Re: breeding back to back litters
Quote:
Originally Posted by recycling goddess
sorry guys... (and yup i mean guys cause you notice so far, only men feel that breeding back to back litters is okay for the female) :bolt:
This is the only part of your post I have a problem with. :colbert: The issue has nothing to do with what gender I am. I never said I bred my females back to back. I said I don't have a problem with my females having back to back litters, because it doesn't happen with the males left in there. If you don't believe me you are welcome to come see my setups and see what I am talking about.
Re: breeding back to back litters
I may be missing something here, but it seems to me that the people that have said they dont remove their males, have also said they rarely if ever have a female having litters back to back like that. They have said it happens occasionally, and doesnt seem to be a problem, but thats only occasionally. If it happened over and over again it probably would be an issue, but as a rare occurance i wouldnt think it would be much of an issue either. If it did happen i would think it would be good to remove that female to make sure it didnt happen again, but if in general they arent having back to back litters, then i dont see a problem leaving them together.
Re: breeding back to back litters
Re: breeding back to back litters
Quote:
Originally Posted by recycling goddess
sorry guys... (and yup i mean guys cause you notice so far, only men feel that breeding back to back litters is okay for the female)
i'm sorry... but it was an observation... i didn't see any females that were agreeing with this.
i can't believe i'm posting in this thread again... but... i hear you all saying your don't breed back to back litters... so if you have 250 rats... how are you keeping track of all 250 and when they are birthing? sorry... but i doubt you are truly keeping track of who is birthing and who isn't... especially when you are housing multiple females together and we all know that rodents love to be nannies (help out the actual mother)... and so, it is my belief that your females are having back to back litters... i find it hard to believe the males are just leaving the females alone as it's my understanding of rat behaviour that an unbred female rat is the focus of any male around her. although some females may refuse the advance of the male... i find it hard to believe that 249 out of 250 are!
but... at the same time... i doubt you would mis-represent yourselves... hence the reason i said i would drop out of this thread... because my intelligent self finds what you are saying very very very hard to believe.
i respectfully defer to the FAQ on this site:
Quote:
19. How often can a female rat have new litters? A mouse?
Females can breed back to back litters so can produce a new litter as they are weaning their current litter. Just because they can doesn't always mean they should however. It is up to the rodent breeder to decide how to control the colony's reproduction in order to produce needed feeders, be cost effective but also not burn out good breeding females or produce less than healthy young because the female is worn down.
20. If I take away all a rat’s newborn babies, can she get pregnant again right away?
She can get pregnant whether or not she has young with her. If a male rodent is present and she is in estrus (heat cycle) she will breed whether young are nursing or not. Some female rodents will reject the male's advances while nursing, however, this is not a reliable way to ensure colony reproduction rates.
btw, i love the dancing rattie!!! she rocks :sunny:
Re: breeding back to back litters
I have a setup with one male and 6 females. I have one large breeding tank where the male always lives; I place females in there to get bred and remove them once I see they're bred. They each go into their own 10g tank at this time to have their babies and get a respite before being reintroduced to the male.
I personally think it is shameful to overbreed female animals of any kind. How many times do you see pics of horese nursing their babies, while pregnant..? I know I might get flamed for saying it, but I think it's cruel to just have a female anything, constantly either pregnant or nursing. I believe they need time off to recuperate and just "be" without being leached off of by young. maybe being female makes me thnk this way; then again I chose not to breed personally.
Re: breeding back to back litters
While enjoying this discussion, I would just like to remind everyone that it is a discussion of differing ways to manage a breeding rodent colony, not a male/female thing or my way is better than your way. I think if we all keep an open mind we can learn a lot about different options in this thread. :)
Just as someone that manages a large herd of beef cattle will have different ways than a someone that has a few cattle in their fields....husbandry I think can be dependent sometimes on the sheer numbers involved to some extent. What Mike and I do with our colony of rats is partly our own views on husbandry and what we are comfortable with and also because we manage a colony of well under 100 rats which gives us the luxury of certain things.
No I don't particularily agree on back to back breeding, yes I do remove pregnant females to their own enclosures, no I don't agree with keeping rats in dark plastic tubs, yes we do keep and retire old breeders to pet status rather than feed them off but that's just how we do things around here. Doesn't mean anyone else has to do it that way or you are wrong if you don't. I think discussions like this help members considering rodent breeding to define how they want to manage their colony and make informed decisions for these creatures in their care.
Personally I think it's great to see our members caring about feeder rodents enough to participate in this discussion. Too often I see the term "just" feeders or "just" rats and that, if anything, bugs me. Considering these rats (or mice) are our snakes only food source, it's a valid thing to discuss and yes, debate different methods of colony management both for our snake's eventual benefit and the responsible management of the rats or mice.
Re: breeding back to back litters
I just want to point out that just because a female CAN get pregnant right away doesn't mean that they DO or WILL. I keep a notebook on how many litters come out of each tub including date, size of litter etc. This will help me decide when to retire my breeders. If I had back to back litters happening I would average 5 litters per month per tub (5 females per tub). My average is 2 per month, I think we all agree that back to back litters could impact the health of the female. But, in my case, it just isn't happening with my rodents.
I am gonna dance out of this thread (like a hula dancing rat) and see you guys in the other threads. :rockon:
P.S. I Love You Guys and Girls!!! :wuv:
Re: breeding back to back litters
