Breeding Rats on a small scale - Questions

I have several questions on breeding rats. Any help is appreciated.

What is the maximum ratio of females to males? (ex: is 1:5 possible?)

Do they have to be in tubs or can they be in glass aquariums? What size?

How bad is the smell? (No smell, noticable, or just terrible!?)

Can they be kept in a garage? What are the temperture extremes? (40f-90f?)

Can I house a whole group together (1:4?) forever, leaving the male and females together even with the babies?

Any tips would help also. Thanks :gj:

Since last year I was doing this on a much smaller scale, (however how SMALL of a scale are we talking?) answers are:

I've ran upwards of 1.10 ratios, but 1.4-1.5 is much easier to deal with, and doesn't get dirty as fast (dependant on size of enclosure)

They can be in aquariums, just remember the smaller the home, the less you can run in there. A large male rat will be cramped with 1.3 in a 10 (in 10's I normally run 1.1 or 1.2 for projects)

Smell is based on how long you go between cleanings, and how dirty they get. If you can keep them clean it's barely noticeable with an exhaust fan.

You generally want to keep their temps between 65-80 degrees, above that you'll have issues with heat, below that they may stop producing. If your garage can stay in those temps, use it. I keep all my rats in my basement currently with 4 "bathroom" style exhaust fans pulling air out.

Together or pulling mothers is all up to the breeder, there are people that do each. I myself pull the moms just because I have the space and time.

I'm sure jasbus will comment and clear up more, as he's much more experienced than I am.

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Originally Posted by bishop40k

Since last year I was doing this on a much smaller scale, (however how SMALL of a scale are we talking?) answers are:

I've ran upwards of 1.10 ratios, but 1.4-1.5 is much easier to deal with, and doesn't get dirty as fast (dependant on size of enclosure)

They can be in aquariums, just remember the smaller the home, the less you can run in there. A large male rat will be cramped with 1.3 in a 10 (in 10's I normally run 1.1 or 1.2 for projects)

Smell is based on how long you go between cleanings, and how dirty they get. If you can keep them clean it's barely noticeable with an exhaust fan.

You generally want to keep their temps between 65-80 degrees, above that you'll have issues with heat, below that they may stop producing. If your garage can stay in those temps, use it. I keep all my rats in my basement currently with 4 "bathroom" style exhaust fans pulling air out.

Together or pulling mothers is all up to the breeder, there are people that do each. I myself pull the moms just because I have the space and time.

I'm sure jasbus will comment and clear up more, as he's much more experienced than I am.

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I only want to breed about 1.4 or 1.5 rats for my non F/T eaters.

And I would give them more space than a 10... that seems pretty crowded for 5 to 6 rats lol. I wanted to do maybe 1.4 in a 20 gallon long?, and I have a couple extra 10 gallons for the male to be alone or mothers with litters.

What is an exhaust fan? I could easily clean it out every other day. What do you think is the best bedding to keep the smell down?

I will probably have to keep them inside (gross! lol) My garage gets pretty cold at night, and winters coming, so it'll get much colder than 65 lol.

Thanks for the help :gj:

I've used both aspen and pine as bedding. Aspen cost quite a bit more than pine, as pine is a choice lumber wood, and I get the shavings from an Amish lumber yard for about $0.25/cubic ft vs $13 for 8 cubic ft of aspen. Pine seems to control odors better than aspen, but aspen is normally less dusty.

An exhaust fan can be anything from a box fan blowing air out of the room, to a swamp cooler fan, I just wired in a couple of the same fans that you turn on when you go to the bathroom, since I had to rewire that side of the house.

For 1.4-1.5, you could do 2-3 10 gallon aquariums, keep 1-2 moms per, and just rotate the male around. This would (in theory) keep all of your moms from getting preggo at one time and having 20-100 pinks at once.

Breeding rats on a small scale is pretty straightforward. You should do fine with 1:4 or 1:5 as long as you have an adequately sized cage. Keep in mind that if you don't separate the mothers before the babies are born, you may run into issues if you have several litters of different sizes. The older and larger rats will hog the mother's milk and the smaller babies may die. Also, depending on what size feeders you use, you may need grow out tubs for the rats to get up to feeding size.

I built some DIY Rodent Breeding Cages using plastic tubs and wire cloth. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance. Colder than 65 degrees or hotter than 85 degrees and your rats will stop producing babies. Rats probably smell a little less bad than mice, but you'll need to clean at least once a week and provide ventilation.

If you use pine, it needs to be kiln dried. Otherwise it can be detrimental to their health. I do small scale right now but need to move it up a notch soon as my collection has grown quite a bit.

If you clean every other day, you'll be fine on smell.

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Originally Posted by bishop40k

I've used both aspen and pine as bedding. Aspen cost quite a bit more than pine, as pine is a choice lumber wood, and I get the shavings from an Amish lumber yard for about $0.25/cubic ft vs $13 for 8 cubic ft of aspen. Pine seems to control odors better than aspen, but aspen is normally less dusty.

An exhaust fan can be anything from a box fan blowing air out of the room, to a swamp cooler fan, I just wired in a couple of the same fans that you turn on when you go to the bathroom, since I had to rewire that side of the house.

For 1.4-1.5, you could do 2-3 10 gallon aquariums, keep 1-2 moms per, and just rotate the male around. This would (in theory) keep all of your moms from getting preggo at one time and having 20-100 pinks at once.

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I will probably do a mixture of aspen/pine and see which one I like better.
Oh ok, thats what I thought. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by MoonlightBoas

Breeding rats on a small scale is pretty straightforward. You should do fine with 1:4 or 1:5 as long as you have an adequately sized cage. Keep in mind that if you don't separate the mothers before the babies are born, you may run into issues if you have several litters of different sizes. The older and larger rats will hog the mother's milk and the smaller babies may die. Also, depending on what size feeders you use, you may need grow out tubs for the rats to get up to feeding size.

I built some DIY Rodent Breeding Cages using plastic tubs and wire cloth. I'll post some pictures when I get a chance. Colder than 65 degrees or hotter than 85 degrees and your rats will stop producing babies. Rats probably smell a little less bad than mice, but you'll need to clean at least once a week and provide ventilation.

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Thanks for the advice! Ill probably keep them inside, the temp is stable at 75f.

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Originally Posted by Jessica Loesch

If you use pine, it needs to be kiln dried. Otherwise it can be detrimental to their health. I do small scale right now but need to move it up a notch soon as my collection has grown quite a bit.

If you clean every other day, you'll be fine on smell.

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What is "kiln dried"? Hopefully it won't smell terrible, or else if it does. I'll probably have to get rid of them.

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Originally Posted by ReptilesK2

I have several questions on breeding rats. Any help is appreciated.

What is the maximum ratio of females to males? (ex: is 1:5 possible?)

Do they have to be in tubs or can they be in glass aquariums? What size?

How bad is the smell? (No smell, noticable, or just terrible!?)

Can they be kept in a garage? What are the temperture extremes? (40f-90f?)

Can I house a whole group together (1:4?) forever, leaving the male and females together even with the babies?

Any tips would help also. Thanks :gj:

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One male will keep up 100% of the time with one or two females. Three or four females may have him missing a few the first time they cycle, but he will catch them. I know people that run up to eight females per male, but I wouldn't do it. I have been doing some experimenting running them in pairs. They pop babies every four weeks almost on the button and I'm getting larger litters. However, its a much larger space investment.

You can raise rats in aquariums, but they are easier to raise in tubs in a rack system. One pair will do well in a 10g tank. A group of 1.4 can breed in a 20 gallon tank if you remove females as they get pregnant. I group of 1.4 can be kept full time in a 40g breeder. You just remove the babies as they are weaning age.

Rats can smell atrocious. Your main enemies in the war on odor are temperature, humidity, and ventilation. If you keep your rats cool, dry, and there is fresh air coming and going all the time the smell is very tolerable. If you let the room get hot and humid, and their bedding is wet all the time they will stink so bad that the ammonia will burn your lungs when you breathe it in.

Rats can be kept in a garage as long as you are meeting their needs. They need to be between 60F and 80F ideally. They need fresh air. They need clean water, clean bedding, and food. If you can meet those needs you can keep them on the moon. Its not so much the where as it is the how. How you keep them makes more difference than where.

You can keep the male with the females full time. When you keep them in a large group you will inevitably lose some babies. Some moms will fight over them. Some moms will steal babies from other nests. When you have babies of various sizes all nursing from the same mom the larger stronger babies will always beat the smaller ones and the smaller younger ones will starve. When you separate the moms almost all of the babies always live. Its up to you whether or not you want 100% survival in your litters or if you want 80% survival with less tubs to clean.

Here is my last bit of advice. Start small and plan to have plenty of extra tubs for the extra rats.

please remember that breeding in tanks is cumbersome. especially if your going to clean every 2 days. do a search here in the diy section for a "rat rack". they are not that hard to build. if your small scale you only have to build 2 or 3 levels. they are much easier to clean than tanks.
1 more tip i can give you is putting some pelleted pine in the bottom of your tubs to help cut down on the smell. some say a small amount of vanilla extract in the water will also cut down on the smell.
i leave my harems together all the time. males, pregnant and nursing females, babies all the way to weanlings. just works for me. only problem i have is what another poster said about having 200 pinks at a time sometimes....lol
adam jeffery

I just thought I would add my 2¢

I have been using glass aquariums for breeding mice and they can be difficult to clean, mainly in the corners.
Heres a picture of what I use for 1.3 rats http://tapatalk.com/mu/aefcf43f-4282-e384.jpg this works well for me and are fairly cheap to make. I think metal monkey exotics has good plans on this kind

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

i've got 4female and 2 male in an critter nation double with the cages close from each other. i use newspapers (clean litter boxs daily and fresh newspapers once a week) no or very little order i keep it in my living room, the birthing cage is a 29g and i us aspen, and a litter box so i have to clean once a week. even the babbie learn to use the litter from mom.
hope that this helped you out

My high ratio is 1.8! I did it before with one great male who knocked em out the park. The smell and dirt of them however made it gross to keep that up. I do 1.3-1.4s.

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Originally Posted by tomfromtheshade

One male will keep up 100% of the time with one or two females. Three or four females may have him missing a few the first time they cycle, but he will catch them. I know people that run up to eight females per male, but I wouldn't do it. I have been doing some experimenting running them in pairs. They pop babies every four weeks almost on the button and I'm getting larger litters. However, its a much larger space investment.

You can raise rats in aquariums, but they are easier to raise in tubs in a rack system. One pair will do well in a 10g tank. A group of 1.4 can breed in a 20 gallon tank if you remove females as they get pregnant. I group of 1.4 can be kept full time in a 40g breeder. You just remove the babies as they are weaning age.

Rats can smell atrocious. Your main enemies in the war on odor are temperature, humidity, and ventilation. If you keep your rats cool, dry, and there is fresh air coming and going all the time the smell is very tolerable. If you let the room get hot and humid, and their bedding is wet all the time they will stink so bad that the ammonia will burn your lungs when you breathe it in.

Rats can be kept in a garage as long as you are meeting their needs. They need to be between 60F and 80F ideally. They need fresh air. They need clean water, clean bedding, and food. If you can meet those needs you can keep them on the moon. Its not so much the where as it is the how. How you keep them makes more difference than where.

You can keep the male with the females full time. When you keep them in a large group you will inevitably lose some babies. Some moms will fight over them. Some moms will steal babies from other nests. When you have babies of various sizes all nursing from the same mom the larger stronger babies will always beat the smaller ones and the smaller younger ones will starve. When you separate the moms almost all of the babies always live. Its up to you whether or not you want 100% survival in your litters or if you want 80% survival with less tubs to clean.

Here is my last bit of advice. Start small and plan to have plenty of extra tubs for the extra rats.

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Originally Posted by adamjeffery

please remember that breeding in tanks is cumbersome. especially if your going to clean every 2 days. do a search here in the diy section for a "rat rack". they are not that hard to build. if your small scale you only have to build 2 or 3 levels. they are much easier to clean than tanks.
1 more tip i can give you is putting some pelleted pine in the bottom of your tubs to help cut down on the smell. some say a small amount of vanilla extract in the water will also cut down on the smell.
i leave my harems together all the time. males, pregnant and nursing females, babies all the way to weanlings. just works for me. only problem i have is what another poster said about having 200 pinks at a time sometimes....lol
adam jeffery

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Originally Posted by krmn22

I just thought I would add my 2¢

I have been using glass aquariums for breeding mice and they can be difficult to clean, mainly in the corners.
Heres a picture of what I use for 1.3 rats http://tapatalk.com/mu/aefcf43f-4282-e384.jpg this works well for me and are fairly cheap to make. I think metal monkey exotics has good plans on this kind

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by sniper

i've got 4female and 2 male in an critter nation double with the cages close from each other. i use newspapers (clean litter boxs daily and fresh newspapers once a week) no or very little order i keep it in my living room, the birthing cage is a 29g and i us aspen, and a litter box so i have to clean once a week. even the babbie learn to use the litter from mom.
hope that this helped you out

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Originally Posted by bokuza

My high ratio is 1.8! I did it before with one great male who knocked em out the park. The smell and dirt of them however made it gross to keep that up. I do 1.3-1.4s.

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Thanks everyone.

I guess I'll be using tubs now!
I decided on a 1.4 group and moms will get their own birthing tub.

I currently I think head count was 54 Breeders. My tubs consist of 1.3 up to 1.6. I get Insnane sized litters as some here will know the Record set.

I clean every 3 days as having 1.3 and 1.6 in tubs along with 50+ fuzzies gets nasty quick. The poop isnt hte problem, its the constant pissing and the babies peeing adds to it.

Also dont forget about a grow out tub. Once my rats are 4 weeks old they go in a tub together till their 50-75g then gassed. With my 54 breeders im gassing close to 100 smalls a month while feeding off 20 live a month.

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Originally Posted by RichsBallPythons

I currently I think head count was 54 Breeders. My tubs consist of 1.3 up to 1.6. I get Insnane sized litters as some here will know the Record set.

I clean every 3 days as having 1.3 and 1.6 in tubs along with 50+ fuzzies gets nasty quick. The poop isnt hte problem, its the constant pissing and the babies peeing adds to it.

Also dont forget about a grow out tub. Once my rats are 4 weeks old they go in a tub together till their 50-75g then gassed. With my 54 breeders im gassing close to 100 smalls a month while feeding off 20 live a month.

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Thanks for all the extra help/tips!

I'm picking the rats up today, they are only around 6 weeks old. They were $3 each and I got 1 male and 4 females. Does that price sound okay?

How old do they have to be until I can safely start breeding them?
I'm in no rush as I have 100+ frozen thawed rats still in the freezer.

Keeping them in a tub with a water bottle + some pet store food until I can order the online rodent food. Also should I seperate the male for now?

My recipe has been 1.3 for years. Keep them together, never separate. I keep my barns between 65-75. Around 80 they all start to just sprawl out and get lazy. But note, these are room temps, not actual tub temps, so if it's 75 in the barn, and there are 1.3 adults and 30 babies running around, the tub is gonna be hot. I breed back all my females. Meaning no break. Shes preggo again pretty much the day she delivers. Of course you can put in way more than 3 females per tub, but if all three females give birth within a few days, overcrowding becomes an issues. Deaths will go up. I also have several tubs of retired moms. Their only job is weaning babies that I pull from overcrowded tubs. They will produce milk for a very long time after retirement. Saves alot of babies.
The key to breeding constant without removing any adults is, adoption. If you have a tub of rats with 2-3 week olds, and a fresh batch of pink is, foster out the older babies. Just throw them in another tub of similar sized babies. Or if the litter of links is small, foster them to a tub of multiple moms with pinks.
I use pine, I've literally tried every bedding there is, and always go back to pine.
I've tried every food, and always go back to a quality rodent block.
Been breeding rodents in some way shape or form since the 80's. Used totes, aquariums, lab cages, racks. Use whatever you can afford, but ideally lab cages or a rack is best. Air flow is crucial. Imagine being is a tall aquarium with ammonia all the time. Not to mention, aquariums are heavy and break. I almost took a finger off using aquariums.

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Originally Posted by ReptilesK2

Thanks for all the extra help/tips!

I'm picking the rats up today, they are only around 6 weeks old. They were $3 each and I got 1 male and 4 females. Does that price sound okay?

How old do they have to be until I can safely start breeding them?
I'm in no rush as I have 100+ frozen thawed rats still in the freezer.

Keeping them in a tub with a water bottle + some pet store food until I can order the online rodent food. Also should I seperate the male for now?

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$3 each is a good price. I sometimes sell rats as pets/feeders for $5 each. The females can be bred at 3 months of age. I wouldn't breed before that because you risk birth complications (i.e. female dying giving birth). You should separate the male until the females are ready.

My 1.4 group has started dying off from fighting...the females were bitten all over their tails and feet! Only had 1.1 left after a few days so I fed them off. :(

Just got a new 1.6 group, from a different supplier. Hopefully they wont fight!
Also they are on Mazuri rodent diet so hopefully this time goes better. :please:

I do it a little different , I have 4 10 gallons just for foster mothers i Have the babies separated into size by grams and as they get bigger move to the next mother these mothers are great they treat them like there own and they haven't been breed in a decent amount of time. Then since my snakes all eat different sizes I have 2 20 gal grow out tanks for weanlings and small-med rats. Then in my other 2 20 gallons I have 3 females in each with one male. my local pet shop also takes whatever pups i don't need, they have one of my mothers two that once again as soon as i drop off babies is right to being a perfect sweet mother. This is still all in the works I just started 4 months ago

Three year old thread. ;)

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Originally Posted by Marrissa

Three year old thread. ;)

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didn't even notice