1.4 rat typical yield

Just wondering, what's the typical yield of 1.4 rats, if does aren't pulled from the bucks? If the average litter size is 10, would you expect roughly 10 per week? (if females are introduced once per week to start out)

I think I'm not going to pull females from the breeding tubs, and I don't want to over or under estimate, as much as possible...

They'll eventually sync up. You'll get 30-40 a month realistically. You might hit close to 80 every now and then. I doubt it but its possible.

If the male is a stud, and femlaes reproduce well, and rebound well with quality food, you should avg 8-20 pinks every2 months.

3 weeks being preggo, then Month Nursing while being preggo. Should with that group get 40-60 every 6-8 weeks

Quality food is the key if you're going to be leaving your females and males together for back to back litters.

If kept together, moms drop every 30-40 days. Gestation under 25 days, 3-5 days later she will be in heat again and most likely pregnant....again.

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Originally Posted by suzuki4life

If kept together, moms drop every 30-40 days. Gestation under 25 days, 3-5 days later she will be in heat again and most likely pregnant....again.

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They actually go into hear within hours of giving birth

some do, some don't

I have always wondered about that. Who checks the rats to see if they're all going into heat right after they give birth? :confused:

Almost all my females are being bred by the male right after giving birth. Of course, that doesn't mean they TAKE, but the male is breeding her or attempting to.

Thats How my males are as well, as my females are highly fertile and i get litters 3 weeks right after the last one.

A friend of mine is strongly arguing that no matter what, if I leave the moms in with the dads, the dads will eat roughly half the babies. "You'll see", he keeps saying.

If this is sometimes the case, what do I do to keep it from happening? Get rid of any Buck that does that?

I've only had dads kill babies a few times. One male I ended up culling because he killed more than one litter. Generally the males will actually let babies cuddle up on them, in my limited experience. I've got about 15 different bins of rats with males in with each female group and haven't had the issue in a while.

For my own curiosity, what does your friend feed his rats?

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Originally Posted by ClarkT

A friend of mine is strongly arguing that no matter what, if I leave the moms in with the dads, the dads will eat roughly half the babies. "You'll see", he keeps saying.

If this is sometimes the case, what do I do to keep it from happening? Get rid of any Buck that does that?

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Rats fed well on quality food wont harm babies, but help care for them. If a Male eats the young its either in the genes and itll end up being passed on to the babies,so youd want to gas him off and get a new male brought up.

But ive never had any get eaten but once. And that was the females beating up the male and eating their young for some odd reason after 8 months breeding. They were gassed and replaced

Rich is correct. Like I said earlier quality food is the key! If their nutrition is lacking, they are much much much more likely to eat their young. :)

He is now feeding them large breed dog food. Back when he had the problem with males eating some of the litters, it was cheaper dog food... On this stuff it seems his rats are flourishing. He's having huge litters, fatter/chubbier pups, and overall healthier rats. I hope to come up with mazuri 6f, but I'm in a remote, rural area. Not a whole lot of options to me, hence building a shed and breeding my own rats.

Theres food you can order online for like 80-100$ shipped for 200lbs of quality food.

Dog food bad, and most of it is not good for dogs let alone rats. They will develop greasy looking fur, bald spots or aka Hot Spots from too much fat and protein which in turn causes liver/kidney failure

If he's having males that will definitely eat the young, his rats are not "thriving". Check out a place like the National Pet Pharmacy site that will ship the food to you for the ease of getting quality food for not too much money.

What food on National pet pharmacy do you use? What food do you use, Rich?

Great thread. Love all the info, I try to keep groups together if possible but often I will need to separate females to raise the young to get good litters raised at the cost of efficiency. I use labpro rmh500 it's kinda expensive now I pay $30 per 50lbs, up from $25 last year, still looking for a good supply source in MA

Native Earth brand rat diet. I've got another 3 bags arriving wednesday in fact.

First off, nutrition info is nice but the simple facts are, sometimes you will get bad parents that neglect or kill babies.(male and female)

I produced many thousands of rats off doggie bag and also many off brands like Mazuri, Harlen, and Zieglers. i never saw much difference in quality or quantity gains. I did see a huge difference in the amount of food consumed and the monthly costs to me.

We currently run a little over 50 tubs of rats and when we feed doggy bag they eat the dog food like Mac and we end up buying twice as much and we still see an increase in cannibalism. I've heard people having good luck with it but not for me.

I've noticed with my rats, when they are on the Native Earth, even if a rat does die in the bins, they will often leave it untouched. When they are being fed the FRM(or before, dog food), they will cannibalize dead rats and eat babies more too.

I just gotta say thanks to all who have responded on this. Such great, specific information! Can't wait to get these rats breeding! Patience still isn't my strongest suit, even though I breed BPs, too! (talk about patience testers!)

I have the Native Earth ordered! Can't believe it's such a great price, with free shipping! I'm still assuming it will not fall through the 1/2" hardware cloth. Any answer on that?

Again, a great big THANKS!!!!! :banana:

I feed Kent Rodent Diet, and I dont get cannibals, nor do mine eat the ones that die either.

I'm hoping you're planning these 1.4 bins as pinky factories? Cause I gotta say, I've never seen a bin big enough to house 5 adult rats and 4 litters all at once.
Unless you remove the babies within I'd say a week on the outside you'll get cannibals just from the overcrowding.
And you will have 4 litters all at once... like women living in the same house the girls will synchronize on you eventually.

But anyway, 1.4 you'd def be looking at 32 to 50 babies a month depending on how big a litters your mamas have and how good a stud you've got.

If you've got good nurturing stock they'll raise the babies as a group, the mommies will take turns sitting on the nest, even you're male will keep the babies warm if for some reason all 4 females are busy.
But!!! The cage must be clean, it must NOT be overcrowded, and they must have adequate food and water. Any major failing in quality of life will cause good rats to become cannibals.

Also on the food note: I feed 1/4 mazuri and the other 3/4 is made up of hog feed and cheap cheap dog food.

We run 1.3. 1.4 will tend to get crowded from time. If you're going to be feeding some pinkies and fuzzies you should be ok though.

Also, as long as everyone is chiming in with the feed preferences, we feed Kent for 13.00 per 50lb and we also offer roughly 1-1 1/2 cups of hog feed mixed with sweet mix per day.

I'm not finding any source for Kent food in Utah...
Maybe I'll do 1.3 groups. That's good info. Thanks

Its not out that far yet. Theres mostly on my side of the country.

Not sure but they might deliver pallet at a time if you contact the plants

The Native Earth is large lab block. It won't fall through 1/2 wire.

I've been looking at the hog feed but the stores near me only offer medicated hog food, not unmedicated. The medicated is only a few dollars cheaper than the Native Earth too.

I run 1.3 and I don't have cannibalism of the babies. I wean babies when they are running about and eating(they look like large mice, and act independently). I only have a few pythons small enough to be eating unweaned sizes, so mostly they end up in grow out bins.

small mortar tub is fine for 1.4
I ran 1.8 in the large (3x2) mortar tubs.