Maternity seperation?

[Knowell]

I have read/watched a lot and it seems half the breeders pull out pregnant females and put them in there own tub to birth(small scale guys). Saying because the females fight over babies and tear them. But the bigger breeders run 1.4 ratio and only pull out the male when its time. Am I missing something? Do they do something special to not have to leave 4 girls together all having babies?

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[Stewart_Reptiles]

By putting the females in birthing tubs it allows you to

- Know what female produce what and whether there are issues with the offspring or if it is time for the female to retire.

- Cut down on loss, rats are great mothers however because they are so great they will fight over babies causing serious injuries and or death.

I have all my females birth individually in a small birthing tub and once the pups are stronger (5 to 7 days old) the females are placed in communal nursing tubs, depending on the litter size and age it will be between 2 to 3 females per tubs.

I produce a few thousands each year, now if you produce 10's of thousands you can take a 5 to 10% loss and not care about what female does what I guess.

I breed the way I do for efficiency.

[Lost571]

I breed my rats 1.3 or 1.4. I dont ever Seperate any of them accept when its time to pull the weaned babies. I replace my breeders about every 6 months or so. That being said every month or 6 weeks I'm starting new colonies. I learned the hard way starting fresh all at once is BAD!!! Got to have babies coming all the time to feed the snakes.

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[Knowell]

That you bother for the info that helps my undersranding. Lost do you leave the one male with each set of females and not pull it out?

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[Knowell]

And deb how does that work with space having single house females? I'd imagine you have a lot of girls do you have a couple racks used specifically for the birthing process?

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[Lost571]

Yes I leave the 1 male with each group of females 100% of the time.

I have 20 colonies of rats. The males have never hurt a baby. I have never found any signs of babies being fought over. 2 years in and I dont see my system changing anytime soon.

I'm feeding 50+ snakes and various amounts of babies at any given time. Never have a shortage of feeders. In fact I have enough extra rats to trade for a few hundred pounds of rat food every month.

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[Lost571]

To add do my last post thats 20 colonies in full swing breeding. I will also have several groups of females waiting to birth their last litter once I decide its time to start new groups. I will also have youger females giving birth in fresh started colonies....so as I said earlier never a shortage of feeders!

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[Knowell]

Awesome. So your running 60-80 females at all times. I plan for my collection to grow and stay between 50-90 snakes so that sounds good. Thanks for the info much appreciated.

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[Lost571]

Yeah its a chore but well worth it. I know how my rodents are raised. I know What they eat and I know they are clean and healthy.

GOOD LUCK!!!

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[AntonB]

it works if you have small colonies going and you want to make sure that all your females are producing at optimal levels as soon as production drops you replace her with a young female

I run 4/1 i never separate the male from the females and i have had all 4 females drop at once. I then remove half the pinkys and freeze so as not to over crowd the bin if new ones arrive then the older ones are removed and gassed and frozen so that the pinkies get all the milk.

I have had minor fight in a bin and have lost a babies here and there but nothing that is seriously bad.

I run 200 Tubs rats at 4/1

200 females and 50 males in Grow out bins growing up for expansion and replacement

Mice i run 10/1