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  1. #11
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    Two females in the small tubs? I have done it an had a problem. The problem was the second female dropped five days after the first. Why? Because I only had one male. The problem was baby stealing which led to fighting an I lost eight pinkies. Plus the smaller ones got beat an dominated by the older pups. I always use two males now. A rat Norway by its self for a month causes problems, so instead of one in a tub it’s two.

    if you run one male stagger your breeding. You could run four females an leave one in with the male 17 days. That way you always have two together.

    If you build a rack with the large tubs you could get away with almost anything except leaving the male in. While you could leave him in the outcome would suck for litter size. If you use the large tubs run a 1x1 across the inside 4x4(2x2 if you used). That way the bottom of the tub will be supported. As the rails alone might (won’t) not hold. Be there an done that.

    Read around here an some Rat fancier sites. You could do fine with rotating one male but you’ll need a add things to the set ups. Adding a sixth tub to the rack might fix any problems. Cycle the male an separate the females at 18-19 days.
    One male with two females will cause the drop days to by off. It takes a few days sometimes by bring the female into cycle an if one male spends more time with one you could have a two week difference. My glass tank days showed that. Same as having one boar in with six sows. Better to bring him one at a time. An giving him a break or he’ll drop dead from wearing himself out. Has to be seen to be believed (an I saw it).

    Good luck!

  2. #12
    BPnet Lifer MrLang's Avatar
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    Re: Small scale rat breeding

    Think I saw this comment but what I did was have 2 females per tub and kept only 1 male at a time. The male got rotated to a new tub every 2 weeks or so. By the time he got back to the first tub I had pulled and culled the babies. Or if I wanted larger rats I would have a grow out tub or let the male stay in 3 weeks per tub. Whenever the baby boys start to try to mate or rough each other up, they got culled first. The females can grow out with the mom just fine.

    Now if you have a mother eating her own babies, you are breeding her too frequently or you are not feeding a high protein diet. I really think breeding colonies thrive on an 18-21% protein feed. If you have a female eating another female's babies, just cull her. After a few generations of selecting chubby friendly outgoing females and males you will not have any kind of cannibalization if you even have any to begin with.

    You will also get 'greedy' females that pull the other females babies into her pile and try to feed too many. As long as she gives the other female a turn and they both sit on the pile, no problem. If one female is defensive about the pile of both litters and doesn't let the other mom feed them, cull her.

    Again, just shape your colony for the right behaviors over the 2 generations and they will be great. Rats are very friendly communal animals and great pets. You will really enjoy the norways.
    Dreamtime Exotics -- Check it out!
    Ball Pythons, Monitors, Saltwater Reef, Fancy Rats, Ferrets

  3. #13
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    The first thing that you need to look at is how many rats do you need each week and what sizes do you need? This will be the determining factor in what you should do and how you should do it.

    For example, if you have a whole bunch of adult ball pythons to feed, that is a lot different operation that trying to breed a bunch of pinkies up for hatchling season.

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