rat breeding question

Can I house two females together when one of them has her litter or will the other female eat or kill the babies?

You can house 2 females together that each have their babies, housing a female that has babies with one that has none is not the best, they will fight over the babies which will cause injuries to the babies that can lead to death especially when they are very young with fragile skin (day one through 7).



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Ok. Cause I have two females that are being housed together and I just picked up a male yesterday that I plan to try to breed to one of my females.

My breeding colony is 5 sets of 3 females to one male. I have had no problems with mine.

Also I leave them together 24-7. Just know that, in at least my case, the male tends to become a little more aware of what your doing when there are babies in the "cage" with them.

i have been keeping my female rats ( two per bin) together when they have babies successfully but this last go around i had one of my more dominant females take all the babies while the other female gradually lost interest in taking care of hers.

The dominant rat basically raised 24 little babies by herself, there was a noticeable size difference between them and other litters i have had as well as a much more prolonged growth period. I am hoping this dosent happen again but i have a spare bin now just in case to separate the mothers.

A major problem with this happening is that the dominant rat lost a lot of weight because of the stress and demand put on her body by all the little guys so now i am putting her out of rotation for a few months to recover.

I use a harem style arrangement too. Usually 2-4 females with a male. Any females that harm babies(deliberately) or any male that gets aggro are culled.

My females divide up babies in a few nests, and sometimes small babies are in with larger babies but they all seem to get fed fine.

The most ideal situation from everything I've read is separating the prego mom to her own tub to give birth and raise the babies. That way she can have a break before the next litter and she has privacy to raise and care for babies. The babies are always all the same size so no large babies out competing the small babies for milk.

I have large tub racks and so a single rat mom in each would be quite a waste. I may end up getting a smaller bin rack and going with private birth/raising bins in the future. But for now, my harems seem to do okay.

whats the average size of a litter of rats? should i be expecting a large litter? both females are from the same litter and are almost eight months old and im not exactly sure of the males age.

I typically get 8 to 12 per female. On an occasion I get a large litter of 16 but tat is rare for me.

Even though I have not had this issue, I have read many times that the females MAY not breed with a male that is smaller than them.

Also, and I read this about mice but I read that males will help to take care of the babies if housed with the female. Is the same true about rats?

If you have never breed rodents before be careful with leaving the males in that same cage with females even after they have a litter because they can get prego pretty much right after giving birth.

I inadvertently had a mouse colony because i never realized this until too late. Two mice breed then there babies breed and next thing you know you have 60 mice. This happened to me in Jr High when i was breeding mice for my science teacher's snake.

In my experience rats are smarter than mice and they wont breed with litter mates if they have room to escape but it can happen. Males taking care of babies i have never seen with mice. Best advice unless your looking for lots of rodents, separate the males and females.

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Originally Posted by scottman

whats the average size of a litter of rats? should i be expecting a large litter? both females are from the same litter and are almost eight months old and im not exactly sure of the males age.

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The average is 6 to 12 however if you have a good colony you should average 12 to 16 without issues while female are in their prime.

8 months old is getting up there in age if this is their first litter.

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Originally Posted by scottman

Also, and I read this about mice but I read that males will help to take care of the babies if housed with the female. Is the same true about rats?

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Yes however with communal breeding / nursing (which means all females have babies about the same times) babies get injured as females like to take each other's babies to place them in their own nest, they do not voluntary injure the babies but it happens as their skin is very fragile, and this leads to more losses.

I have been producing a few thousand of rats each year for the past 9 years and tried several methods and the one that yeld the best results (max production) is separating the pregnant females and let them nurse their babies individually for the first 5 to 7 days before putting them in communal tubs. At 5 to 7 days their skin is not as fragile and they do not get injured as easily.