Rat rack breeding question?

Home Depot have two size of mixing tubs,I am using the medium size with 1.2 rats in each one,work awesome for me

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/cata...gry=Search+All

I'm going to go against the grain here some, but what my advice really is, is try it and see what works best for you.

I use the black 20x28 concrete tubs (not sure which it is on their size scale) and generally keep 1.3 rats per tub, occasionally I'll do 1.4 in them and do not have any trouble. Normally if I'm doing a 1.4 cage, it's because of a litter of rainbow boa's being born or clutch of woma's hatching and I know I'm going to be feeding out a lot of extra rat pinkys and just wanting to boost pinky production. I don't pull moms or rotate males through cages, I set up a colony and leave it and it works great for me. One thing that might be helping this work better for me, is I pull a lot of nursing rat stuff to feed, from pinky's all the way up to weaning stuff and I try to pull a bit from each cage instead of everything from just one, so I take a little of the baby nursing work off each cage constantly. Only a few rats from any given litter ever normally actually get weaned.

Try it and see what works for you, if you plan to raise litters all the way up to being weaned, you may need to cut back on the number of adults per cage.

I use the standard size mortar tubs and do 3 females per tub and the males get moved around, spending a week and a half or so in each. I leave the females in their tubs together to raise litters. I don't lose many babies.
I also check frequently and if I see any babies that are struggling or weak I'll put them in a different tub with younger babies. If there's a pup or two that are growing much faster and preventing the smaller pups from nursing as much I'll move them to a tub with more equally sized pups.

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I have 1.4 or 1.5, I have 100 tubs going and do well. As long as you pull the babies at weening you will be ok. I just put the babies in grow cages to grow them out. Good air flow is a must.

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Originally Posted by rascal_rascal_99

I'm going to go against the grain here some, but what my advice really is, is try it and see what works best for you.

I use the black 20x28 concrete tubs (not sure which it is on their size scale) and generally keep 1.3 rats per tub, occasionally I'll do 1.4 in them and do not have any trouble. Normally if I'm doing a 1.4 cage, it's because of a litter of rainbow boa's being born or clutch of woma's hatching and I know I'm going to be feeding out a lot of extra rat pinkys and just wanting to boost pinky production. I don't pull moms or rotate males through cages, I set up a colony and leave it and it works great for me. One thing that might be helping this work better for me, is I pull a lot of nursing rat stuff to feed, from pinky's all the way up to weaning stuff and I try to pull a bit from each cage instead of everything from just one, so I take a little of the baby nursing work off each cage constantly. Only a few rats from any given litter ever normally actually get weaned.

Try it and see what works for you, if you plan to raise litters all the way up to being weaned, you may need to cut back on the number of adults per cage.

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You don't pull the males out when the females give birth? You just leave them in there? Asking because I have a friend that does this with his colony and he says his males never try to attack or eat the pups.

I figured they was like other rodents such as hamsters where you have to pull the males out so they don't eat the young.

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Originally Posted by Diamond Serpents

You don't pull the males out when the females give birth? You just leave them in there? Asking because I have a friend that does this with his colony and he says his males never try to attack or eat the pups.

I figured they was like other rodents such as hamsters where you have to pull the males out so they don't eat the young.

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Nope, never pull males, colonies stay together 24/7. I've seen males cleaning off newborn pinkys before and seen them help round up babies into a nest and keep them warm on colder nights.

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Originally Posted by rascal_rascal_99

Nope, never pull males, colonies stay together 24/7. I've seen males cleaning off newborn pinkys before and seen them help round up babies into a nest and keep them warm on colder nights.

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That's what my buddy said they help out and stuff. I only have a 6 tub rack atm and only 1.1 right now. I'm going to fill it up this weekend when I go to my local show.

Have you has any bad experience with a female getting pregnant while nursing then eating the young because she's to stressed ect?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Diamond Serpents

That's what my buddy said they help out and stuff. I only have a 6 tub rack atm and only 1.1 right now. I'm going to fill it up this weekend when I go to my local show.

Have you has any bad experience with a female getting pregnant while nursing then eating the young because she's to stressed ect?

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I've never had this happen. Just make sure they have water and food. The only reason I've heard of them doing this is lack of food and hydration.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Diamond Serpents

That's what my buddy said they help out and stuff. I only have a 6 tub rack atm and only 1.1 right now. I'm going to fill it up this weekend when I go to my local show.

Have you has any bad experience with a female getting pregnant while nursing then eating the young because she's to stressed ect?

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I keep my males and females together 24/7 too, haven't had any issues. Some of my dads are better moms than the moms are lol. I've got one right now that's pregnant and still nursing her previous litter, no cannibalism yet. The only time I've had moms eat the babies is when there's something wrong with one, or it's already dead/stillborn.

I think rats are way more social than most other rodents and that has a lot to do with it, but yeah, my males help with everything but nursing...lol

I have had an occasional first time mom eat her first litter, but it's very rare when it happens. As for one killing a second litter while she's still nursing an older one, that's never been a problem other than if she isn't able to produce enough milk for all of them and the smaller babies will suffer from it. Having multiple females helps share that burden, but is also part of why I pull from different cages to think them all down a little when I'm pulling younger feeder stuff.