size for male breeder rat

I keep my rats in trios.. I need more cages though so two of them have three females with a male.. and one cage has two males and two females. I have the extra male because I have a rex male, a seal point siamese velveteen rex male, a dumbo capped apricot male, and.. oh, I can't remember the other male, but I like different colors/patterns/hair and ear types so none are disposable. ;)

Males are kept with females all the time.. when there are big litters, the male will 'sit' on part of the litter and keep them warm. He seems to like the babies. Females will rotate nursing babies.. I haven't had trouble with dead babies.

I keep a breeder for one year or a little more. Rats only live 2-3 years, and after the first year to year and a half they start to slow down.

wow, well no babies yet so i'm not sure if or when but the other female that was in with the males is now quite obviously in heat so i guess she is had not yet become pregnant. i placed her in the enclosure with the males and it was on! i hadn't actually witnessed rat copulation before and well, it's evidentally quite a frantic little task. :O

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Originally Posted by Shelby

That is unusual for rats to seriously attack each other.

Mice, on the other hand are jumping at the excuse to butcher one another.

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yeah it was a mouse, my bad

Yea Mle.. that's one of the reasons why the rats are in the basement now.. too noisy!

yeah i'm looking to breed rats and i would like to know how many females do i need breed so i could have 30 small- med rats everyweek?

Well.. I'm not always good with numbers, but I'll tell you what I know.

Good females will give you 10-15 babies every month. Rats at one month are weaned.. they aren't quite what I'd call 'small' they're a bit smaller than that.. around the size of a big mouse. At two months they're getting bigger small-medium.

Males do get substantially larger. Rats are full grown at roughly 6 months.

I'm still trying to figure that out myself Eugene with my 6 Royals of various sizes, just how many rats I need of what size per week so I can figure out how many males/females breeders I need to get close to that goal.

I know from what I've read it's good to have a Co2 setup as you'll sometimes end up with more than you need of a particular size.


~~Jo~~

co2 is not a problem i have 3 50lbs tanks at my dads from when i play paintball

with a well planned breeding schedule/plan you can guestimate how many "cows" you will need to keep your animals fed using just your own rat stock. I can feed 6 ball pythons: 2 adults, 2 yearling(ish), and two 05's with 3 consistant females cycled around a male. I cut out my mice down to just one pair for pinkies which I feed my children's python.

One way to get around a schedule if its to much "work" or you just can't seem to get it right is to just freeze your own when they get to the size you need. The only ones I have to freeze are my mouse pinkies, the rats are "consumed" on a pretty regular basis.

Thanks Heath! Well with our number of balls (6 as well) perhaps if my females get going the four of them will do quite nicely and I'm happy to stock any spares up in the freezer.

I think *cross fingers* I have a preggie one. The beige hooded just suddenly "popped" yesterday and looks like she's got side saddles LOL. She's in a maternity tank by herself now and has appropriate nesting material so we'll just have to see.


~~Jo~~~