Finally it all works... still some ?'s

[JoshJP7]

So I picked up a rat breeding rack from ARS about 2 months ago and had nothing but problems from the start. Initially the rats I had were too small and coulnt reach the food trough and I lost a couple rats because of that. 2nd my watering system kept malfunctioning and I couldnt figure out why... After messing with it for weeks I figured out that the top on the 5gallon water bucket needed to be open a little bit to allow air flow. So it's now been a couple of weeks and everything is running very smooth and the rats are getting fat. Now to the questions...

1.) How big do females and males need to be in order to breed??

2.) I currently use Diamond Soft Bedding and keep 2 rats per tub. Due to the price of bedding I have been able to put down a thick coat of bedding and get away with not having to change the bedding for 2 weeks. The diamond soft is very absorbant and keeps the smell down quite a bit. Am I a scumbag for stretching out the use of bedding to two weeks? For those of you who do not know what diamond soft is ... it is white paperish bedding that is soft(duh)... when I change the bedding it is pretty close to a 50/50 split between still white and yellow from pee. Bedding costs 17.99 per 20lb bag and I use just about 2 bags per month... It's my opinion that if the tubs dont smell and its not completely disgusting that I'm OK to stretch out the usage as much as possible... Any other opinions or health risks?

[littleindiangirl]

Females need to be 250 grams or 5 months of age. Males can breed soon after they wean, however, most females wont let him breed until he is much larger and dominant.

[marmie]

So I picked up a rat breeding rack from ARS about 2 months ago and had nothing but problems from the start. Initially the rats I had were too small and coulnt reach the food trough and I lost a couple rats because of that. 2nd my watering system kept malfunctioning and I couldnt figure out why... After messing with it for weeks I figured out that the top on the 5gallon water bucket needed to be open a little bit to allow air flow. So it's now been a couple of weeks and everything is running very smooth and the rats are getting fat. Now to the questions...

1.) How big do females and males need to be in order to breed??

2.) I currently use Diamond Soft Bedding and keep 2 rats per tub. Due to the price of bedding I have been able to put down a thick coat of bedding and get away with not having to change the bedding for 2 weeks. The diamond soft is very absorbant and keeps the smell down quite a bit. Am I a scumbag for stretching out the use of bedding to two weeks? For those of you who do not know what diamond soft is ... it is white paperish bedding that is soft(duh)... when I change the bedding it is pretty close to a 50/50 split between still white and yellow from pee. Bedding costs 17.99 per 20lb bag and I use just about 2 bags per month... It's my opinion that if the tubs dont smell and its not completely disgusting that I'm OK to stretch out the usage as much as possible... Any other opinions or health risks?

I don't think you're a scumbag! Why do you use such expensive bedding?

I personally use pine and change my cages weekly but most of my rats are outside so I don't smell them unless I go out there. I've gone as long as 2 weeks but only because I was on vacation and didn't have anyone to change the cages for me.

Recently I got a few new rats and have put them in QT in one of my spare bedrooms. After 2 days I couldn't stand the smell so I PM'd Connie (littleindiangirl) and asked her about Equine Fresh. I can't get Equine Fresh from our feed store but they sell something called stable blend and I believe it's the same as Equine Fresh and the cost was $6.50 per 40# bag. I'm not sure how long it will last before I need to change the cages since I just started using it last night but I can't imagine it being longer than a week.

A lot of people don't recommend pine but I've not had any problems with it.

Good luck!

[frankykeno]

Every bedding will react differently and it depends in the end on the number of rats in the enclosure, the size of those rats, etc. Change the enclosures when you figure it's the time to do so. You'll know best really on that.

I usually like to keep my future breeder females in a group with one or two older, very calm and nice natured retired breeder females. This helps to socialize these females and makes them easier to manage when I'm in there around them and their future babies. Generally the females go in for their first breeding around 4 to 4.5 months of age or 250 grams in weight.

Male rats will pretty much climb on a female from the moment they are able to until about 5 minutes before they keel over dead of old age. Smaller males do tend to sometimes be kicked off if a big mature experienced breeder female rat just can't be bothered to put up with their antics but generally the little males get the job done. Once male rats start breeding they bulk up quite quickly (all those male hormones I would assume).