Rat Breeding Process

[ThyTempest]

Hello everyone,

I have a couple of quick questions when it comes to rat breeding. I know it is not good to breed back to back in rats, so do most of you pull the male out before the female gives birth? Also, if you do pull them out, will they be ok to be re-introduced later for the next litter? Ie, especially with ASF's, once they are separated, they are going to stay that way or they will fight it out.

Thanks

[jglass38]

With regular rats I pull the females when they look like they swallowed a baseball. I keep them separate or with another mother until their babies are ready to be weaned. Then they go back into the breeding rotation. I have had a lot of success doing it this way. When I clean each week I rotate my females through my males so the male sees a different group of females each week. I am pretty new to breeding ASFs but from everything I've read, they are much more sensitive to change so I am leaving my 1.2 or 1.3 groups together all the time.

[ThyTempest]

Allright. So, for the break between pregnancies, is it 4 weeks out of the cycle after the last litter is weaned, or is the time nursing and weaning considered enough time, so that when the last litter is weaned, the mom is safe to be bred again?

[jglass38]

Everyone does it differently. Some people breed back to back, some give longer rests. For me, as soon as the babies are weaned the mother goes back into rotation and will likely have a litter within a month. Some people will wait a month after the babies are weaned, but I don't have that luxury.

[Jay_Bunny]

I give my girls a rest depending on how long they nursed the litter. With some litters I need to feed off the pups at a young age. If I do this, the mother gets a week off and then she's back into the group. If she raises the babies all the way to the weaning stage, I give her 3 weeks off.

[ThyTempest]

We are wanting to keep the breeders as pets, so let me know if you think this would work.

We have 3 tubs set up already, following-ish the DIY sticky. We also have a 29 gallon and a 20 gallon tank that we could use, or just make more tubs, as we have lots of those around too.

Going with the three tub set-up, one for males, including dad, one for females, and one for breeding/birthing. I am planning on only breeding one female at a time.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

The way I used to do it (with a smaller collection) was to have 2 females house in each tubs and have the males rotating between 3 tubs as followed.

[jglass38]

sounds good except for one thing. I never put males breeders in with babies they didn't father. I did it once and the breeder male killed about 10 babies in less than 5 minutes. So you'll want to have a grow out/holding tub to put the babies in once they are weaned.

[ThyTempest]

Allright, so you think that we need at least 4 enclosures? 1 for the Breeding female for rest and birth up to weaning, 1 for female grow up, 1 for male grow up and one for the breeder male for when the female is resting or nursing?

With this type of system, we would breed the male and female, then after a week or two, when she is closer to birthing, take the male out to his own tub. Once the litter is weaned, we separate the males and females into their own tubs, and leave the mom to rest for a while.

Here are the two things I am worried about the most.

1) Everyone is always saying that rats, mice, etc are very social animals and dont do as well alone. With this strategy, the breeding male and female are alone with their own enclosure for at least a few weeks at a time. Do you think this is going to be a problem, and if so how do I fix it without causing more issues.

2) Reintroducing the breeding pair after their separated. I have heard this isnt too much of an issue in rats, I just want to make sure the tendency is that things go smoothly. I know this wont be a for sure, but knowing that most people dont have a problem with this would easy my nerves.

Thanks for all of the help.

[Skittles46]

Personally, after watching ours (somewhere around 100-200 currently) I wouldn't want to keep them totally alone for that long. The only exception in our operation is the heavily pregnant mamas.

As far as #2 goes the only trouble I've ever had with rats (granted we've had them all of 4 months, but still) and reintroducing is males, who tend to fight some to re-establish who's in charge. I've never had any issues with reintroducing females, or males to females.