bigger babies :)

I suppose I should start postin this stuff in pets!! The babies are no longer food. Here's something I put together :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v9...1/mousedoc.jpg

They're so cute. 6 females, 5 males. :heart:

p.s. the runt died today... poor guy.

how long does it take for them to be adults?

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Originally Posted by Super_Smash

They're so cute. 6 females, 5 males. :heart:

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I guess you figured out how to sex them then. ;)

A mouse is ready to breed at around 4 months, and full grown around 6 months.. maybe a bit less, those numbers are for rats.

Not that anyone cares but.. I decided to keep this female rat pup. She's a little less than 2 weeks now I think.. no eyes open yet. She's a future breeder.

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop.../10826/rat.JPG

awww it looks like one of mine!!

had a suprise birth tonight.. my other female plopped some out. o.O

this ones will NOT be pets. i'm giving them to the pet store

LOL Angela. That's a lot of little rodents. :)

Mice are generally full grown around 6 mnths, but rats can take as long as 9 months to become fully grown, however, I have had rats that grew for just under a year before they stopped.

Mice and rats can breed as early as 6-8 weeks old. This the reason we separate them soon after they are weaned since weaning takes place around 3-5 weeks, depending on the Mom. I have noticed, a female kept with a male, who is impregnanted right after giving birth, will wean thier young right around 3 weeks, so that she is not nursing the older litter when the new babies come. Keep in mind, pregancy for them is right around 21-27 days, but I have seen some drop right at 19 days. The ones that drop right around 19 days or so, are generally those that have had many many litters. Also- to be kept in mind, just because they are sexually mature at 6-8 weeks, does not mean it is the right time to breed the females, the ones that have babies at too young of an age usually end up being bad Moms for one reason or another. The best time to breed a female is right around 4-6 months. After 9 months, if a female has not had any litters, you must becareful because thier hip bones have "closed" a bit and her birth canl is not going to allow passage of big babies to easily, taking the chance that one may get stuck, losing the mother and any babies still inside. It seems that if they are bred during the optimal time of 4-6 months, that they dont end up with problems like that, not sure why, thier hip bones still "close" a bit. This has just been my experience with rodent breeding. Gonna have to look through all my records, somewhere I have an article on rodent breeding ins and outs.

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Originally Posted by Super_Smash

awww it looks like one of mine!!

had a suprise birth tonight.. my other female plopped some out. o.O

this ones will NOT be pets. i'm giving them to the pet store

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bahahaha! Breeding like mice are they? :D

yeah there cute when their young.... then they grow up *shudders*

Plopped them out eh? lol not so cute anymore now, are they? RATS thousands of them.... millions! hah.. sorry.

Lol greenman.. but isn't Mr Sardonicus so cuuute?

https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...6/SSCN0294.JPG

look at those evil eyes... he's planning on chewing a hole in my neck and lighting my house on fire as we speak....

hes got FANGS! (oops wrong thread) :D

Awww- he is CUTE! looks like a siamese. I think they are still rather cute and sweet even when they become adults. Whats not cute, is when you get one (a big one) that not well socailized, and bites the living crud out of ya. When I worked in a pet shop not to long ago, I had to go fish out the feeders, I hated messing with the HUGE rats, they dont like to be messed with and will tear ya up... I got so tired of fishing out the feeder rats- esp. the big ones, I would get the younger kids to do it, they'd look at me and say- "oh they wont hurt ya". Just as they are fishing one out, I would hear a screech and cursing to look back to see the kid nursing a nasty bleeding bite, and remind him, "oh they wont hurt ya". :twisted:

Yeah, one of our girls is about to pop, should be 3 weeks this Sunday. The dad is a hairless and she is an agouti hooded, so who knows what we will get. They will be pets as alot of people I know want them. I'll post pics of all of my girls and guys and of the babies when they are born :) Poor Lloyd is so huge and miserable now(yes, Lloyd is a girl). She gets babied alot now, and loves to sit on the couch with us and watch TV, or watch Star play StarWars :)

Naw.. Sardonicus just wants to shnuggle... :P :twisted: I purposely tried to get a glowing red eyes pic there. heh.. he's my wild boy. He'll leap from your lap to your head, then he flips out and jumps down again. Renfield is my quiet one.. he just sits on your lap and bruxes (rat version of purring)

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Originally Posted by Jeanne

Awww- he is CUTE! looks like a siamese. I think they are still rather cute and sweet even when they become adults. Whats not cute, is when you get one (a big one) that not well socailized, and bites the living crud out of ya. When I worked in a pet shop not to long ago, I had to go fish out the feeders, I hated messing with the HUGE rats, they dont like to be messed with and will tear ya up... I got so tired of fishing out the feeder rats- esp. the big ones, I would get the younger kids to do it, they'd look at me and say- "oh they wont hurt ya". Just as they are fishing one out, I would hear a screech and cursing to look back to see the kid nursing a nasty bleeding bite, and remind him, "oh they wont hurt ya". :twisted:

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He is a siamese.. the breeder said blue point, but he looks seal point to me. They are sweet.. both of my boys will sit there and lick your hand for as long as you'll scratch their back.

My two breeder rats Yin and Yang are nasty, wild rodents from hell <-- Stupid censor thingy.. oh well. :P. They scream when you pick them up, and the poor guy at the pet store that got them for me got a nice bite from Yin.. that's why I'm raising that female rat pup. I'm handling her every day so she'll be decent. No one sells female rats around here.. so I'm raising her, then I'll have to buy another male. Oh well.

SatanicIntention - what are the genetics involved in both lines? Or do you not know at this point? Does the father show any color, is there any hooded genetics in him?

Shelby - He looks seal point to me too. But he is pretty.

The boy gets some silvery colored hairs on his thighs sometimes, but they just fall right out. Poor guy, I tease him about not shaving all the time. We really can't tell what color he is, no fuzz on his face or anything. Now the little nekkid girl we have, she has some silvery-black hairs on her face, and should be pregnant sometime... We hope.

As for the genetics, I wish I knew. They are both pet store rats, but have been exceptionally healthy, so we thought we would try and see what we got since others want a chance to enjoy some rattie lovin' too :)

If your hairless rat had any dark colors or patterning, you'd be able to see it. You can see the pattern/color in newborn rats after the first couple days, way before they have hair.

I know, our little female hairless is a little bit more darker skinned than Sneezy is. We have a sort of hairless dumbo male that is still kind of fuzzy. He was born in October and is a Mink Bareback, so he has a dark cap on his head. You can see it in his skin and since he has some hair, then you can really tell. He's such a pretty boy :)