How to wean??

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Originally Posted by Simple Man

To go along with what you said I've recently started keeping my moms in tubs alone or with other females whose pups I just weaned for at least a week before I reintroduce them to a male to get some fat reserves back on. I'll be curious to see how this works but I bet they get pregnant faster and have healthier babies. Some of the moms get so skinny feeding the little buggers.

Regards,

B

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Feeding their massive litters definitely takes it out of them. We like to control our environment so we separate our mothers until weaning. When they come out to play they spend 2 hrs eating yogurt, kitten food or scrambled eggs plus wrestling. I find that playtimes allow them to keep muscle tone as well as baby fat. This vigor makes them very willing to breed. In some cases we can throw our friendly moms in with younger rats and they tend to jump around happily whilst pouncing everyone like they just snorted crack. Maybe they enjoy the mature company lol. Or they just so damed tired of hearing constant high pitched squeaking when they try to shift sleeping positions.

I never date my litters. I go by size and activity. My rats are around 40 grams when I take them from mom give or take 5 or so grams. My baby rats can not reach the food or water in the breeding tubs so I wean them asap and abruptly. When I think it is time, I throw in a lab block. If the babies chew on it, I take them out and put them in a holding cage with accessible food and water until they are fed or frozen.

I wean mines at 3-3 1/2 weeks, any hold backs stay with the momma another week or two, it all depends on the size.

I also go by size of the rats when I wean them which is usually right around 45 grams


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Thanks guys such great info!