Number of rats per tub

[cncmachineguy]

@cncmachineguy - It has been recommended to me that 1 female breeder per snake is ideal for keeping up with supply and demand. So, if you only have 4 snakes, 4 female rats and 1 male rat would probably be all you need. That sounds sooo much easier than what i'm heading into, which is still nothing compared to what cchardwick and a lot of these other guys have to keep up with! lol

@Aedryan Methyus
I agree with the 1 rat per snake rule of thumb. The problem for me is with so few snakes, I am having trouble juggling all the "desired" features. The biggest one being nobody alone. Having 4 or 6 females is not going to make or break anything for me right now, so I may as well error to the side of accepted "quality of life". And of course I am sure the rats won't cooperate as they should. So the plan will surely fall apart quickly. But as a machinist I must start as though it is going to work. But small/large litters coming early/late will throw off my perfectly tuned schedule. Thats when me and the girls will have to have a talk.

Now to be sure if I needed a litter or more per week I would be doing things different for sure.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Rule of thumb is one female rat for every snake. I produce 5K to 10K of feeder a year (mice and rats) and have done so for 11 years now and while the number may seems overwhelming it's not.


When it comes to retirement it's pretty easy for females especially when they are the ones rotating the best way to retire a female just track down production, anything under 10 and you retire. (hence why individual birthing helps), some females will retire at a younger age than others so age is never the best way to go about retirement for females.

Males I have them breeding for 6 months and then I retire them. Males are easy to track since they always remain in the same tubs, so I write the date they are put in service on the tub so I know when they are retired.

Males can breed longer but it really take it's toll and 1.2 to 1.3 ratio is really ideal. Put one or two new females in remove the pregnant one. Never retire your males all at once decide your males in groups and retire those group 2 months apart, this way you are not falling behind in production.

Communal breeding/birthing with two females per tubs can be done as well in that case the male is rotating however, you don't really know what female produce what (harder to know if she needs to be retired or not) and female will fight over babies and when they are under 5 to 7 days it often means severe injury and death lowering your production anywhere from 5 to 10 percent.

[cncmachineguy]

Well I picked up a couple rats last week just to check husbandry and such on my part. The girl at my favorite store gave me a female she thought might be pregnant. Well it turns out she was!!! This is what I got on the morning check.


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[cncmachineguy]

This is a "seasoned" mom, how much do I need to leave her alone and not peek in at the kids? Seeing this is my first ever litter of any babies (Ok my 2 kids don't count), I am pretty excited and just want to open the tub and stare at them a lot!

I did notice a milk band on at least 1 of them, so I assume that is a good thing.