by side for a month for a comparison, and in the end, I did have more cannibalism in the DB rack, it turned out for me, to stick with the rodent block.

However.... I do use DB on weaned rats that are being processed for a large order, to be frozen.. Usually, I will take a rack of 4-week rats, and just feed them DB only until they reach the weight for the client... On other rats, I still use rodent diet, in case I hold some back for breeding...
But, thats just me...

look into www.kentfeeds.com for kent rodent blocks.

I pay 12.99 for 50lbs bag and its closely related to mazuri 6f

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Originally Posted by jasbus

Well, Tom and I seem to be alot alike, but at the same time, alot different...

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Well, I have found that females in a tub alone with "play" with the food by chewing it and pulling it through the hardware cloth. Once you put a male in the tub he won't tolerate that type of BS. That is when the girls stop pulling the food through.

I have no idea why adding a male to the tub stops them from pulling the food through, but it works every time for me.

As far as them eating MORE food goes I want them to eat as fast as possible. My rats produce constantly so I want them to eat as much as they can. They stay in better condition and the young grow faster when they eat more. I don't have a single fat rat in my whole colony. They are all in good condition.