Tricks to produce more rats?

Anyone have any tricks for upping rat production?
I have a lot of mouths to feed and need to up production.

Special foods? Light jazz?

Anything.

Buy more females lol
Just make sure the room is at least room temp. 72-75
I guess I give mine a staple diet of Mazuri pellets, followed by whole grains, fresh leafy greens, fruits then fats for the females.
I find that some rats just breed differently then others, I have some females that just wont get pregnant for weeks and some have litter after litter. Just making sure you have good healthy breeding stock is a good start.

mazuri once i switched to it production increased i use the 6f

Hold back females to raise up to breed that come from large litters ;)

I got some new feeders and found out the dog food I was feeding has Red 40 in it, so I will be switching to a brand referred to me by a new friend. (He told me where to get it and that it gives him greater production then the Mazzuri 6F at half the cost)

So we'll see what happens.

Well I dont know about the Red 40 but dog food has a protein content thats too high for rats. Any Dog food is not a good staple diet. A treat now and again sure.

What brand if the new food you picked up?

Doggy bag from Tractor supply.

Crude Protein (min.) 18%, Crude Fat (min.) 6%, Moisture (max.) 12 %, Crude Fiber (max.) 12%.

Only 2% more than Mazuri 6F.

i tried that didn't work good for me but who knows good luck

It's still better than the Pedigree they were eating.

Good food only means so much, the genetics of the rat means more to getting higher production than the quality of the food.
Holding back females from large litters helps tremendously in getting the production numbers up.
I like to trim the litter down to under 6 kits around 2 weeks old and let the momma nurse only the ones you want to keep for future breeding.

Then it should really help that I replaced my breeding females with younger rats that are not from Petco.
(Was the only place to get them around here until I made a new contact)

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Originally Posted by Kingofspades

Then it should really help that I replaced my breeding females with younger rats that are not from Petco.
(Was the only place to get them around here until I made a new contact)

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I would think so, petco rats in my area are not something I'd want to breed unless I had no options.
Most of the time the petco/petsmarts in my area have nothing but fully grow black hooded rats that they ship in from who knows where...

#1 - Doggy Bag dog food is fine for rats. People will tell you that it isn't, but do yourself a favor and look at the macronutrient breakdown and the list of ingredients. I would venture to say that I have more rats than anyone here. All of my rats eat ONLY Doggy Bag and they produce like it's going out of style.

#2 - Genetics will play a huge roll in how productive your rats are. I only select breeding stock from litters of 12 or more. I also won't breed rats that bite. I won't breed rats that chew. I won't breed rats that eat their young. You have to make rules and cull heavily in the beginning.

For whatever its worth, I have 600 females breeding full time now. If anyone here has more rats than that I will take my comment in point number one back. Also, all of my breeding stock now are Russian blue self dumbos, PEW hairless dumbos, black self dumbos, or black and white manx. I don't have any "regular" rats left. Its all about culling heavily in the beginning. I culled HARD for two years and I have exactly what I want now. If you do the same you will be pleased.

Another thing is a steady room temp that they are in. Ive noticed with my rats and mice when temps fluctuate a lot up and down they dont breed very well.

When i figured that part out and got the room to stay consistent 81F all year i get litter after litter consisting 12-18 pinks per litter.

Look on Craigslist for people selling their fancy rats. A lot of the time you will find Russian Blues, Siamese, Dumbos, etc. Most only ask a few dollars for females, even super nice ones.

From there, hold back traits you like, cull the others. The only thing that is a guaranteed cull for me is mother's that eat their young. I don't care if it's their first litter, it will certainly be their last. I produce an average of 14 babies per litter though. I didn't really hold back offspring of the females that produced well on purpose, but I ended up with high litter counts anyway.

In my opinion, even as a rat pet owner, Doggy Bag is fine for feeders. I have a friend with around 300 rats and he produces very large litters on Doggy Bag. His adults all appear pretty healthy as well.

One thing I noticed about Doggy Bag is I waste much less. The Pedigree fell through the hardware cloth a lot and got peed on, so it got wasted a lot. Doggy Bag doesn't.
And it seems to fill them up more. They're eating less of it, but still eating (meaning it's not just them not eating the food).

I think my colony will be better now.

Rats are hard to get on Craigslist around here. People either flag the ads, or it's one of those "NO SNAKE OWNERS" ads...and I am a bad liar. Haha.

I went to TSC and got some of this Doggy Bag food and rats loved it but i loved it much more since its bigger than the reg dog food i was using and doesnt fall through the hardware cloth. Might just stick to it for good...right now im just using as a supplement to veggies and other mixed items.

Well, Tom and I seem to be alot alike, but at the same time, alot different....

I have used DB in the past, but found that between the waste of the small chewed up pieces falling through the mesh and being wasted, the rats loved it, and ate more of it, pretty much making the savings moot(in my opinion). Plus, they seemed to have greasy hair while they were on it also.
I put two racks, side by side for a month for a comparison, and in the end, I did have more cannibalism in the DB rack, it turned out for me, to stick with the rodent block.

However.... I do use DB on weaned rats that are being processed for a large order, to be frozen.. Usually, I will take a rack of 4-week rats, and just feed them DB only until they reach the weight for the client... On other rats, I still use rodent diet, in case I hold some back for breeding...
But, thats just me...

look into www.kentfeeds.com for kent rodent blocks.

I pay 12.99 for 50lbs bag and its closely related to mazuri 6f

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Originally Posted by jasbus

Well, Tom and I seem to be alot alike, but at the same time, alot different...

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Well, I have found that females in a tub alone with "play" with the food by chewing it and pulling it through the hardware cloth. Once you put a male in the tub he won't tolerate that type of BS. That is when the girls stop pulling the food through.

I have no idea why adding a male to the tub stops them from pulling the food through, but it works every time for me.

As far as them eating MORE food goes I want them to eat as fast as possible. My rats produce constantly so I want them to eat as much as they can. They stay in better condition and the young grow faster when they eat more. I don't have a single fat rat in my whole colony. They are all in good condition.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

look into www.kentfeeds.com for kent rodent blocks.

I pay 12.99 for 50lbs bag and its closely related to mazuri 6f

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Do you have a direct link for this, i searched their website and didnt find it on there.

have to search for local stores that carry kent. If they carry they can order it.

cool, i saw i have one here in Amarillo so ill check. i just figured i could order from kent and have them ship but this is better.

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Originally Posted by tomfromtheshade

#1 - Doggy Bag dog food is fine for rats. People will tell you that it isn't, but do yourself a favor and look at the macronutrient breakdown and the list of ingredients. I would venture to say that I have more rats than anyone here. All of my rats eat ONLY Doggy Bag and they produce like it's going out of style.

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I bought a bag of DB this weekend to try. I presume that the main reason to purchase DB over Mazuri is cost. The 40lb. bag of DB was $14 and a 50lb. bag of Mazuri 6F is $25. The price difference per pound is 15 cents.

Since I'm only breeding for myself the cost savings is meaningless. I'll use up the bag by supplementing the Mazuri with the DB but I won't switch over completely.

Well my other issue is I can't get Mazuri in my area in large bags like that, so Doggy Bag is my best option.

Sure, I can buy a bag of Mauri online for $25, but shipping ends up being $25 as well...and yeah...not going to happen.

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Originally Posted by Kingofspades

Well my other issue is I can't get Mazuri in my area in large bags like that, so Doggy Bag is my best option.

Sure, I can buy a bag of Mauri online for $25, but shipping ends up being $25 as well...and yeah...not going to happen.

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AFAIK, any feed store that carries Purina products can special order Mazuri. I have to special order it and it takes 2-3 weeks to arrive but I just pay regular price.

I started using 6F again since I moved, TSC is about 40 minutes one way now while the 6F supplier is 15 minutes, but I finally got the 50 lb 6F for $18.

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Originally Posted by jben

I started using 6F again since I moved, TSC is about 40 minutes one way now while the 6F supplier is 15 minutes, but I finally got the 50 lb 6F for $18.

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Where do you order yours from? Maybe I can get my guy to lower his price since they're in the same general region.

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

Where do you order yours from? Maybe I can get my guy to lower his price since they're in the same general region.

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They have it in stock.:gj:

Miller's Country Store
1148 Old Trail Rd
Clarks Summit, PA 18411
(570) 586-6006

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Originally Posted by jben

They have it in stock.:gj:

Miller's Country Store
1148 Old Trail Rd
Clarks Summit, PA 18411
(570) 586-6006

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Jay:

I just called the store because I was going to take a ride there tomorrow and they said they don't carry the 50lb bags of Mazuri 6F. They carry the 25lb bags of regular Mazuri Rodent Food for $16.49 and they're out of stock on that.

Are you sure you had the right store and right food? The 6F food has a pink tag on it that says 6F and lists the ingredients and nutritional info. The best price I found for Mazuri 6F is $24.99 for 50lbs and no one I called carries it in stock.

Thanks, John

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

Jay:

I just called the store because I was going to take a ride there tomorrow and they said they don't carry the 50lb bags of Mazuri 6F. They carry the 25lb bags of regular Mazuri Rodent Food for $16.49 and they're out of stock on that.

Are you sure you had the right store and right food? The 6F food has a pink tag on it that says 6F and lists the ingredients and nutritional info. The best price I found for Mazuri 6F is $24.99 for 50lbs and no one I called carries it in stock.

Thanks, John

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John,

I'm not sure who you spoke with but when I purchased my bag the lady at the counter had no idea what I was talking about until someone else helped me. Here are some pics of the bag I purchased and transaction, I could not find my receipt, that day I purchased a bag of mazuri and a bail of pine.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...6-25084539.jpg
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...6-25084706.jpg

05/31/2011
CHECK CARD PURCHASE XXXXX0679 MILLER'S COUNTRY STORE CLARKS SUMM PA
$23.83

EDIT* I will go back this coming weekend, I'll keep you posted.

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Originally Posted by jben

I will go back this coming weekend, I'll keep you posted.

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Jay:

Thanks. I really appreciate it.

John