Got one ready to pop any day now...

That's a gorgeous looking mama you have there. I'm not too familiar with rodents and their various patterns - I'm just used to plain white rats or black/white rats. It looks like this gal has a creamy pattern (the "hood?") over her head where I'm used to seeing black. Is there a good source of information online as to the different types of rats?

Congrats on the pups, and I hope they do well for you. Keep us updated, I'm always interested in the breeding aspect of herps and rodents!

YES!!! :D Hooray! Congrats on those babies!! :banana:

Try this, IamKaervek http://www.hawthorn.org.uk/varieties.asp

If you breed two black/white hooded rats, you get black, cream, and chocolate hoodeds.. if you breed a berkshire (colored back and legs white belly and feet) to a hooded you get a mixture of the two patterns.

Rat breeding is really fun.. never know what's going to pop out!

Thanks, Shelby! After my recent foray into mice-breeding, I think I'll just feed them off and start with rats once Mr. Bojangles is large enough for them.

I almost have as much fun with the rats as with the snakes! I have 5 cages of rats now.. adding three more in a few days.

I've got rexes, dumbo eared rats, seal point siamese, berkshires, hoodeds, capped, blue, agouti, black, apricot, tan and chocolate.. oh and velveteen rex.

Well here you go, some pics of my current little happy rat family since you wanted to see different coat patterns and such. The descriptions are just my very basic understanding of patterns, color, etc. though okay. Becky, Shelby or gosh knows who probably could describe them better LOL.

Casanova - male breeder - black hooded (father of the current litter) refers to the full "hood" color with the full stripe down his back
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...lackhooded.jpg

Cookie - female breeder - chocolate wedge blaze husky (she looks black in photo's but is actually a very deep brown) her face is the wedge blaze marking in white, the husky refers to her white going up her body sides and legs
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...blazehusky.jpg

Abby - female breeder - agouti berkshire - agouti is her color, like "wild type" in ball pythons, berkshire refers to her pattern with the white "socks" and belly but not up her sides like Cookie's coat
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...iberkshire.jpg

HoneyChild - female breeder - beige hooded - just like Casanova but in beige (mom of the current litter)
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...eigehooded.jpg

Lucky - female breeder - beige not sure of her pattern as she seemed to be a "self" which means all one color but then I noticed she has a belly stripe of white that is like an upside down triangle so not sure quite yet
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...elforirish.jpg

Doesn't really matter what their coats are like or are called but it's kind of fun to mix this with that while making some nice snake food.

Ball pythons can eat rats from birth. They can start on pinkies then work up through the various sizes as they grow. www.rodentpro.com has nice info on the sizes and names for each stage of growth in rats.

As far as learning about them more, do a google on fancy rat breeders...tons of info...they just don't like us "breed for feed" rat folks very much LOL.

Oh and rats are great...they don't stink like mice and I've always been told they make much better mothers (all my breeder mice ate their babies!).


~~Jo~~

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Btw ball pythons can eat rats from birth in case you didn't know. They can start on pinkies then work up through the various sizes as they grow.

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Hmm... well then perhaps I'll be buying a few females and a male soon, and trading them for the current mice I have now. I can feed the babies as they get a little larger, and eventually full-sized rats when Bo's old enough... Exciting!

Lucky might be an irish.. or just a minimal berkie.

I have some like Cookie. They are hooded but some have granite down the sides.. very cool looking. The little snips on the noses are so cute. A lot of them have lightning bolts on their little faces too.

I know Adam feeds both mice and rats and I believe he did say he doesn't feed anything larger than a small or medium rat to even his biggest females but perhaps he can clarify that. I know our two biggest female balls are never offered really big rats, just nice plump smalls and what I would call a medium (probably a large small or a small medium LOL). Since they eat live I'd rather see them eat two smaller rats than tussle with a large rat personally.

It did take me awhile to get my rats going and hopefully the females will continue to produce more litters so don't be surprised if nothing happens for awhile or it could be really quick LOL. Female rats don't show pregnancy much till the end and then holy wow...they grow before your eyes...it's very freaky LOL


~~Jo~~

Do any of you sell or trade in your rats to other people / pet stores if you ever get too many to deal with?