Re: Feedback on Rat Communal Mothering
Quote:
Originally Posted by
littleindiangirl
That's a really good idea Jo! Any pics yet? How big is the screened area on the tubs? and is there anyway that is would be messy with some rats kicking it up and tumbling around? Or is it high enough for that? Ah! Awesome, cant wait to see it finished. :)
Hopefully I'll have a new camera in the next couple of weeks and can post some pics again. The two screened areas (one per each long side of the tub) are 24" long x 10" high. The screen is 1/2" hardware cloth and is ziptied to the tub. I allowed for 6 to 7 inches of tub side before the wire part so there's lots of room for deep bedding and shouldn't be too much kick out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
catawhat75
Glad to see you are finding what works best for you and your ratties Jo and giving us feedback on it.
Thanks cat!
Quote:
Originally Posted by
tigerlily
I just finished my first stab at communal mothering, and I noticed a lot of marks on my babies. I didn't lose any, but the poor things took a bit of a beating. I think I prefer them solo on delivery, as the mom seems less stressed and they babies have less marks.
I'm liking the solo deliveries better and then communal after 14 or 15 days. If they are a special litter like the dumbo's I'm trying to produce then of course they stay solo up until weaning.
I found this program recently. It's meant for pedigree rats but with a major amount of fiddling about and removing categories I didn't need, I've finally got a reasonably workable and simple database to keep better track of my colonies genetics, output of litters produced per female, number of offspring per sire, age and ancestory of various breeders, etc. Other than the fact that I love keeping track of things, I really like that at a glance I can easily tell where the colony stands and where I need to tweak this or that. :)
http://www.tenset.co.uk/
