Breeding Rats

I've been haveing lots of trouble finding small frozen rats. I thought that sometime during the summer I could breed rats out in my barn and when they get to the size I need them I could freeze them for the rest of the summer and winter. What do you guys think about this?

Freezing would be good - in fact you might really WANT to do that to stave off whatever parasites they might pick up in the barn. I do know from experience mice REEK - I have heard rats are much less stanky.

Of course you could always order from rodentpro.com or another supplier and have a buncha frozen shipped to you (which is what we did once we realized the undertaking of breeding as many as we'd require).

Ya they sure do know how to smell! I tried to breed mice before and boy did they stink up my room!

Yes I know about the onling rodent stores but I can't really afford to spend over $100 for one snake. If I had more snakes like others on this site, I might consider it but it's just a little too costly for me. And since there's no big petstores around where I live, my options are limited.

Has anyone else ever tried to breed rats?

I haven't tried to breed them...but to answer your original question, I think it's a fine idea to breed some yourself and freeze 'em to use as needed. Doesn't seem like it should be too complicated. :)

Well, I can tell you from experience that mice breed VERY easily. (Too easily :roll: ) I can't imagine that rats would be much different.

Thanks for all your encouragement!! I have two 10 gal. tanks and a 50 gal. (i think) tall. I figure the largest one for an enclosure, one of the 10 gallon tanks for a nusery, and the other one for breeding grounds. What do you all think?

I tried to breed mice but ended up offering them all as dinner! They stank up the whole apartment and none of my friends wanted to visit!

sounds good to me BP713 - yeah I've heard rats stink WAY less than mice. This raises a good question though - is there anywhere online you can place an order less than 100 dollars for good quality rodents?

I breed my own rats. It doesn't get any easier. Throw em together, they do their thing, you have lotsa rats! Much less stinky than meeces. I keep mine in a 75 gallon aquarium. They breed like.....rats.....and I recently had to freeze a whole bunch because there were too many and they were overrunning the tank.

If I keep them in the barn during the summer time, would I need to have a heat lamp at night? or maybe for the nursery?

I've heard that a litter could consist of 20...is this true? how many do you guys usualy get? How long will it take before they reach 4-6"?

perhaps a mild heat light but if you have some bedding they can nest/burrow in then they should be able to huddle together and or burry themselves to keep the heat up. Also rats are pretty resiliant hence that whole bubonic plague ;) see also; city of New York: "rats" :lol:

oooh! scope this out! may help.
http://health.ratzrus.co.uk/breeding.htm

lol :lol:

I used to live in England so they had the same problem in London.

Thanks for the link.

In your personal opinion, after a liter, do you seperate the males and females or leave them together? Thanks for helping me wiht this!!

I had my own rattery for many years, you can leave them together if you want, but be forwarned, rats can get pregnant again as soon as they deliver... causing way to many. Their litter sizes depend on many things. But usually 7-13 is what I have gotten in my litters. Some times more- some times less. If you choose to separate the females from the males, do so when you notice they are pregnant, and you really dont want to put males in with females whose babies are not his, esp. when they are very young- he will eat young that are not his. It can take any where from 4-8 weeks for a rat to get 4-6 inches...maybe longer, depending on quality of food, genetics..etc. All in all, breeding rats will pay for itself as long as you have several snakes, I think it may be a waste of time and risk of over abundance for just one or 2 snakes. Rats are definately less stinky than mice... Also, I would be careful about leaving the breeding animals out in a barn...first, summer weather should not bother them, but thier stink that they do have and what not will attract other unwanted visitors, also, you may be risking exposure to parasites you may not want your snake/snakes ingesting. Also, do you have sufficient housing or a plan for winter...rats really cannot handle too cold weather, it causes them to get respiratory infections that spread quickly through your colony, and can kill off a colony faster than you realize. Just some thoughts. Hope it helps.


EDIT: For many years there has been a debate over proper bedding for rodents. I have tried many.. with my experience, I do not suggest using pine..the oils in it can cause respiratory problems. Try to use aspen or carefresh. Recently I was reading that someone (a rat breeders site) was using news paper- I do not reccommend doing this, because I have had rats get sick and die from chewing up and eating the newspaper with the ink on it.

Quote:

---

...I think it may be a waste of time and risk of over abundance for just one or 2 snakes.

---

Well for me it's this or spend lots of money over the internet...I don't have a petstore around where I live that sells sm. ones. About the over abundance, I figure I could save for the winter.

Quote:

---

Also, do you have sufficient housing or a plan for winter...rats really cannot handle too cold weather...

---

I know that this would be a problem...I didn't expect to continue breeding during the cold months...if I have enough rats saved up, I could use those. If by that time she could eat med. ones (which the petstore sells), I could feed her those.


Thanks for all the input! :)

P.S. My family once had rabbits...by accident they bred and since we did not know it the female got pregnant again after the first litter was born and they (the 2nd batch) all died :(

Here's my rat cage. I keep one male and 3 females. That seems good for my one bp.
https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...at%20Manor.jpg

Do you feed live, f/t, or fresh?

Into a bag they go and then a little bit of deceleration trauma against the door frame. The litters seem to be spaced about two months apart so by the time I'm feeding off the last jeuvie rat, a new litter arrives. That's what's SUPPOSED to happpen anyway, lol. It is fun to watch them run around, just don't name anybody but studs and resident mothers or you can feel bad at feeding time!

Wow steelsack...that looks like one seriously happy rat home! Very cool! How hard is it to clean the bottom out?? Did you build that yourself? Do you have plans for it?

It was the base of a waterbed that came with my house when I bought it. The bed was in poor shape so I got rid of it but couldn't see the base and drawers go to waste. When I looked at it right, it was a critter cage and was practically half built! I took out the drawers and hardware and added what I needed. Got some hardware cloth and a staple gun and presto! Wired in a light for giggles.....
The shelves and bottom are lined with plastic so when I remove wood shavings I just spray with weak bleach solution. The shelves come right out and I wash them in the tub with a little bleach. I used clear window plastic for the base so they don't get shavings on the floor around the cage. You can't really see it, but it is between the frame and wire all around bottom and is about five inches high. The first time I tried it I put it on the inside and it was gone in no time as nesting material. So I had to separate the wire from the frame, insert the plastic "splash guard" and restaple the wire. It works well and better yet the rats can't get at it.
The cage was origionally for a couple zebra finches who were totally stoked when they moved in. It used to have a waterfall and plants, but the birds eventually died and the rats now have a pretty sweet death row!
It cleans easy and the only thing that will give a smell is if I forget to wash the hammock for a couple weeks. They LOVE the hammock (old pair of jeans' leg in case you can't tell) and spend lots of time in it.

Steelsack you have got to be one of the most creative, resourceful critter keepers ever! Awesome!

Thanks, fellow musician!
Sweet avatar!

That's purty neat, SteelSack! I haven't decided yet if I'm going to breed, but so far I'm leaning towards it!

Steelsack...I've saved that picture, I hope you don't mind! Someday I'll be breeding my own feeders and I may use that as a model to design breeder cages.

I agree -- that is one sweet cage. I need to start planning a bigger enclosure for Adrian's pet rat as she's outgrown her little one, so I may get some ideas from that (not on that scale, though). We used to breed mice for food and they were some seriously stanky critters, but the rats are fine as long as I make sure the kids cleaned the cages weekly (well, cage, now that Little Missy has passed).

Quote:

---

Steelsack...I've saved that picture, I hope you don't mind!

---

Of course not :)

I have two mother rats with babies now. My local pet store was being overrun with breeding rats, so the owner gave them to me. Now, one female has 8 young and the other had her 13 young a few days ago. Something nasty to note: the one female got pregnant by one of her own sons. I guess that in the animal kingdom, things like that are not important to them. So make sure to seperate any babies from their mothers, as soon as they are weaned, unless you want more inbred rats!
Seriously, though, this is a much cheaper way for me to feed my 4 snakes. Once the rats reach a good size for my bci and smaller BP to grow into, I'll euthanize them and freeze.
Rats are MUCH cleaner and less odorous than mice!

Good news!! I'm going to breed rats! I've been working on the cages and started to build a ramp (like this: /\ only more slanted) out of wood for them to climb on. I wanted to cover the outside with some old carpet (which I cleaned). Is it ok to have this?

Sure! You just need to plan ahead of time how you'll clean it when they use it for a toilet, which they will definitely do.