Rat Breeding Q

So I want to breed rats because I need something bigger than an adult mouse and smaller than a small rat.. So I need to breed rats so I can get the right size. ALso, I don't want to pay upwards of $50 after shipping and handling for frozen rats from some website. Here's my question. I've had 2 female rats for a while now and I just bought a male rat today. How do I go about introducing them? I tried earlier and one of the girls nipped at the male? Any ideas? Thanks. If you have any other insight that has to do with the entire process of breeding rats, it would be appreciated.

You could try dumping a bunch of the males bedding into the cage with the females and then giving them a day or so to get acquainted with his scent before trying to reintroduce them. How serious was the nip? Sometimes a couple of our females will get a preemptive attack on a male if he's been acting horny and making any advances they're not willing to entertain at the moment.

It wasn't too bad... However, I'm saying this not ever seeing that before. I stopped bleeding pretty quickly. Do you know at what age a male rat is sexually mature?

I would say a male rat is "mature" at 6 mos of age. If you have a separate tank, put one female and the male in there and just leave them alone, they will fight it out. It's usually not too pretty, they will tumble around and be pretty mad about the whole thing. We had to do that with our fancy rats. Just let them duke it out. They got over it pretty quick. With two females and one male, the females are goin to try to protect each other and be more aggressive than if they were by themselves. So I would introduce one female at a time. Be aware though that you may have upwards of 20 babies per each female. Fun stuff :)

Quote:

---

Just let them duke it out.

---

That's true. When I put a male in with a new female, they fight for awhile, but usually by the end of the day I find them curled up together sleeping. :) I think a problem may arise if you have a female who's been caged up alone for months and all of a sudden, there's this other rat in her cage. I only buy rats that are "socialized" and already living with other rats, from my local reputable pet store.
I have three breeder females and one "stud" rat who spends his time mating in each of their tanks, usually a week or two at a time. Doesn't he live the good life? :)

another suggestion often made...and a good one. Is to introduce the females to the male rather than the male to the females. Keep the male in a cage for a bit and once he has settled in put the females in HIS cage. Weather you introduce both females at once is up to you...I usually do both. I have seen fighting between sibling females who were kept together and got along fine before introduced to a new male, and then fought afterwords. I'm experiencing that now with one of my breeding sets of 1.2 but they are getting better better, and I rarely hear them anymore.

Just remember female rodents tend to be more territorial than the males, in Gerbils the female will sometimes kill a male who is introduced into "her" territory or cage.

We haven't had any problems with any of our feeder gerbils, doing the whole put the male in the female's cage. They just sniff each other and seem to say "Oh, another one?" If they fight, it's usually a "couple-hour" tiff, and they get over it and go on with their lives. One set of my breeding gerbils had a litter about 2-3 weeks ago and the babies are almost ready to be fed off, but they are still in the same cage as the parents. The mom just had 4 more last week. They are just breeding machines. Good thing I have a second pair to help out the first pair. Don't want to wear them out too quick. :)