Largest litter?!?

what does wean mean?

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Originally Posted by Shaffer

what does wean mean?

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As a verb or describing the size?

Im too lazy to look it up on dictionary.com, but I use it to describe the act of moving the baby from the mothers milk onto solid food...


As for size, I use it to describe a baby with its eyes open who has started nibbling on solid food, but also drinks milk.

When talking about about people like Cue, i add an IE to the end, and the meaning is fairly obvious. :P

Litter size is determined most by genetics, other contributing factor are food, temp, and caging.

My first time females go 8-10, my average across all my stock is 14 ... one of my lines average 18 ... another one 16. However I cull once a week to leave only 8-10 pups per nursing female.

Foods biggest role is actually growth in the litter ... however I've noticed more stability in litter size at 16-18% protein.

Temps above 76 give me more still borns ... I guess I should count them as part of the litter size ... but as they are usually eaten shortly after birth its hard to gauge an exact number.

Caging ... If overcrowded females will cull their own/others litters. Again this is usually done within the first day so hard to get an exact number.

Like Evan, IFA makes me a block. Unlike Evan I buy the whole 6000 lbs, that has been lasting me 3-4 months ... However this 3 tons will most likely be gone in 2 months.

Bryan

Where in the heck do you store 3 tons of lab block? :eek:

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Originally Posted by rabernet

Where in the heck do you store 3 tons of lab block? :eek:

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How in the heck do you transport it..
Do you just chip off chunks and pass it around? Mwrrrr

btw: largest litter, via mouse was 20. then 16.... then 12.....then 6...then none... i think she and the nanny were eating them but i could never catch them in the act.

I woke up this morning to what sounded like a whole new crowed of babies! I checked the tub and yep, looks like another 12-15 freshly born pups! Now I have about 30 babies in the same tub with 3 adults. Should I start separating them into two groups?

It's got to be the temps, their protein intake is still 20-22% from Lab blocks and extras. I've never seen any still borns and have only had one pup die in all the litters due to what I think was being stepped on by the adults.

We keep our rats in a room that is 120 square feet, and keep the temps at 72 degrees. We feed Mazuri rodent blocks to our rats. Our typical litter is about 10-12 pinkies. Our largest litter to date was born about four weeks ago and was a shocking 26 babies. That was a chore making sure Mom was taking care of them all. Mom only ended up losing one or two babies.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

Our largest litter to date was born about four weeks ago and was a shocking 26 babies.

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:omfg:

26 babies....:O and I thought 15-16 was large!

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Originally Posted by ssscales

I woke up this morning to what sounded like a whole new crowed of babies! I checked the tub and yep, looks like another 12-15 freshly born pups! Now I have about 30 babies in the same tub with 3 adults. Should I start separating them into two groups?

It's got to be the temps, their protein intake is still 20-22% from Lab blocks and extras. I've never seen any still borns and have only had one pup die in all the litters due to what I think was being stepped on by the adults.

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When we bred rats we noticed you should NEVER bother or seperate them untill the rats are about 3-4wks of age at the very least or mom will get stressed or any other emotion and will kill/eat/dispose of her babies. I always kept all my rats in seperate enclosures unless breeding 1 wk after breeding I seperate them into their own homes and all is well :) And so daddy wont try to mate with mom because when rodents have babies they go back into heat right afterwards!:eek: