When do you retire moms?

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Personally, I keep track of my rats and their info with cage cards. Each rat gets their own card. I also keep track of their pedigrees and genes.

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Keeping cage cards would then make the feeders the hobby, not the snakes. It gets to be problematic when you go over a certain threshhold of females. Also, is it really worth the effort.

I put pregnant females in individual tubs for birthing and until the babies are 10+- days old (thanks Deborah). Currently, if I see a litter of less than 10, that female is "retired." I was letting them stick around too long because I felt bad for them but some got so old or worn out that they were producing litters of 1-4. I changed my process and retired them sooner and have higher production from less (younger) moms.

Old moms are helpful even though they don't produce much. I had one that produced 4 in the last litter, but I used her as a foster mom for a young female that produced 22. Worked out well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Personally, I keep track of my rats and their info with cage cards. Each rat gets their own card. I also keep track of their pedigrees and genes.

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Ah glad I'm not the only one who does this :w00t:

I have so many females looking alike and rotating from one tub to the next that I can't keep up with age or number of litters for each individual, so if a female produces less than 6 babies she finished nursing them and then it's retirement.