When do you retire moms?

I hold back females that produce 12+ a litter. Usually when creeping up on the year mark, I start seeing them produce around litters of 5. They get replaced at that time. How do you guys determine when a female is retired?

I think after 4 litters they should be retired. Five if they are going strong. Back to back constant litters may be convenient, but she will produce healthier, fatter babies and more of them if she gets time to rebuild between litters. And back to back breeding is hardly humane.
They don't even live long enough to produce more than that in the wild, and birthing is very taxing, health wise.
Hold back the babies of the 12+ litters, and your stock will usually have more babies if you treat them right.

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Originally Posted by AHOOD

I hold back females that produce 12+ a litter. Usually when creeping up on the year mark, I start seeing them produce around litters of 5. They get replaced at that time. How do you guys determine when a female is retired?

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I do the same. When the litter size has dropped significantly.

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Originally Posted by Capray

And back to back breeding is hardly humane.

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Tell that to the Duggar's.

We retire Mom's generally after 4 breeding's/44 weeks of age.

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Originally Posted by Infirmary

We retire Mom's generally after 4 breeding's/44 weeks of age.

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Do you keep the females in the same tub for life? How do you track the age or number of breedings for each female?

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

Do you keep the females in the same tub for life? How do you track the age or number of breedings for each female?

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We have 12 large breeding tubs. Each breeding tub is marked so that we know what females are inside the tub. Example: We find a pregnant female in the tub marked 1, this means the female has been breed once. We then pull the female and place her in a birthing tub. We then mark the birthing tub with a number 2. Once the babies become weaned we move the female into a breeding tub marked with a 2. Females that are pulled from a breeding tub marked 3 will be retired after the babies are weaned.

Ever look at the general recent posts, read something about rats, thinking its about bp's and become very, very, very confused? Hahaha :P

In my defense, I woke up minutes beforehand

I retire females that have begun to produce smaller litters.

The females that are the BEST moms, that always have fat babies etc, get "retired" into a breeding bin of young females. The old mom might not produce many babies, or not as often, but they DO teach the young new moms to care for babies properly.

Occasionally some favorite mom might retire into a pet situation. Mostly they "retire" into the freezer zoo.

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

How do you track the age or number of breedings for each female?

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Personally, I keep track of my rats and their info with cage cards. Each rat gets their own card. I also keep track of their pedigrees and genes.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Personally, I keep track of my rats and their info with cage cards. Each rat gets their own card. I also keep track of their pedigrees and genes.

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Keeping cage cards would then make the feeders the hobby, not the snakes. It gets to be problematic when you go over a certain threshhold of females. Also, is it really worth the effort.

I put pregnant females in individual tubs for birthing and until the babies are 10+- days old (thanks Deborah). Currently, if I see a litter of less than 10, that female is "retired." I was letting them stick around too long because I felt bad for them but some got so old or worn out that they were producing litters of 1-4. I changed my process and retired them sooner and have higher production from less (younger) moms.

Old moms are helpful even though they don't produce much. I had one that produced 4 in the last litter, but I used her as a foster mom for a young female that produced 22. Worked out well.

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Originally Posted by satomi325

Personally, I keep track of my rats and their info with cage cards. Each rat gets their own card. I also keep track of their pedigrees and genes.

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Ah glad I'm not the only one who does this :w00t:

I have so many females looking alike and rotating from one tub to the next that I can't keep up with age or number of litters for each individual, so if a female produces less than 6 babies she finished nursing them and then it's retirement.