Any tricks to getting new grow outs to learn to drink from water nipple?

[rufretic]

So my rats are producing great now and I have not had any issues for a while now. The only thing that continues to annoy me is that once I wean my pups from the mother and move them to one of my grow out tubs, it seems like they just can't figure out how to drink from the water nipple . So every time I have new pups I'm having to put a water dish in with them until they are fed off. It's quite annoying considering I took the time to setup a nice auto water system. If I don't put a water dish in, within a few days they are on the verge of death with the sunken eyes and wobbling around so of course I resort to a water dish again and luckily I have not lost any yet because as soon as I dip their nose in it they drink like crazy and within a day they are back to normal. But this defeats the purpose of the auto feeder and is actually quite time consuming because they need it refilled a couple times daily.

Does anyone else have this issue? Have you found a way to teach them to drink from the nipple?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

They learn from other rats, once they start drinking on their own they will start drinking from your watering system just like their parents.

Once they are 3 weeks old and you wean them they have no issue drinking out of a valve.

I have been breeding mice and rats for a decade (I produce 1000's each year) and never had any issue with animals not drinking from the valves and my rat tubs are about 6 inches high. I never once put a water dish

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[rufretic]

So what are you saying, leave them with mom longer so they can learn from her? I've never timed when I wean them, I just take them out once they are running around the tub freely. I've tried putting the mother back in with them so they could learn from her but then they just start nursing from her again so they still didn't learn. Maybe the issue is that I'm just seperating them too early? I just figured it was better to give mom a break because some of them have huge litters so when they have 20 small rats nursing on them it seems to take a huge toll on the moms so I try to get them a break as soon as the pups will start eating on their own.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You do not want to remove then from mom before they are at least 3 weeks, at 2 weeks they will run around however they are only starting to eat solid food and still needs to be with their mother, at 3 weeks they can safely be weaned, 4 weeks if they are runts, by that time they are fine on their own and no longer need their mother, they will eat and drink on their own.

My guess you might remove them a bit early.

Rats are designed to produce large litters if that worries you try to do communal nursing.

I usually have them in individual birthing tubs for the first week to cut down on fighting and loss and after that I have 2 to 3 females per tubs in my communal nursing tubs, then by week 3 babies are seperated and the females go back in rotation.

Hope that helps.

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[rufretic]

That is really helpful, thank you. I think I'd like to try doing the communal thing because right now the way it's setup, I have two females in each of my smaller tubs, then I rotate a male through, removing him after a female gives birth. But sometimes only one female will go and then I'm stuck waiting for the babies to get weaned before I get a male back in. So maybe it would be better to do 3 females per tub and then just keep one male in there all the time, removing the mother and babies instead and putting them in the larger grow out tubs. I'm sure it would increase my production. The only question I have about doing it that way is how much difference in age is ok for the different litters that go into the communal nursing tub? I've read that sometimes the older pups will kill the new borns? That's the only issue I can see with doing it this way.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You really want the babies to be of the same age not to say you can't put 7 days old with a 2 weeks old but I don't recommend it, the smaller one will be buried under the big ones and obviously not eat as much and grow even slower.

I am lucky that I produce enough so I can always put babies the same size together.

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[rufretic]

Thank you for sharing your experience Deborah. That is what I was worried about so for now I'll keep things going the way they are since it's working but I'll just try to keep the pups with the mom a little longer to see if that helps get them going on the water nipple. Thanks again.