Need help with breeding rats...

OK, I am currently breeding mice,ASF's, and rats. The mice and soft furs are doing quite well but I am desperately struggling with my rat breeding. I currently have 59 Ball Pythons of which about half are adults so I really need to straighten out this rat breeding issue. I currently have the rats in my garage @ 65 degrees in (3) 7 tub racks with 1.3 or 1.4 in each. I was using Mauzuri 6F for a while but it is about a 2 hour drive for me to get and is getting a bit expensive. I have been feeding them Doggie Bag dog food and adding Black sunflower seeds to up their protein. I have been experiencing a lot of babies being eaten, moms that do not take care of babies and /or babies that simply do not survive. I understand that there is a lot of debate with using dog food but then I see several people that have no issues with it. What else could be wrong ???? My ASF's and Mice all live in the same area in similar set-ups and eat the same food and yet they are thriving:) I am half tempted to simply convert to all soft furs but they take so long to get up to size:(

At this time I am leaving the colonies together and do not seperate the pregnant moms nor do I cycle the boys out. Might I be better off emptying one rack and using that for birthing moms? Should I cycle the boys? Is it better to have more females in each rack to help feed or should I have less to reduce stress?

If you had 59 snakes to feed and had (3) 7 tub racks how would you set it up?

You will definitely up your production putting one prego mom in a tub by herself.

You may also notice better production using the Mazuri rodent chow again...

Yeah i woud just take the hit and get it shipped to a local feed store in bulk so you don't have to get any for months. Then i would get a couple more racks to separate just your females. Depending on the size of the tub you could do 1.6 or even 1.7, but it's all dependent on your production and tub size.

Dog food in my expierience only causes problems, so i always use rodent feed, either Harlan or Mazuri.

sun flower seeds are oil and fat. Neither are needed. They are your problem.

Taking your moms out and putting them in "birthing" rack alone will help a ton, it might not even be the mom eating the babies could be the other rats, "don't know for sure" but i do no for sure that the babies are getting trampled and defecated on by the other rats.

separate the preggos, get back on mazuri, and upping the temps to about 70 would definitely help as well. Just a cheap space heater from walmart should do the trick there.

Thanks for all your help.....

I'll stop the sunflower seeds then I'm going to try to consolidate the adults into 2 racks which will give me 7 bins for birthing moms until I can make another rack.How many can I safely keep in a medium Mortar tub (24.5 x 27.5 x 6.5) from Home Depot?
How many racks/bins do you think I should have to support approximately 50 adult female rats, birthing rack(s) and growout rack(s) Should I still keep 1 male in each bin?
When do I place a preggo mom into the birthing rack? before/after delivery? Do I keep her there until I wean off the pups? Can I add/keep more than 1 preggo mom in a birthing bin at once?
I also need to know how to ventilate the room they are in. Currently I have made a room in my garage that is fairly well insulated and heated with an oil filled radiator but I do not have any real ventilation at this time. How can I ventilate the room without loosing all my heat or drawing in a cold draft as I live in Western NY and it is getting a little cool here lately:(


Sorry for the long read and Thanks Agin for the help

http://www.rodentracks.com/Large-Tub-Rat-Rack.html

build a 6 tub 3x2 tub rack
run 1.8 in each tub = 48 females.

Personally, the first month I would run them 1.9

then you will be pulling females to birthing racks and number in main rack will lower. A single male will not impregnant all 9 at once. No worries.

Birthing racks I would use small tub for only a single mother per tub.

You place mom in birthing tub when she baloons up prior to giving birth.

I heat my building to 45 degrees all winter long, so no clue why anyone is worried about 70 degrees. Give them extra bedding and they will be okay.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by suzuki4life

I heat my building to 45 degrees all winter long, so no clue why anyone is worried about 70 degrees. Give them extra bedding and they will be okay.

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I had heard that lower temperatures slows breeding a lot, is that not true?? I'm actually about to start breeding rats myself and would like to know if maintaining a 'comfortable' temperature is necessary..?

maintaining a proper nest, avoiding over crowded conditions, and keeping proper food and water are what is crucial. If water freezes, you lose the water supply.

I average 11 per litter with birthing racks. Without, I was averaging 8 per litter.

I am down to 23 breeding racks from 40 with my new racks and the use of birthing setups. I produce the same production, my babies wean at a much larger size and at 3 weeks. So in the end, you taylor your setup to your needs.

How many birthing tubs do you use with 23 racks going?

I have 80 birthing tubs to date. More will come when I have time to build them. I changed standard mortar tubs to 3x2 size(for my breeding tubs). That change has eaten most of my time and resources since the economy has taken a HUGE dive.

OK, I realize that this is a little old but I had to update :) Since posting this I have built a 28 bin maternity rack using the Medium Petmate Litter pans. I've been pulling the moms and placing them individually in the rack as soon as I see that they are showing. This change alone has had a tremendous impact on the survival rates of the babies. I'm reasonably confident that I have not lost any babies since placing the moms into the birthing racks:) I have also started to rotate the females through the male bins as I pull the preggo moms and replace with moms that have weaned off their babies. Otherwise, I still have kept the garage at 65 degrees and continued to feed the DoggyBag dog food from Tractor Supply.

Thanks again for the advice

Now you just have to start thinking about your replacement strategy. I try to replace 1/3 of my breeding animals at once. If you replace 1/3 of your animals every 16 weeks you will replace your animals once every 48 weeks (or about once a year). To me, this seems like the most logical way to do it. Feel free to weigh in on this one.

Are moms that are eating babies, have been eating babies from start or has that just began?