New group(1.5) few Q's

Alright so i got a 1.5 group of rats ($20)

The guy who sold em to me was getting out of rat breeding said he didnt care if they was used as rat food except one rat he was really attached to. Asked if i ever get rid of him (or feed him off) to please call him he will gladly take him back as a pet.

Anyways right now i got the 1.5 group set up.

How do you know when a rat is pregnant?

Also how do you go about splitting up the pregos and is it 2 per maternity tub?

How long do you expect it to take me to get the first babies?

Like how long after the rat is first introduced to the male should she be getting prego?

Iv read a few things about it said they go in heat every 3 days. They have all produced litters so they are all experienced :P

Anyone?

Rats go into heat every 5-7 days, I think. I know it's not every 3.

You'll know a female is pregnant after about a week from first introduction to the male. He'll usually mount them all the time they're in heat, which is weekly. If it's been about a week and he's not mounting, good chance they're pregnant. I have had my male try mounting my girls about a week before they give birth, but by then they're usually getting nice and fat.

You should get babies 3-4 weeks after you first get them. Rats aren't sensitive to things like a day cycle like mice.

I also wouldn't separate the group at all, unless you want to keep the male from breeding with a certain female (like a daughter).


Any thing else?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shenzi Sixaxis

Rats go into heat every 5-7 days, I think. I know it's not every 3.

You'll know a female is pregnant after about a week from first introduction to the male. He'll usually mount them all the time they're in heat, which is weekly. If it's been about a week and he's not mounting, good chance they're pregnant. I have had my male try mounting my girls about a week before they give birth, but by then they're usually getting nice and fat.

You should get babies 3-4 weeks after you first get them. Rats aren't sensitive to things like a day cycle like mice.

I also wouldn't separate the group at all, unless you want to keep the male from breeding with a certain female (like a daughter).


Any thing else?

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I currently have the group split up like this

1.3 in one tub

Now the other tub currently has another female which i think is prego (she has been paired with the with male for the past 2 weeks, the guy did the pairing before i bought them) and a younger female who is not quite the breeding age.

So their stomach will get real fat when their pregnant? And is it ok to keep 2 prego moms in the same tub? What if one has their babies before the other will they mess with the others babies?

She just dropped 19...
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/9543/dscn2180k.jpg
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5285/dscn2193p.jpg

This one dropped 13... (unhealthy and small babies, but still)
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7189/dscn1521d.jpg



I don't have any pictures uploaded of the hooded girl before that litter. Her first litter was 6, then 8, and then the 19. Even with the smaller litters they get plump. Most female rats will start sleeping on their bellies like that when they're close to dropping, or if they do it all the time, you'll be able to see the progress.



I am unsure what to say about the prego moms together. Try it out; you can always separate them. The hooded girl of mine is a wonderful mother. The other one who had 13 wasn't a mother at all (didn't nurse them at all) and had bad genetics. Some times really good mothers will take all the babies for themselves, and sometimes the other won't mind, or try to take them back. Keep an eye on them, but if they've been together for some time, I don't think that'll happen.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shenzi Sixaxis

She just dropped 19...
http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/9543/dscn2180k.jpg
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5285/dscn2193p.jpg

This one dropped 13... (unhealthy and small babies, but still)
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/7189/dscn1521d.jpg



I don't have any pictures uploaded of the hooded girl before that litter. Her first litter was 6, then 8, and then the 19. Even with the smaller litters they get plump. Most female rats will start sleeping on their bellies like that when they're close to dropping, or if they do it all the time, you'll be able to see the progress.



I am unsure what to say about the prego moms together. Try it out; you can always separate them. The hooded girl of mine is a wonderful mother. The other one who had 13 wasn't a mother at all (didn't nurse them at all) and had bad genetics. Some times really good mothers will take all the babies for themselves, and sometimes the other won't mind, or try to take them back. Keep an eye on them, but if they've been together for some time, I don't think that'll happen.

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That helps more than u know. guess its pretty easy to spot a prego mom! LOL

Yea they have been together for awhile he said. since babies. ill try doing 2 moms if their both going at same time.


Now let me ask you this. Say she has her babies. And i only let her nurse em for a few days before they become snake food. How long of a break should i give her before breeding her again since she didnt nurse the full 21 days or whatever

they go into heat every 3-5 days if they are healthy
Gestation is 28 days.
birthing tubs are best kept individually.
First introduction is not a science. BUT, if a female does not produce in 6 weeks, she goes in the freezer.

"Retired breeders" can actually stop breeding entirely regardless of genders. My rats normally do not live past 16 months total.

With my new system, My females rest during their nursing time frame(3 weeks) and then back into the breeding group.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by suzuki4life

they go into heat every 3-5 days if they are healthy
Gestation is 28 days.
birthing tubs are best kept individually.
First introduction is not a science. BUT, if a female does not produce in 6 weeks, she goes in the freezer.

"Retired breeders" can actually stop breeding entirely regardless of genders. My rats normally do not live past 16 months total.

With my new system, My females rest during their nursing time frame(3 weeks) and then back into the breeding group.

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Gestation is usually about 22 days. Not that it makes much of a difference.

What are you using for birthing tubs now?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by f4n70m

That helps more than u know. guess its pretty easy to spot a prego mom! LOL

Yea they have been together for awhile he said. since babies. ill try doing 2 moms if their both going at same time.


Now let me ask you this. Say she has her babies. And i only let her nurse em for a few days before they become snake food. How long of a break should i give her before breeding her again since she didnt nurse the full 21 days or whatever

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If you pull all of the babies off of her just put her back into the breeding tub. Rats don't need a lot of recovery time. In fact, they really don't need any recovery time. You will burn the female out faster by breeding them constantly, but mine don't breed for more than a year before I pull them anyway so it doesn't really matter to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tomfromtheshade

Gestation is usually about 22 days. Not that it makes much of a difference.

What are you using for birthing tubs now?

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you making a super strain now?:D:D:D

Someone sold a bunch of petmate tubs to me super cheap.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tomfromtheshade

If you pull all of the babies off of her just put her back into the breeding tub. Rats don't need a lot of recovery time. In fact, they really don't need any recovery time. You will burn the female out faster by breeding them constantly, but mine don't breed for more than a year before I pull them anyway so it doesn't really matter to me.

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sounds like my OLD method. Great way to produce smalls. I have changed my approach in order to supply a variety.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by f4n70m

Now let me ask you this. Say she has her babies. And i only let her nurse em for a few days before they become snake food. How long of a break should i give her before breeding her again since she didnt nurse the full 21 days or whatever

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I would say it all depends on the size of the litter. When the hooded girl had the first two litters, I bred her again right after having them. Since she just had 19, I'll be giving her a break to just nurse and recover. Not sure how long it'll be. Anywhere from 1-4 weeks, depending on how she looks to me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tomfromtheshade

Gestation is usually about 22 days. Not that it makes much of a difference.

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I say it depends on the litter size. My breeder was prego for 21 or 22 days for her first litters, and the big 19 litter she seemed to be pregnant for about 4 weeks.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shenzi Sixaxis

I say it depends on the litter size. My breeder was prego for 21 or 22 days for her first litters, and the big 19 litter she seemed to be pregnant for about 4 weeks.

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Ok ok....How do you know when your female became pregnant? My males thump females in their tubs constantly hour after hour and day after day. Unless you run a 1.1 and have them on video camera how do you know even when the first time they copulated was? I might be able to break it down to a three day period, maybe....but how are you guranteeing a day and such a short time frame at that?

Pure curiousity here.

My buck only tries mating when the females are in heat an when they start to smell a little different before birth. Any time he's been with a female, I have pups within 4 weeks after he was introduced.

I just sort of know. Hard to explain.

okay, so you are adding a male to a tub and going 4 weeks from when the male is added or you are personally smelling your rats for this scent you speak of and going from that?

Getting close to an uncomfortable level of "pure curiosity" now.

A lot of times when I put new rats together the male will start wailing one of the girls right away...within minutes. So, I can be certain of the day that she got knocked up in that case LOL.

I started waiting until the females are 16 weeks old before putting the male in with them and that has seriously shortened the waiting time for them to start producing. I used to put them together at 12 weeks and sometimes you would be waiting a while before any babies started showing up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by suzuki4life

okay, so you are adding a male to a tub and going 4 weeks from when the male is added or you are personally smelling your rats for this scent you speak of and going from that?

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Birth has a certain scent. I don't know how to explain it. It's a light but somewhat pleasant scent. Somewhat like raw, fresh almonds you just cracked yourself.

so is it safe to assume you aren't sniffing the rats breath when you speak of this?

My rat building smells like rat bedding, either clean pine or pi$$y pine depending on how close to Tuesday we are LOL.

I could have fifty females giving birth in there at the same time and would have no idea what birthing smells like. It always either smells like pine or dirty pine LOL.

Must just be me. :rolleyes: My mom doesn't smell anything but the bad rodent odor, but I don't hardly ever smell that.