What age ?

[Brandon.O]

At what age are rats weaned from thier mothers and perfectly capable of eating/being without thier mother ??

Is it about 6-7 weeks like mice ??

[Shelby]

4 weeks. It doesn't take that long for mice.. as little as 3 weeks I think.

[Brandon.O]

Ohh yeah, duh, i was thinking sexual maturity (for mice)

Ok well thanks,i think my mom is coming around to the idea of letting me get a rat AGAIN, i told her that the babies from the mice might die in the cold weather and she had a fit when i asked her if i could keep the ten gal in the laundry room.....GRRR she is so stingy with her space !! its one little ten gal....oh well. i have a nice big extra rubbermaid that would definitly house one aadult rat for its whole life (90 quart) and i told her it could live in the garage ( it only falls to about 60 in there) so maybe she will go for that......i really wanna breed the mice but when your mother says you cant have the space where you intend to house them it gets difficult.Who knows, it might work but if not i have plenty of time to start breeding later.

[Shelby]

lol.. can't you stuff that 'little' 10 in your room somewhere?

A mouse is ready to breed at 4 months.. is that what you want to know?

As far as keeping rats in rubbermaids.. make sure there's nowhere they could start chewing it.. as they will make a hole and get out. Mom would LOVE that I'm sure.

[Brandon.O]

lol.. can't you stuff that 'little' 10 in your room somewhere?

Ohh i have plenty of space in my room, but with all the snakes in there, would that be such a good idea ??

I know angela keeps her mice in her room but hers seems alot bigger than mine.

In that case i may just keep the rat in my room, they are less stinky right ??

mouse is ready to breed at 4 months.. is that what you want to know?

I just wanted to know when it would be safe to take the baby away from its mother to come live with me

[Shelby]

Oh.. well in that case just keep the rodents on the other side of the room. I had my ball in the same room with rats AND stinky mice. She didn't kill me.. so just use your brain when you have the snake out I'd say.

Rats are waaaay less offensive to the nose than mice. Much sweeter pets too IMO.

[Brandon.O]

Hmm, that could be tricky, becuase i have rebel on one side, and roxy and ruby on the other, i have a space against my wall in the middle though,Ill be cleaning the cage out every week and of course handling the snakes first before the rodent, ill even handle them in differnt rooms. Id love to see the rat scamper around the room but then when i let the snakes out.......that wont be too much fun.

I also have a closet in the middle of my room where i could keep the rubbermaid (of course the door would be open) and it would be even farther away from the snake cages.

I really like how rats need daily care and attention, snakes.......drop a rat in there and replace the waterbowl everyday and they are fine,ya know. i want somthing i can luv on a bit

[Shelby]

Yeah.. rats are cool. Closest thing to a dog in a small mammal. If you want a really nice one, get one from a breeder. Compared to a pet store rat they're night and day.. just don't plan on using it to breed feeders.

[Brandon.O]

Ill be getting it from where i get my feeders (from the breeder)

nahh, no buying any animals from petstores for me.

[Shelby]

Good deal. You know that rats should not be kept singly? Get a pair.. same sex if you don't want to (or can't) breed.