Starting Out Breeding Rats/Mice

Thanks for that, my biggest concern is getting atached to them :(
I miss my hairless rats soooo much!!!! But so far I've done good with not getting attached...even with the rats and mice that dont get eaten around here...I hold on to rats and mice each week that the snakes reject....doesnt help my attachment fears..BUT so far so good.
I fed our hairless rats over the years "home food" I bought rat mix a few times for those times we would be out of town and have someone over feeding everyone or something like that. But other than that, every night I was making there food....mine loved cherries to no end....I have to post a picture of them on here one day!

I just focus on naming, handling and spoiling my permanent breeder group of rats and have little to no contact with the rats destined to be feeders. I examine them regularily for any health checks and so forth but other than that I try to stay hands off with the feeders so I don't get attached. The breeding group, especially those that are older and retired to pet status are the ones we handle regularily.

Ah good, I can "retire" some as pets! Also how long do you usually breed your females?

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Originally Posted by TheAudOne

Ah good, I can "retire" some as pets! Also how long do you usually breed your females?

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Just wondering if anyone could answer this question for me...thank you all. :sunny:

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Originally Posted by TheAudOne

Just wondering if anyone could answer this question for me...thank you all. :sunny:

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Mine usually start breeding at approx, 3 months old and I retire them 7-9 months later. So about 1 year old is a good time to retire or when you see the number of babies go down. ;)

Just a thought -
Do you have a mom and pop pet store near you? You might ask them if they would consider trading rats for mice occasionally. Since you only need 2 or 3 mice a week, they might consider it? ... especially if you breed "higher end" rat varieties like dumbo.

Steve

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Originally Posted by hoo-t

Just a thought -
Do you have a mom and pop pet store near you? You might ask them if they would consider trading rats for mice occasionally. Since you only need 2 or 3 mice a week, they might consider it? ... especially if you breed "higher end" rat varieties like dumbo.

Steve

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Well the only mom and pop place we have is this really crappy one...and I mean so bad I want to call the cops them...but I'm sure nothing will get done. Its a space no larger then maybe 800 square feet..reeks to high hell in there, and I'm sure the guy lives there because when I first went in I had to pee so bad (of coarse) and I went into this broom closet of a bathroom and 1) there was crap all over the toilet 2) there was no hand soap OR toilet paper and 3) there was a tooth brush and toothpaste by the sink....thank god I carry Clorox wipes (I'm weird about germs...) And he had a cigg. in his mouth at the register while ringing people up..it wasnt lit any more thank god! But his feeders are just sad he keeps a good 3-4 dozen together and there all diffrent sizes....you have to literally sit there and move them all to see whats what. He doesnt breed them I know that much, but it also doesnt help that he houses males and females together in one big wire cage. So I think I personally would feel aweful giving my ratties to him, even though they are food.
Thats a great idea though!!!

I can't say as I blame you there! Don't think I'd want to bring mice home from there either! There is a "feed" store near me that has absolutely fantastic prices on rats. Cheaper than anywhere else I've found. B U T, it is so incredibly nasty that I won't go there for feeders anymore. All the rats are in a single large cage that looks like its never been cleaned. You literally have to fight off the fllies just to get a look. On the up side, when I did buy a few, I picked up a male that I had planned to feed off. My breeder male got sick. So I fed the breeder off, and moved this one in. He's a great breeder and friendly too. HUGE black rat! and he's fathered somewhere around 75 babies so far.

You might even consider hitting up Petco if you have one nearby. Petsmart frowns on feeding mice and rats to snakes, so I doubt they would work with you. I've already talked to the manager of my local Petco, and I think we'll be working something out with my excess rodents (assuming I ever have any).

Steve

Female rats usually last around 9 months of back to back breeding ... males for about 1.5 years.


Alot of my breeder rats could be pets ... about 40 are named ... others have group names ... like the girls, the witches, and so on. I normally only name docile males ... they have a longer breeding span ... and my nephews just cant seem to figure out which "600 gram black berkshire male in those tubs over there" are ... but they can remember a name. I was raised on a farm so I've never had a problem with disassociating myself from the animals.

The best thing to do with the shop is tell them, in a nice way, that their shop is a pig sty. The worst thing with just avoiding them is that you will get people that know nothing about animals buying from them ... and the customer will usually copy the stores care and standard. Doing this doesnt necessarily win you friends though.

The biggest advantage to raising rats over mice is growth time ... rat pups are 2-3 weeks old ... Large mice are 2-3 months old. Both are almost the exact same size and weight. Most non-reptile people also seem to be able to relate to raising rats better than mice.

Bryan

I usually start my females in with the breeder male at around 250 grams which is generally about 4 to 4.5 months of age or thereabouts (depends on the female...some grow faster than others). I give my females about 1.5 to 2 weeks off after weaning before they cycle back in with the breeder male as I prefer to not do back to back breeding. I don't have a huge breeding colony and I have enough females to allow for this. My females breed up until about 12 to 14 months of age when I see their litter size drop as they enter the equivalent of rattie menopause and are then retired to pet status. Usually they hang out with females resting between litters, young females not yet old enough to breed or even with the female feeders so they have some company (rats HATE being alone).

My oldest breeder male is Casanova whose approaching 2 years of age but still going strong and covering the occasional lady rat just to give him something to do. I stopped counting after he'd fathered 300+ rats for me (pretty good investment for a $5.00 pet store rat LOL). He's a quite large male rat but gentle as a kitten and very friendly with humans and nice mannered with the female rats (some male rats are overly aggressive breeders and can be quite rough on the female rats).'

Big old Casanova.....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...reederMale.jpg

It's always a good thing to handle your breeders even if they aren't pets as it keeps them very tame and easy to manage. Especially with the females you are in their enclosures a lot so it's nice to have a calm female to deal with. Again, I have only a smaller breeder/feeder colony of around 50 rats so it's reasonable to do this, impossible with 100's of rats LOL.

Alita nursing her big litter of 18, fathered by old Nova.....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...ManyBabies.jpg

My oldest and best female, HoneyChild, with one of her typical litters of 15 (also fathered by Nova). She is currently nursing her last litter of 6 and is retired from the breeding group now. I'm keeping her best daughter from this current litter to replace her and continue her excellent genetic line as good birthing/mothering skills seem to pass mother to daughter in rats.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...Litterof15.jpg

Squeekers, a new female to my breeding group who came to me preggie from the pet store (way too small to have been allowed to breed...dang pet stores that don't seperate by gender!). Currently nursing 8 young that are all capped rats as she is.....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2.../Sqeekers2.jpg

HoneyChild and Jet - just to show you the difference in size in a mature breeding female and an immature female. Jet (Alita x Nova) is currently in for her first breeding cycle.....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...s/HCandJet.jpg

Rat breeding is a lot of fun, not too much work really once you establish a routine and quite cost effective compared to most pet store feeder rat prices. Also you know the quality of your feeders and I find it really satisfying to raise everything our snakes eat (I trade rats for mice for my mouse eaters, though shortly I'm getting a breeding colony of mice going as well).

I had to recently buy feeders as my new breeder male turned out to be infertile and I got behind on litter production. Wow I'd forgotten how much pet stores charge and the low quality of their feeders!