Rat rack breeding question?

I made a 6 tub rat rack last week and I just have 1.3 rats in a tub now. but Im trading a guy a small boa for about 30 med. rats and I want to keep and breed as many as I can without making a new rack. and I will just kill the rest but I wanted to know if I could do 6 groups of 1.4 in each of the 6 tubs and leave all the moms and dads of each 1.4 group in the same tub without taking the males and females out into there own tubs when they give birth and until the babies are weaned ? Thanks

No, it would be way too crowded with 5 adults and even ONE litter raised to weaned, much less possibly 4 at a time. If they are the standard size concrete tub, the most I have in one is 2 females with babies.

Agreed! Ideally I'd keep one mama per tub, especially if they're having litters in the double digits. I keep two per tub since I have hairless and they'd probably freeze to death in my a/c.

Agreed with others. I personally keep one mom and litter in their own tub. I know others have had success raising multiple moms and litters together, but my personal experience is that sometimes more passive moms will let more domineering moms raise their litter. If there are too many babies, that one mom may not be able to feed all of them. The babies either won't grow as quickly, or may not survive. Each rat has 12 teets, but can feed more than 12 babies. However if you have one mom trying to raise two litters of at least 12 babies each, that can get a little harder, especially for smaller or first time moms.

I'm not sure what size tub your are using but I use the black mortar tubs from Home Depot and I only keep 2 females in each tub with litters. I rotate 1 male through the tubs so the most they have is 3 adults at a time. I feel like this is the absolute most I would keep In a single tub. Especially as most of the tubs can have 20-30 babies at a time in them.

We use the large black concrete tubs as well. However, we keep a 1 : 4 ratio in them. Once a female is gravid or has a litter, we move her and the babies into their own separate tub. Works well for us, hope this helps.

I tried keeping multiple moms in the same tub as they give birth. You'll lose half the babies from them 'baby hoarding' and end up with as many as if you had 1 mom alone - and you'll have to clean out dead pinkies daily. Not pleasant.

Find a way to keep the moms alone during birth and until the babies grow fur.

With 6 tubs, I'd keep 3 females per tub in 4 tubs and rotate a male every 3 weeks between them. As the moms get ready to give birth separate them 1 in the original tub and 1 in each of the 2 empty tubs. By the time the next tub has hit 3 weeks you can put the moms with all the babies back in the original tub. This gives you room to take the next tub and split it - 1 mom in the original tub and 2 in the empty 2. After 3 weeks put them all back etc.

4 tubs - 3 females each. 1 male - 3 weeks per tub. As you move the male, split the 3 females from the previous tub and put the 3 separate females back in their own original tub.

You're welcome :)

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Originally Posted by MrLang

I tried keeping multiple moms in the same tub as they give birth. You'll lose half the babies from them 'baby hoarding' and end up with as many as if you had 1 mom alone - and you'll have to clean out dead pinkies daily. Not pleasant.

Find a way to keep the moms alone during birth and until the babies grow fur.

With 6 tubs, I'd keep 3 females per tub in 4 tubs and rotate a male every 3 weeks between them. As the moms get ready to give birth separate them 1 in the original tub and 1 in each of the 2 empty tubs. By the time the next tub has hit 3 weeks you can put the moms with all the babies back in the original tub. This gives you room to take the next tub and split it - 1 mom in the original tub and 2 in the empty 2. After 3 weeks put them all back etc.

4 tubs - 3 females each. 1 male - 3 weeks per tub. As you move the male, split the 3 females from the previous tub and put the 3 separate females back in their own original tub.

You're welcome :)

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I've not had problems with any dead rats or babies keeping 2 moms together like you described, even with different litter ages in the same tub. The only exception to this is when I introduced 2 separate moms with litters in to the same tub AFTER they were born. The moms killed each others babies. Their next litter and so forth were fine together.

I think this may be them having time to get used to each other before the babies arrive. I've bred hundreds, maybe thousands of babies and this was the only time I've had a pinky/weanling die and each tub has 2 moms

I could have a mom or two that are just hoarders and would not say I have massive experience anyway. Either way I do prefer to split the moms for birth.

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Originally Posted by MrLang

I could have a mom or two that are just hoarders and would not say I have massive experience anyway. Either way I do prefer to split the moms for birth.

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True. I would also love to have a tub for each but you have to do with the space you have.

Home Depot have two size of mixing tubs,I am using the medium size with 1.2 rats in each one,work awesome for me

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/cata...gry=Search+All

I'm going to go against the grain here some, but what my advice really is, is try it and see what works best for you.

I use the black 20x28 concrete tubs (not sure which it is on their size scale) and generally keep 1.3 rats per tub, occasionally I'll do 1.4 in them and do not have any trouble. Normally if I'm doing a 1.4 cage, it's because of a litter of rainbow boa's being born or clutch of woma's hatching and I know I'm going to be feeding out a lot of extra rat pinkys and just wanting to boost pinky production. I don't pull moms or rotate males through cages, I set up a colony and leave it and it works great for me. One thing that might be helping this work better for me, is I pull a lot of nursing rat stuff to feed, from pinky's all the way up to weaning stuff and I try to pull a bit from each cage instead of everything from just one, so I take a little of the baby nursing work off each cage constantly. Only a few rats from any given litter ever normally actually get weaned.

Try it and see what works for you, if you plan to raise litters all the way up to being weaned, you may need to cut back on the number of adults per cage.

I use the standard size mortar tubs and do 3 females per tub and the males get moved around, spending a week and a half or so in each. I leave the females in their tubs together to raise litters. I don't lose many babies.
I also check frequently and if I see any babies that are struggling or weak I'll put them in a different tub with younger babies. If there's a pup or two that are growing much faster and preventing the smaller pups from nursing as much I'll move them to a tub with more equally sized pups.

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I have 1.4 or 1.5, I have 100 tubs going and do well. As long as you pull the babies at weening you will be ok. I just put the babies in grow cages to grow them out. Good air flow is a must.

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Originally Posted by rascal_rascal_99

I'm going to go against the grain here some, but what my advice really is, is try it and see what works best for you.

I use the black 20x28 concrete tubs (not sure which it is on their size scale) and generally keep 1.3 rats per tub, occasionally I'll do 1.4 in them and do not have any trouble. Normally if I'm doing a 1.4 cage, it's because of a litter of rainbow boa's being born or clutch of woma's hatching and I know I'm going to be feeding out a lot of extra rat pinkys and just wanting to boost pinky production. I don't pull moms or rotate males through cages, I set up a colony and leave it and it works great for me. One thing that might be helping this work better for me, is I pull a lot of nursing rat stuff to feed, from pinky's all the way up to weaning stuff and I try to pull a bit from each cage instead of everything from just one, so I take a little of the baby nursing work off each cage constantly. Only a few rats from any given litter ever normally actually get weaned.

Try it and see what works for you, if you plan to raise litters all the way up to being weaned, you may need to cut back on the number of adults per cage.

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You don't pull the males out when the females give birth? You just leave them in there? Asking because I have a friend that does this with his colony and he says his males never try to attack or eat the pups.

I figured they was like other rodents such as hamsters where you have to pull the males out so they don't eat the young.

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Originally Posted by Diamond Serpents

You don't pull the males out when the females give birth? You just leave them in there? Asking because I have a friend that does this with his colony and he says his males never try to attack or eat the pups.

I figured they was like other rodents such as hamsters where you have to pull the males out so they don't eat the young.

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Nope, never pull males, colonies stay together 24/7. I've seen males cleaning off newborn pinkys before and seen them help round up babies into a nest and keep them warm on colder nights.

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Originally Posted by rascal_rascal_99

Nope, never pull males, colonies stay together 24/7. I've seen males cleaning off newborn pinkys before and seen them help round up babies into a nest and keep them warm on colder nights.

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That's what my buddy said they help out and stuff. I only have a 6 tub rack atm and only 1.1 right now. I'm going to fill it up this weekend when I go to my local show.

Have you has any bad experience with a female getting pregnant while nursing then eating the young because she's to stressed ect?

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Originally Posted by Diamond Serpents

That's what my buddy said they help out and stuff. I only have a 6 tub rack atm and only 1.1 right now. I'm going to fill it up this weekend when I go to my local show.

Have you has any bad experience with a female getting pregnant while nursing then eating the young because she's to stressed ect?

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I've never had this happen. Just make sure they have water and food. The only reason I've heard of them doing this is lack of food and hydration.

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Originally Posted by Diamond Serpents

That's what my buddy said they help out and stuff. I only have a 6 tub rack atm and only 1.1 right now. I'm going to fill it up this weekend when I go to my local show.

Have you has any bad experience with a female getting pregnant while nursing then eating the young because she's to stressed ect?

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I keep my males and females together 24/7 too, haven't had any issues. Some of my dads are better moms than the moms are lol. I've got one right now that's pregnant and still nursing her previous litter, no cannibalism yet. The only time I've had moms eat the babies is when there's something wrong with one, or it's already dead/stillborn.

I think rats are way more social than most other rodents and that has a lot to do with it, but yeah, my males help with everything but nursing...lol

I have had an occasional first time mom eat her first litter, but it's very rare when it happens. As for one killing a second litter while she's still nursing an older one, that's never been a problem other than if she isn't able to produce enough milk for all of them and the smaller babies will suffer from it. Having multiple females helps share that burden, but is also part of why I pull from different cages to think them all down a little when I'm pulling younger feeder stuff.

Can weaned rats reach the top to get food in the medium sized tubs?
Thanks

I use the motor tubs from lowes and keep 3 females in each. I rotate the male. I usually only lose babies when its a group of new moms.

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After going over my note from the past year, I found much to my surprise that I was wrong. Keeping more than two or three females in a tub is a waste. My baby count was no better but the food intake was double. I will be going back to 1.2. The only time I will have a third female will be to train a younger one on mothering.