Rat set up...

www.ratguide.com should give you TONS of information. I love that site and no, I'm not one of the fanatic rat breeders. I just want them given respect and bred properly. Professional rat breeders(registered and pedigreed rats) have been trying to get megacolon out of specific lines for a very long time. It takes alot of outcrossing, and even then can result in heartbreak.

If you've ever seen a baby with megacolon, it's not something you want to see again. The babies bloat up with air, have diarrhea that saps their strength, they eat and eat but can't gain weight while their siblings grow normally. They litterally starve to death because their intestines can't absorb nutrients. There is also no cure and all of the affected babies need to be humanely PTS. The babies who aren't affected need to be watched closely in case they have late onset megacolon(occurs after they are weaned). The babies need to be placed in pet only homes with contracts signed to never breed them, and the parents need to never be bred again, or any rats from that specific line, as they all carry it.

I have only bred one rat from a Pet Store(Petco to be exact). She was an agouti wedge blazed capped dalmation dumbo... We bred her to a male of about the same caliber(he was registered and pedigreed), no megacolon babies resulted, but all of the babies had very weak immune systems and died within that year from either pneumonia or another respiratory related illness(antibiotics and around the clock fluids didn't get them through it). The female, Reggie, also passed away at about a year of age.

Breeding pet store rats is just not something I recommend for anyone.

I have a rat lady here in saginaw, but im sure that she would never sell to me because of the whole snake thing, thats why i bought from a pet store. The only other way for me to get breedable rats would be to drive a few hours down south to buy from one of the members on this site.
I have all normal marking "non high white, or blue" and they do seem healthy, and most are coming up to breeding age. I will breed them, but it's a good thing you put this up, because I was looking at a blue coat to pick up, but he was too small. I didnt know megacolon was almost color specific. Props!

Becky,

I didn't buy bernard from a pet store, i picked him up from a rat breeder, Amelia at ES Tropicals. is it still bad to breed him? i know he has breed before, that's why i bought him. i really didn't think a breeder like Amelia would sell me a bad rat if you call him that....

as for the bedding, it's aspen with a little left over pine in. i wanted to finish the last bag off, and didn't really think that much of it would be an issue. they'll only be on it for a week.

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Originally Posted by Kagez28

Becky,

I didn't buy bernard from a pet store, i picked him up from a rat breeder, Amelia at ES Tropicals. is it still bad to breed him? i know he has breed before, that's why i bought him. i really didn't think a breeder like Amelia would sell me a bad rat if you call him that....

as for the bedding, it's aspen with a little left over pine in. i wanted to finish the last bag off, and didn't really think that much of it would be an issue. they'll only be on it for a week.

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glad you are getting them off the pine. being on it for a short while won't hurt them. its when it is used long term that it causes problems.

Have you weighed your females yet? You said that they are all housed together. You really don't want those girls to get pregnant until they are at least 250 grams.

Even if the male might not carry megacolon, your females are still from pet stores(who don't breed for health usually), so why take the risk? That male is very high white, maybe not a black eyed white(which is a marking, not a color), but he's still high white.

Personally, I would not even risk it. Alot of breeders who breed for feeders may not even know that they have MC in their lines if they feed the babies off at a very young age. Late onset megacolon happens after they are weaned, around 6-8 weeks old. I had one get megacolon, a high white, blue blazed female from Petsmart actually, at around 8-10 weeks old. She was fine when I adopted her, just small(should have known..). After about a week, her stool became very runny and smelled awful, and she just went downhill from there. My friend was quarantining her and a few others for me, and had her put to sleep.

I'm pretty sure Amelia, who he bought those rats off of, would know if she's got megacolon issues. She breeds a lot of rats to feed a lot of various sized snakes and from my conversations with her, seems to really enjoy the rat breeding part of it. I'm confident if there were genetic issues within her rat colony she would say something or simply not offer these rats for sale.

Since he is a Blue and has that blaze, you will want to be careful in his breedings. Personally I'd suggest solid, dark colored females for him and a very careful monitoring of litters for any health issues. If you find you are having a problem, retire him to simply a cage buddy for a more productive male.

they sure are cute, when we started with the rats we had the same idea, breed for food.. we picked nice colored (if i do say so myself) rats and three became five. so yes they are addicting! Ours are pets kept in a huge 32x32x18 wire cage made for ferrets... once i switched them out of the "tank" and into the cage they got Loads happier! Have you thought maybe getting them a larger "play cage" so when they are being bred or preggy then they could be contained? since you really shouldnt breed them back to back to back, do you plan to keep the male away from the other females? just a thought.


as for me.. our idea of breeding quickly went out the window as i cant feed "colored" babys, breaks my heart.. white rats dont bother me "as bad" whenever we go pick up rat pups i specifically request all white ones.

congrats on the new rattys, they sure do look young (and cute, i love the blue color.. wish we had a breeder down here)

i am keeping a look out for ferret cages for sale cheap, but no luck so far. right now i have the male in a 20 gal long, thats his home. the two females are with him to breed. once i see they are pregnant, they each get moved to their own 10 gal maternity tanks. i also have 2 68 qt tubs that i have open for the weanlings, one male and one female. since i only plan on breeding these two i think i have enough enclosures for now. if i add more females i'll have to get a large place for the 2 of them to live.

a nice large ferret cage would be nice then all the females can live in there and i can cycle them into the males breeding tank. but until then this is what i got.