Things I wish I had known when I started out breeding rats...

Good start. Other tips. Remove preg females from any males before they give birth.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by womsterr

Good start. Other tips. Remove preg females from any males before they give birth.

---

Thats Personal Preference. I dont remove anything which allows me to keep a steady stocked freezer. I did the males in 3 weeks then out while females were prego and nursing.

When i did that my production was lower and was still needing to order frozen. But by keeping them together, with healthy stock i havent ordered rats in 3 years.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by womsterr

Good start. Other tips. Remove preg females from any males before they give birth.

---

I need to do more on this subject... I have about 30-50 rats, and 3 ASF's I havent had anything bad happen with the rats. However the ASF's after they had their pinkies, The females would attack the male I had to remove him. They chewed up his back, ears, and tail pretty bad.

What do you do?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Quikcobra

Where do you buy the rat food in bulk? Im doing the dog food,rat food, and scraps now. But I can clearly tell the dog food isnt too good...

---

For the bulk food:

http://www.nationalpetpharmacy.com/P...nt-Diet-40-lbs

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'm just getting started breeding/raising my own feeders and the more I find out the more I realize how little I know, lol! :D

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by youbeyouibei

For the bulk food:

http://www.nationalpetpharmacy.com/P...nt-Diet-40-lbs

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'm just getting started breeding/raising my own feeders and the more I find out the more I realize how little I know, lol! :D

---

Just got this in the mail on Wednesday. Quick shipping, $21.19 for a 40lb bag. $4.95 shipping which did not change when I added multiple bags. Can't recommend this enough.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Egapal

Just got this in the mail on Wednesday. Quick shipping, $21.19 for a 40lb bag. $4.95 shipping which did not change when I added multiple bags. Can't recommend this enough.

---

Yeah, I was paying $40 for that exact same product from petfooddirect.com. Definitely a steal to get it for only $25! :D

I always had my male asf’s in with my females, even with litters. I was breeding them in small tubs as well, and never had issues with attacks on males or lost babies.

As far as tips:

1- Make racks. I always thought “oh gosh, it takes so much time, blah blah blah” but in my opinion, nothing worked as good, nothing was as quick to clean and as easy to maintain. I wound up wasting money and time setting up halfass things when I could have saved money in the long run by building racks.

2- Another note on the racks. Do it right! It was very hard at first until we made spacers and bought clamps. You will have a hell of a time doing it without spacers and clamps and I got discouraged fast when it didn’t work the first time when I didn’t use these helpful tools.

3- Wheels on your racks. You may think you don’t need them, but they will make life a lot easier!

4- Watering system. I can’t stress this enough. You think you don’t need it and you go and buy bottles. But past 1 rack, it gets OLD VERY FAST. I was changing 100 water bottles and spent over $2.00 a piece. Spend the extra money, get the valves, and do a watering system from the get-go!


5- Bedding. I always use pine. But LESS IS MORE. I am still figuring this out. Every time I fill tubs with bedding, I think “wow that’s too little” and add more. Then when cleaning time comes, you can tell you added wayyy too much bedding, it’s over flowed (at least for my mouse racks). Especially with the pine pellets, one layer is MORE than enough. It poofs up!

6- Don’t get your starter rats at Pet Co. I had bad experiences with this. I wound up with rats that wouldn’t breed and actually the first rat ever to attack me to the point where I should have gotten stitches.

That’s all I have for now, but I’m sure I’ll come up with more.

Been Breeding Rodents for 12 years now. And Vinilla exstarct in the watering system keeps the smell down alot. Also as far as dog food goes there is some out there that work fine at times when we where able to get rodent block Purina large breed dog food is the best "dog" food to feed them. You need to stay away from any of the kibble that is red in color cause the dye is what causes the issues in the rodents...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by punyhuman07

Been Breeding Rodents for 12 years now. And Vinilla exstarct in the watering system keeps the smell down alot. Also as far as dog food goes there is some out there that work fine at times when we where able to get rodent block Purina large breed dog food is the best "dog" food to feed them. You need to stay away from any of the kibble that is red in color cause the dye is what causes the issues in the rodents...

---

Just curious, what ratio of vanilla extract to water do you use? I used it for a few weeks but didn't notice a difference, so I stopped.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by meowmeowkazoo

Just curious, what ratio of vanilla extract to water do you use? I used it for a few weeks but didn't notice a difference, so I stopped.

---

to be honest i dont really remember anymore lol. With the 5 gallon buckets for the watering system I think its like 3 tablespoons. water bottle depending the size i was doing enough to make the water turn a bit brownish but not to much