First litter on the ground (second soon to come)!

[artgecko]

Just wanted to post that I've gotten my first litter and will soon have my second. I'm primarily breeding for pet purposes (it's impossible to get tame well-bred pet rats here unless you drive at least 3 hours). But I plan to use the rats that aren't suitable for my breeding program as feeders. Parents of this litter are a beige velveteen dumbo female and Russian Dove variegated dumbo male. The other litter has the same father, but the mother is a Russian blue dumbo female. The beige female gave birth to 14 babies today and according to the breeder, there could be mink and Russian blue in her lines as well, so we could get black, RB, beige and mink in the litter. About half should also be velveteen (aka teddy rex, a soft less curly version of rex). The other male i have is a Russian cinnamon velveteen, so I'm hoping for a mink female baby keeper to breed with him (as far as I know, cinnamon is agouti mink).

I will post a very bad pic of the mother with pups and a pic of the male and second female below... I really need to get a good camera.

[artgecko]

I had to remove 4 pups today. 1 was removed by the mom, 1 had front leg issues, and 2 were very runty... Mom hasn't been keeping them as full, so hopefully this will help. I am going to add more fresh kale and soy milk to her diet, hopefully that will also help her feed the others.

[Jay_Bunny]

Congrats on the litter!!!

[artgecko]

Thanks!
Here's a pic of the pups before I removed the 4 from yesterday.


I'm hoping to see fuller babies today. I will update you guys as they age.

[artgecko]

Had an issue with maternal aggression with the mother of this litter. I have decided that she will be culled as soon as they are weaned. The fate of the pups is still in the balance. I may not keep any for breeders as they could carry aggression as well.

I removed 4 pups from the litter because the female was having a hard time feeding them. I will post an updated pic of the 10 remaining ones below.

[Fraido]

What did you do with the pups you removed?

[artgecko]

I fed one live to a problem feeder I have and the other three were frozen.. Which is the most humane way to kill pinkies (they can't control their internal temps yet and are resistant to CO2 / smothering).

So far, it looks like the 10 remaining ones are healthy and gaining weight, so the rest will be kept until they mature more and then I'll make my decisions about who to keep as a possible breeder (if I keep any) and who will be fed food (would be euthanized with CO2 first). Because of how the mother is (temperament) I would not place any of these as pets.

I am primarily breeding to produce pets (there are no pet breeders in my area) but any animals not cut out for my breeding program will be used as feeders until I am happy with my line in terms of temperament and health... Getting snake food out of this is a bonus.

[Fraido]

Curious, is there something in there for her and the babies to hide in? My girl barely sniffed me (and she's a shy rat, has yet to fully trust me) when she had her litter, and I didn't have anything for her to actually nest inside. It's been almost two weeks, and I decided to put a little igloo in with her, I stuck my finger in there and she mouthed it for the first time. She didn't bite hard but there was some pressure, so I'm just wondering if that would make a difference with the aggression. (There being a hide or not.)
I mean, I know a very large breeder who has possibly thousands of rats and you can stick your hands in any bin and none of them bite, not even nursing mom's. It's crazy, no handling and perfect pet temperament.

I also realize you have another thread specifically for the aggression issue.. sorry. Lol

[artgecko]

I had originally given her a hide (a half coke can box with the bottom cut out), but she did not really use it. After the aggression issue, I removed it and the climbing rope I had in there... I wanted to be able to easily grab her with gloves on.

My other female gave birth yesterday! Stella (Russian blue) had 12 babies, 1 dead (appears to have bled out from what I do not know) and 11 live. She appears fine but we saw some blood this morning.. It might have been from another pinky. I will have to count tonight.
So far no aggression issues with her.

Here's a pic of her with babies and then the babies by themselves.



And here's an updated pic of the beige female (Nova) and her pups at 5 days old.


The more I think about, the less I think I will keep any of Nova's pups... Depending on how well Stella's litter does. Stella has no aggression issues that I know of (and hasn't tried to nip me yet). I might keep 1 female from Nova's litter just out of curiosity and to see if she shows aggression as an adult, but I am not sure about it. I have received some great advice on the other thread (in general breeder's section) and the consensus seems to be to cull any biters and all of their offspring... This will help eliminate aggression in my lines and hopefully I will have good rats like your friend... Rats that you don't have to handle for them to be "nice" and trustworthy not to bite.

It will be a tough call, because eliminating all of Nova's offspring will mean not having beige in my colony (and I love the color) but temperament is more important than looks.

I will update as the pups grow. As of now, there are 10 babies in Nova's litter and 11 in Stella's.

[artgecko]

8 day old pups from the beige female's litter. Have not sexed yet and can't tell which are standard coat or velveteen yet. All are dumbo.

Any thoughts on color? I'm thinking Russian blue or black, but not sure if black would be this light at this age.