Another feeding question

I have three rats that are about 140-150g, the smaller one being 140g and the largest being 150 grams. Captain Hook is up to 390 grams now. Can I feed these rats to her? I regret not culling them when they were 110-120g and she could have eaten them easier but I had two 80g rats in the freezer and was not sure that she would still eat F/T. Well going buy the weight of the guts from the last 80 gram rat that I fed her (15g) I would guess their's will be about 30g. I'm not too worried about the girth, they are only a big larger around than her and would be compressed in the belly. And if I take the guts out and stitch them back up they would be about 110-120g again and be easier for her to get down. She was eating 80 gram rats at 280 grams which would be 30% of her body weight (all I had and was trying to get her weight up, still am.) and these at 120g would be almost 30%. What concerns me the most is the length as they are about six inches head to foot fully stretched. Will she be able to eat these? Should I take the guts out to make it easier for her? If they can digest bone i'm sure the thread used to stitch the stomach would not be a problem.

I would not feed a meal that large. You need to stick to the 10-15% body weight ratio. The occasional 20% is ok, but you shouldn't make a habit of it. 30% is simply not healthy for your snake.

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Originally Posted by AK907

I would not feed a meal that large. You need to stick to the 10-15% body weight ratio. The occasional 20% is ok, but you shouldn't make a habit of it. 30% is simply not healthy for your snake.

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I know this, I usually feed her 15% of her body weight and before I had my scale a rat that would give her a good little bulge. But now I have these three rats that are taking up space and are too big for my girl. I guess I could freeze them until she's big enough to eat them. She's gaining about 100 grams per month maybe a bit more so it should not be long. What if I just wait ten days to feed her again instead of the usual five days at 15%?

I still wouldn't do it. Feeding her that much isn't good for her. Don't risk it. You said she is on f/t. Just freeze them and feed them to her in a couple months when she is bigger.

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Originally Posted by AK907

I still wouldn't do it. Feeding her that much isn't good for her. Don't risk it. You said she is on f/t. Just freeze them and feed them to her in a couple months when she is bigger.

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Alright, I only have 12 rat pups left and she's slamming them down three at a time so i'm worried about running out. But they'll get bigger and she'll eat two at a time and by the time I run out i'm gonna say six weeks she'll be 500+ grams and these frozen ones will be 20% of her body weight. I'm gonna bump it up to seven days once she hits 500g so those three weeks will be long enough to get two more litters. But these babies are almost weaned at three weeks now (six left from first litter, seven from second ten days later) and only one mother at a time is feeding them. If I pair them with the male now (in a separate cage) the new pups will be six weeks old by the time I run out of these ones and the big frozen feeders. Good idea or should I wait another week for the first litter to be weaned that way the other mother can take care of her pups and have them weaned by the time I put the first mother back and put her in with the male?

I'd wait til they were weaned if you are uncertain, but why do you keep the male in a separate cage? We keep our males in with mothers and babies. They help care for the babies as well and take a lot of strain off the mothers. We've never had a problem with male rats killing offspring like you would have with other rodents like mice, hamsters, gerbils, etc.

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Originally Posted by AK907

I'd wait til they were weaned if you are uncertain, but why do you keep the male in a separate cage? We keep our males in with mothers and babies. They help care for the babies as well and take a lot of strain off the mothers. We've never had a problem with male rats killing offspring like you would have with other rodents like mice, hamsters, gerbils, etc.

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So he wouldn't kill cull the babies if I had left him in there. Yeah i've heard males generally won't kill their own babies. But I didn't want them to get pregnant again right away. What if I put him back in now with babies he hasn't seen, after being separated from the rest? Will he cull the babies or will he know that they are his?

Also as far as the male helping the female with the babies, I have two females so they help each other. One of them feeds and looks after the babies while the other eats/drinks etc. They only both fed when there were 20+ babies. And I have them in a 25 gallon maybe 29 idk but I don't think there's enough room for two females, 20+ babies and the male too.

My male rats never eat the babies. IF your male rat isn't a jerk, chances are he won't either.

Yeah they say it isn't healthy for the female to get preggo right away, but many people do it.

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Originally Posted by Jessica Loesch

My male rats never eat the babies. IF your male rat isn't a jerk, chances are he won't either.

Yeah they say it isn't healthy for the female to get preggo right away, but many people do it.

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But what if he was separated for the last part of the pregnancy up until now and I put him back in there with three week and almost two week old babies that he's never seen? Will he kill them or will it be okay? I know he's got to be lonely all by himself, rats are social animals. Should I wait a week until the first litter is weaned and put the first mother in with him just to be safe? I'd leave her in there for ten days and all the babies would be weaned and in their own cage by the time I put them both back with the first female. Then next litter i'll just leave him.

Depends on the rat. As AK907 said, they aren't really that cannibalistic. You could put him in and monitor them.

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Originally Posted by Jessica Loesch

Depends on the rat. As AK907 said, they aren't really that cannibalistic. You could put him in and monitor them.

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Okay i'll do that and see what happens. If he getss aggressive i'll take him out.

Well I put him back and after watching for a few minutes he hasn't shown any aggression or culled any babies. They're even climbing on him :) Well since I don't have to separate them i'm gonna get thing stuff you paint it on thick and it turns to rubber I have a 75 gal tank I build out of wood so i'm gonna coat the bottom and a few inches up the side in this rubber to keep them from ruining the wood.

So far we haven't really had much of a problem with our females getting knocked up again right away. It has happened a few times (less than 10 times in the past 4 years), but we produce hundreds of litters a year so it is fairly rare for us and so far there haven't been any problems with our females that have. They seem to regulate themselves and those that drop two in a row usually end up not having any for a couple months. Just use your common sense and you'll be just fine, man.

I built a rat rack last year and I run 1.3 per tub. In the time that I've been breeding the rats my BP collection has grown so I increased the number of breeder tubs to 4 to 8, and so far have only seen 2 occasions in which I had any cannibalism. It was actually females and not the males. These females were "Retired" so to speak and I have yet to have any problems again. I keep the babies in until there small size when harvested. I'm sure I could run it more efficiently but still learning. I think you would be ok to leave the male in but its always good to keep an eye on them just to make sure.