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?