Planning out what size rack I'll need for breeding

[bks2100]

I'm up to 10 snakes now and I don't really have any plans to add more until later this year (either buying one or two or hatchlings). I've been reading about what everyone does with rotating males, harem tubs, maternity tubs, etc but I can't really decide on what to do because I have no clue what size tubs they'll need. It seems like people use the medium cement mixing tubs from home depot so the males can breed multiple females at a time and then take them out to maternity tubs, but what about when you follow the "Should I Breed? How Many to Breed?" thread with 12 females and 2 males. Could I just build a 14 tub rack with kitty litter pans and move the males around while all the moms stay in the same tub?

If that works I think I'd want to do that. That would give me two males so if one died I could rotate the living one every week until I get a new male or grow one up, and at 14 tubs I could easily have 2 extra tubs to hold a few handfuls of grow outs (I figure a male tub with one good sized male as a backup and I'd cull/freeze the others at the right size). Not to mention during the females vacation after weaning I could put like 3 (or 4?) in a single tub, so that would be 8 tubs with pregnant/breeding females, 1 for vacation females, and then 5 for whatever else. I figure this would also be nice if I had to increase production, I could build a 6 cement tub rack and have 1.3 in each tub and just moving the pregnant ones over to a quiet tub by herself.

So I guess the big thing I'm not sure on, in the van ness large kitty litter pans and medium cement mixing tubs, how many females could i have with the male without rotating? How many without rotating? How many moms can fit in each with their babies? How many small/medium sized rats can be held in there for grow outs?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I have tried various methods harem, female rotation, male rotation and my best results are having each males setup in a tub with females being added weekly and removed when visibly pregnant to be place into an individual birthing tub where they stay until the babies are 5 to 7 days and than placed in communal nursing tubs. During the first 5 to 7 days the babies skin is very fragile and when females fight over the babies it leads to losses and I breed for maximum production.

I use concrete mixing tubs (9 gallons ones) and have 3 females with the males in rotation (one female go out one goes in), as far as nursing I have 3 females with their babies in the same type tubs, more than that and it is too crowded, once the babies are 3 weeks old the females go back in rotation and babies are raised until they are 6 weeks max if not fed before that time.

Now when I did male rotation each males would rotate between 3 tubs each, spending 2 weeks in each tubs.

So as you can see both of those methods work well one I do not recommend is harem, this means the female are breeding back to back being pregnant while nursing and it really takes it's toll on them very fast impacting the babies and litter size.

If I was in your place I would likely have 2.12, with the males rotating between 3 tubs each, and have another rack for growout and holdback.

[bks2100]

I saw you comment somewhere else before about the babies being killed in the first week from all the back and forth. I was thinking about putting moms alone until that 1 week mark and then giving them a room mate, but I think I like your other suggestions more.

So would you suggest moving the males every 2 weeks or stretch that out to 3? I figure at 3 weeks when they come back around to the first tubs they'll have 0-2 weeks of rest between them. I'm sure I could push it out a few days more but it's easier for me to remember things weekly as opposed to every 23 or some odd days.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I saw you comment somewhere else before about the babies being killed in the first week from all the back and forth. I was thinking about putting moms alone until that 1 week mark and then giving them a room mate, but I think I like your other suggestions more.

So would you suggest moving the males every 2 weeks or stretch that out to 3? I figure at 3 weeks when they come back around to the first tubs they'll have 0-2 weeks of rest between them. I'm sure I could push it out a few days more but it's easier for me to remember things weekly as opposed to every 23 or some odd days.

You can stretch to 3 weeks but I never found it necessary. The only thing make sure you start your second male 1 weeks after the first so it give you a consistent production of 2 females birthing every week for 6 weeks rather than 4 birthing each week for 3 weeks.

I think 12 tubs at this point will be more than enough.

[bks2100]

You can stretch to 3 weeks but I never found it necessary. The only thing make sure you start your second male 1 weeks after the first so it give you a consistent production of 2 females birthing every week for 6 weeks rather than 4 birthing each week for 3 weeks.

I think 12 tubs at this point will be more than enough.

So if I did it every 2 weeks, wouldn't the first tub have females with 0-2 week old babies? I looked too much into breeding asf so now I can't remember if adding new rats into a tub with a mom and babies is a good idea or if I'm mixing up species.

I think you've made up my mind though, I wanted to avoid having 2 of those racks but those two will give me a full rack of breeders and I could always use 3 tubs from the other rack for more breeders if I had to. And once I have a clutch it'll be nice to have that extra rack space since I'll pretty much have to expand.