Questions about breeding rats

[Blubb]

So about 4 weeks of weaning and then I give the mom some weeks off breeding. How many exactly you think? Can I put all my males in the same box, those who not are breeding? Thanks for all answers so far it has been really helpful (:

[JohnNJ]

...and she will be more suseptible to diseases and those diseases can pass on to her babies which then you feed to your snakes then they pass on to your snakes which can be very disastrous for the snake rat and all involved and if you sell a sick rat to someone and it hurts there reptile you can be held responsible if you intend on selling some of them to help incure your cost of feeding and breeding them they are easy to breed and very easy to overbreed which can cause problems not in the overpopulation fact but the health fact anything else just ask cause i breed rats and have breed them for about 5-6 years now and i dont own snakes but i sell them for pets and feeders

Can you provide a source for this?

[wolfy-hound]

I'd also like to know what issues are going to be transmitted from rat to snake as a result of over-breeding.

As far as I am aware, over-breeding a female leads to a shorter "producing life" and can run her down physically, possibly making her more likely to get a RI perhaps... but not giving her anything that can be transmitted to a snake.

If you're planning on replacing the females often, over-breeding isn't going to affect your colony much, correct?

[GHOST_584]

Although I have only been breeding rats for about a year, I have several males to 4-5 females per tub. Never once have I found a dead male when my females go in heat.

My females breed regularly without any issues.

[Blubb]

Hm, can I put all cages in a room without any windows? I mean, do they need daylight, or will a light bulb ~12 hours/day be good? I am thinking to place the cages in a room where I store my stuff. What do you think?

[JohnNJ]

Hm, can I put all cages in a room without any windows? I mean, do they need daylight, or will a light bulb ~12 hours/day be good? I am thinking to place the cages in a room where I store my stuff. What do you think?

The lights will work fine but they will need fresh air. Depending on how many are in there and how often you clean, so will you.

[Egapal]

So, I have thought about breeding my own rats to feed my ball pythons, but I don't really know how I should start the whole process. I have a couple of questions too. Hope I will get some help (:

1) how many cages should I start out with?
2) will 1.4 be good in the breeding cages?
3) do males fight with each other even if the cage is free from females?
4) after how many litters should I stop breeding a female?
5) do females accept other litters than their own in the same cage?
6) about how long does it take for a rat to grow about 100grams?

Help please, I am just a beginner ^^

1) This depends on so many factors. If I was going to run 1 group of 1.4 and keep the females together till the pups are weaned and then feed off or euthanize the weanlings before they are sexually mature I would have at least 3 tubs. One for the breading. One for the male after conception and One extra. Having an extra makes cleaning much easier. When its time to wean you can move the male back to the females tub and move the weanlings to the old male tub to grow out. If you need to raise your feeders up more you may want an extra tub to have a separate male and female grow out tub. If you are going to have two or more colonies I would have at least 2 more tubs than you plan for. These are great in case you need to separate a female or some other unforeseen thing comes up.

[Michelle.C]

Actually, the less lights rats are exposed to, the better. I read a study a while ago about rats being exposed to too much household lights can be damaging.

As far as males fighting, I've never had an issue with that. I only breed my female rats once every few months, so my males all live communally in a large cage. I even have a male that the females will always beat up if he's alone, so I put his brother in with him when it comes time for him to breed. If raised together, males will develop bonds too.

[jasbus]

Wow, the things people post....


I replace, move, add an additional male to my colonies all the time. The key is, socialize...

The best way to produce rats is harem breeding of 1 male and 1 to up to 10(some people do more) females. In larger number harems, having two males will cause sparring that makes the males want to breed even more. Of course, you do run the risk of the males hurting themselves, but it works....
Myself, I run 1.3 rats per tub, don't seperate the harem, only the pups. I regularly move babies around to make the litters more manageable for a tub that has too many, etc... I also very regularly pull my jumbo males to sell or feed off(they get lazy), and replace with a younger buck, with pups in the tub... More often than not, it's the female that will lay a hurtin on a new male than the male killing off pups.. And, really I don't run into many problems at all. Every once in a blue moon, I'll find a beaten up dead rat, but it's not very common.

As for sickly rats, they get fed off, yes, fed to my snakes. They will not transmit any disease to your reptiles... Reptiles in the wild will eat carrion, I think my pythons can handle megacolon or a possible myco infected rat...(suiting up, flames are a coming...)

I've been doing these procedures for, I don't know, 25 years....maybe more, somewhere back in the late 80's.

[wolfy-hound]

I don't see how megacolon would hurt a snake. I mean, it's devestating to the rat's system, but it's not as if somehow the snake suddenly changes it's innards to get megacolon too. It's not contagious, anymore than a rat with a missing tail would somehow make the snake's tail fall off.

I've had two cases of males killing babies. One was absolutely blatantly a male who killed any babies, his or otherwise. One was a case of new moms with a established older male who MAYBE caused baby killing, but it happened in two seperate bins. He's great for breeding young females, just seems the babies get killed if he's not removed. Removing him means no dead babies. I use him on many of my first time breeding girls though. Afterwards, they get a different "permanent" male, and I haven't had issues doing this.

To each their own... no "one right way" and all that. I try to listen to the rat breeders who've been doing it forever.

I'd love to see the report about too much household light. It sounds fascinating. I wonder if it would apply to rats in racks, since a rack gets much less light even in a lit room... or if a rat has hiding spots in a 'open' tank, would it still apply?