Rat??

[Hellix2494]

Ok, Just a question that was bouncing around my head for a bit.

Is it OK to keep Multiple nursing rat females together?? I had two rat moms that were nursing in seperate tanks and I moved them to the same tank and they started fighting, so I seperated them.

Would they be OK if I had them in together from the beginning instead of trying to move them in after they had their pups?

[MeMe]

IMO...not really. Some people probably do. It may work but for them but for me, I never put nursing moms together because they tend to fight over the pups and can/does usually get pretty brutal.

Once I put my female and male together they share a tub till she is ready to have her babies (usually around 2 weeks) and then she gets her own tub. From that point she is alone with her babies till she weans them. If she has too many I may foster them off but I dont put another female in there with her to help.

Also if you put different size pups together...say some that are freshies (newborns) with some that are say chubs...the smaller ones could get pushed aound, suffocated, be underfed, and ultimately die.

One other reason I keep them seperate is too be able to identify if there are any problems with the Mom or her babies.

this is just how I do.

[littleindiangirl]

Ditto that. If they fought once, I wouldnt leave them in together again. They clearly don't get along with others while nursing.

I have a few female rats that are very territorial, and pick on the "newbies" so to speak. Although the newbies have been around almost as long, the other girls were there first and always let the "newbies" know it. They will bully, nip, scrap and all around get pissy and loud.

Would I ever put those two rats together in the same tub to nurse? Heck no, I'd lose both litters.

I always advocate leaving mothers to nurse by themselves. It's how they prefer it in the wild, they prefer it in captivity.

[FatBoy]

Personally I don't have any problems. I usually put 3 nursing females in a tub, after 2 weeks I remove one mama and put it back in breeding and the other 2 divy out the babies. Sometimes after another week or so I will remove another mama leaving one to nurse the 3 litters until they are weaned which is usually the following week. While in the tub together most of my mamas seem to work together raising the young.

[MeMe]

Personally I don't have any problems. I usually put 3 nursing females in a tub, after 2 weeks I remove one mama and put it back in breeding and the other 2 divy out the babies. Sometimes after another week or so I will remove another mama leaving one to nurse the 3 litters until they are weaned which is usually the following week. While in the tub together most of my mamas seem to work together raising the young.

I would think that is pretty hard on your female breeders and to get tossed back in for bredding right after weaning.

I guess if it works for you .. but I wouldn't.

I actually rotate my female breeders so the ones that are in the R&R tubs (rest and recovery) stay in there for about 3 weeks while other females are in breeding. Once they start showing I pull them and put them in their own tubs. I also give my male breeders a week break in between.

[MarkS]

I usually set mine up in pairs of preggos. Though if I can I pull them out of the same breeding tub so they're already used to each other. The reason I do like putting them together is because I've sometimes run into lousy moms that ignore their babies who then die. If you have two of them in together one will usually pick up the slack from the other.

Mark

[cassandra]

I had two moms drop within the same day and one mom took over nursing both litters...in hindsight, I wish I had separated them as together, there were a LOT of babies and their growth has been slowed.

[frankykeno]

My female rats go one to a small maternity enclosure from when I can see they are obviously pregnant until about a week or so before their pups are weaned. At that point the pups are already nibbling dry food and using the water bottle but still like nurse off their momma. I put two females I know do well together (they were in the breeding tubs together with the male) in a very large tub with all their offspring.

This frees up my maternity enclosures, it allows a growing big litter of pups to have more space to move around, it allows the females to socialize and share the last part of their mothering duties. Since I feed off a lot of pups it leaves whatever is left to be shared by the two mothers in that last week before weaning. So far it's worked out really well for us and I don't get any fighting with the females at all. Granted though these are females that were raised together, breed in the same group usually, rest at the same time in the female only tub, etc. I tend to cull out overly dominant nasty tempered females anyways so I don't normally have any of those in breeding rotation.

[syearout]

I breed all my rats in groups. I keep 5 rats per tube, and I rotate my males. The 5 females that are together stay together for good. Only if I loose one do the groups change, and only in the rest period in between weaning, and breeding again do i make any changes to the groups. It works well for me, only down side is when they are ready to wean, I have fifty rats in a tub...... wow thats alot of rats.

[marmie]

I separate mine! It makes me sad when they fight over the babies. So to prevent seeing damage to mom or babies I let the moms have their own tubs right before they deliver.