calculating output

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

And if that works for your set up great! I was simply offer you another way to calculate your output..nothing more.

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I was hoping for more numbers in the answer.

I mean in theory you could be right or wrong....depending on a snake's size and needs. Let's say you have one adult ball that eats one adult rat per week, so 4/month. If you took a year head start on your rats, bred and raised each litter to adulthood and then froze them....a single 1.1 could supply 2 snakes easily.(because your rats would be producing at 9 per month and you would only be consuming 8 per month) If the same snake never went beyond hoppers and you had a 2 month lead, at an average of 9 per litter with zero losses, you could supply 2 snakes easily also.

I am talking more hand to mouth mentality. At 3-4 weeks my rats pups are spoken for.

The one thing your not taking in to account when asking how everyone calculates their feeder needs, is that not every one is able to feed F/T..I can't none of my snakes take F/T so every week I have to have the right number of live feeder items of the right size for every one of my 70+ snakes. With so many being smalls, so many being chubs and so many being weaned. This means that at any given time I have to birth 100+ rats a week, so that the babys that get fed every 5 days will have food available and that I'll still have enough growing up to feed the rest in how ever many weeks.

To calculate your output is going to depend on you and how you breed how many and what size animals you feed off. If you've seen an average number of rats born a week-month-year I'd go with that number. Since no one but you knows the variables no on but you can arrive at that number.

I'm pretty sure your estimation of a litter a month per female is off.

I've noticed that the girls I have tend to pop at 2 month intervals, not monthly.

I keep 1.4 and 1.5 and 1.6 because I want to check total output for my location and set up. The girls that are nursing generally do not get pregnant until the babies are weaned but I think that is because the other girls who are not nursing do get pregnant.

There are always one or two pregnant rats in every tub.

I'm sorry I just read what you said and I'm lost your breeding 288 rats and only 6 on average are giving birth???
Now all of this is on average
You said

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I use a standard 6 tub rack
I run 1.4 per bin
I figure 10/ litter

SO by my calculations I quote, I can produce roughly 240 babies per month(60/week) per rack.

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So at an average of 10 a littler thats 6 moms on average a weeks giving birth.

But you said that

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I currently have 72 tubs of rats and plan to expand another 84 tubs.

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72 tubs with 0.4 in it is 288 females with no resting in between breeding and your not separating them you only getting, per month on average 24 females a month...so your birth rate is 8.33% success rate?? on average??

Or is this for a smaller group than the whole collection??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

I'm sorry I just read what you said and I'm lost your breeding 288 rats and only 6 on average are giving birth???
Now all of this is on average
You said

So at an average of 10 a littler thats 6 moms on average a weeks giving birth.

But you said that

72 tubs with 0.4 in it is 288 females with no resting in between breeding and your not separating them you only getting, per month on average 24 females a month...so your birth rate is 8.33% success rate?? on average??

Or is this for a smaller group than the whole collection??

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My humblest apologies I just saw the per rack bit..
My bad

Females bred right after birth physically stop impregnation of the embryo for up to a week, then they do not go back into heat until after her litter is weaned. This is due to the fact that once the pups are weaned, the females teats are unsuitable for pinks to use. This week delay gives her teats time to shrink and recoup.

Communal nursing is easiest between litter sisters rather than unrelated females, but there is a very fine line between continuous success, since some studies show that communal nursing has a higher mortality rate than single mother nursing.

I always wonder truthfully the condition of the females and the weights of their pups on weaning. I can't believe that back to back breeding isn't hard on the female, and that the females and pups are reaching the weights of females that have litters every 8 or 12 weeks instead of every 4.

Anyways, hot topic. Do you actually wean 240 rats per rack per month?

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Originally Posted by littleindiangirl

Females bred right after birth physically stop impregnation of the embryo for up to a week, then they do not go back into heat until after her litter is weaned. This is due to the fact that once the pups are weaned, the females teats are unsuitable for pinks to use. This week delay gives her teats time to shrink and recoup.

Communal nursing is easiest between litter sisters rather than unrelated females, but there is a very fine line between continuous success, since some studies show that communal nursing has a higher mortality rate than single mother nursing.

I always wonder truthfully the condition of the females and the weights of their pups on weaning. I can't believe that back to back breeding isn't hard on the female, and that the females and pups are reaching the weights of females that have litters every 8 or 12 weeks instead of every 4.

Anyways, hot topic. Do you actually wean 240 rats per rack per month?

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averaging ballpark 255-260 right now off what I have. When summer hits, it will dive (averages 190-200 per) since I don't have a/c in my building. Building is kept at 55 degrees all winter long. I keep tub records and rack records. Nearly impossible to keep individual records because rats will nurse each others babies and with some many potential mothers in one area, hard to say who's is who's.

I cleaned five racks tonight...I averaged 18 new pinks this week per tub. I clean every saturday.