Got me some rats!!!

Yeah I wonder if the imitation vanilla would work.. vanilla extract is pricy if I remember correctly.

It is imitation vanilla that i use. I have never really measured it but id says its close to a teaspoon for a 12 oz bottle. It also takes some of the musk scent off the males. As i never found how much vanilla to put in their i just took a guess. So it may be too much. It kinda looks like really watered down dr pepper.


Bryan

Congrats!!


I JUST started breeding rats. My local provider ran out of juvies, and for Snoopy that was $8 a week. Scabbers was Baby food, but got too big, now he and Peekaboo are new parents!! As of this morning! :banana: 11 brand new babies!! For a first time mom she's done an awesome job!!!! She's by herself, just in case. I didn't know if Scabbers would try to kill the babies or not.

I WAS feeding the pet store rat food, but he was getting scabs. The vet said diet, and I changed to fresh fruits/veggies. Now I've got them all on the Mazuri rat blocks (25# for $13.99 and I keep it in an old molasses bucket sealed in the COLD garage, and occas. the small pet mix from the local store. Every once it a while they gets the frozen/wilted salad mix that we didn't eat in time, or some apples, etc. Scabbers isn't scabby anymore and his coat is much smoother.

Thanks for the tip about the vanilla!! I'll have to add that during the next water change. :D

Will probably keep one female to breed to Smudge, then do a terminal cross routine until I can get some more outside blood. Pissy is eating an adult mouse twice a week......For a (almost) 4 monther, he's a greedy gus!!! But he's getting big too. Once the rats are pups (how big are they when they're called pups????? Fur and eyes open? Or bigger?????) they'll become Pissy Snake food.

This is the first litter of anything rodentia that I've experienced.....So I'm going to play it by ear as to size, weaning, snake food time, etc. Any pointers are always appreciated!

RuLyn

I think rodent pro has a size reference chart. Ive never really worried about what they are called. My local shop has small, medium, large.


Small is $2 and is anything under 4" (w/o tail)
med is $3 and is 4" to 6" (w/o tail)
large is $4 and is anything bigger than a medium.

Bryan

I used the RodentPro sizes as a guide though remember they are commercial breeders so may well get a different result than us home folks.

Commercial mixed rat food sucks, way too much waste and way too pricey for my liking. I just mix my own with lab block and other stuff. Gives them a nice variety diet and I don't get that scabby skin issues anymore. Do watch the kibble you add in if you do though that it's not super high protein or they'll go scabby again (ick).


~~Jo~~

I was reading some where on the net and I believe they said 2-4 tablespoons or teaspoons to 1 gallon water. When i fill up my 12oz bottles i just about 2 splashes or about have a teaspoon. It works really well. I also noticed that they smell more on aspen then pine.

Sweety - the male will not harm the babies.

Baby rats are always called pups.. in europe they call them kittens. Weird huh?

Ummm in this house we call em "lunch & dinner" usually LOL.


~~Jo~~

Quote:

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Originally Posted by frankykeno

Ummm in this house we call em "lunch & dinner" usually LOL.


~~Jo~~

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:lmao: Jo, that's tooooooo funny!!!! And ppl would look at ME funny when I said that Scabbers Rat was supposed to be Baby food!!!! (Until I explained that Baby was my pet snake. Heee heee heee)

Yeppers.....I just check on the babies twice a day, telling Peek what a good mommy she is, and say "Grow babies, grow!!!" :D so then I can quit giving someone else my money for ratties.

I can understand that. Locally we pay $4.99 a rat from the tiniest pup to the biggest male so not a very cost effective way to feed when we have 6 balls who eat various sizes each Thursday night. I think I'm into the pet store for about $120.00 a month right now (ack) but we tried the f/t route and most of the snakes either stopped eating or cut way back.

For us, and this is just us folks so not starting a debate here, we prefer to feed live so breeding our own rats is just the way to go.


~~Jo~~