The black on the right is Jet, from Alita x Casanova. She's almost completely jet black except a tiny white mark are her lower belly. The rat on the left is HoneyChild one of our top females who will be retiring after her next litter (HC consistently births 15 young and they are always big for age). For now she hangs out with Jet and Smudge while they are growing up.
Heck I was munching on a sandwich 20 minutes after Mikey popped out LOL. (errrr popped being a relative term)
Lucky! :P I had to hang out in the recovery room for 4 hours, then my husband was passed out in the chair in our room (22 hours of labor + c-section) so he couldn't go get me Arby's like I wanted...I had to eat nasty Army hospital food. :sigh2:
Glad Alita finally had her babies...I felt her pain all too non-fondly. She looks like she's doing well and is happy...for having 18 kids! lol!
Still nothing from my rats...but my mama mouse is doing well and her sister should have hers by the end of this week. :)
07-24-2006, 11:27 AM
frankykeno
Re: Remember Alita?
All 18 are doing very well today. Had a bit of a scare this morning as I'd left a window open near the rats and it's gotten sudden a lot cooler. Lita went to grab food and completely buried the litter, probably to keep them warm. With a litter that large though the ones on the bottom of the pile and under all that bedding might not have made it. I dug them out and closed the window and they are fine. Stupid mistake I should have remembered that window with new pinks in the colony and the sudden weather change. :(
Are your rats preggie yet Jen or still in the process of breeding?
07-24-2006, 11:37 AM
JenHarrison
Re: Remember Alita?
I honestly have no idea. I haven't seen one bit of breeding activitity in the past month, neither during the day or at night. The females sleep together in one hide and the male sleeps in another. Either they don't like him or he has no interest, I'm not sure. I feed them the mix Becky recommends, they get water with a tad of vanilla in it, and they're in a 40g breeder tank.
Maybe they're too small/young? The male weighs 230g and is about 8 inches long (w/out tail), and the females are about 1/2 an inch bigger and weigh a bit over 260g each.
:confused:
07-24-2006, 11:48 AM
frankykeno
Re: Remember Alita?
They should be big enough. Heck they are sexually mature around 5 or 6 weeks old (though females are too young then to be very successful mothers). Usually a female of 250 grams is good to go for a nice big first litter. You know Jen I had to go through 3 males to get a good stud rat. You might want to pull that male...get a new one and try it out with those females for at least 15 days (so you hit a few heat cycles). Then the two males could just be cage buddies when the girls are busy birthing and nursing. Our first male wasn't fertile, our second was but was slashing the females to pieces, the third was perfect and fathered hundreds of babies for us. He's just now been retired and is Stud Emeritus around here LOL.
07-24-2006, 12:00 PM
JenHarrison
Re: Remember Alita?
I thought about pulling him and getting a new one, I think there's something off about him.
Here's a question: There is a very large Siamese male at PetCo that has been all by himself for 2 months now. No one wants to buy him because he's either too big to be food for anything (I doubt any boa owners around here go there for food) and people must not like how he looks. I thought about getting him as a stud rat...half because I need a new male since the gray one isn't doing it...but half because I feel really bad for him that he doesn't have a good home with someone to give him attention and rattie treats. Think he could work out? Are there any genetic things I would need to know about Siamese rats? My 2 females are black hoodeds, are they safe to pair with him?
07-24-2006, 12:30 PM
frankykeno
Re: Remember Alita?
As far as I know there are no associated issues with Siamese but I included a link for you on rat genetics from the AFRMA. I got my Siamese from an Albino x Black Hooded pairing but I've yet to breed her since she's too small yet so no hands on data to pass on to you that way.
That big Siamese male might do fine though he may he an older fella...hard to say as my Black Hooded male got very big very fast (and big not fat...he's just a big fella lol). Just make sure he looks fit not aged and not fat and isn't mean natured. I would pull that young male...completely clean the enclosure and replace all the bedding to remove his smell then add the big new male and make sure they are all getting along and he's not mean to the females. Later on when they are preggie he and the young male can be cage buddies...most males get along well with other males...though not all.
You can leave the male in and just pull him when the females show the pear shape of pregnancy. He can't breed them once they are preggie anyways as they develop a vaginal plug to prevent this. Here's a great site on rats. It's for fancy pets but has some invaluable info and great sexing photo's. Really a good site for beginning rat breeders as it covers all the basics and discusses things like temperment of stud rats and so forth.
