Breeding Dwarfs

[MonitorLove]

I've been thinking about breeding Dwarf rats. My black male Berk-Blaze het. Dumbo seems ridiculously small for his age (mum and dad were smaller sized rats). His litter mates aren't much better. Though, they are all very healthy and very active,they just seem small.

They were born on the 27th of September. They roughly measure 4 1/2" from nose to base of the tail. And 9" from nose to tip of the tail.

Mom is 6 1/2 from nose to base. and 12 1/2 from nose to tip. Her sisters are about half an inch longer. I don't have measurements of the dad, but he was about the same size as the mom.


Does anyone have any experience breeding dwarfs? I heard they tend to have healthy issues, but never got the specifics.

[SatanicIntention]

Why in the world would you want to breed dwarves for feeders...

Dwarf rats can ONLY be adopted from the very few breeders in the US and UK who work with them, and even then, you will sign a VERY STRICT no breeding contract. If they know you have snakes and have other rats that you breed for feeders, good luck getting them to even talk with you.

Reputable breeders spend decades on breeding the perfect quality pet/show rat. It takes alot of time, money and resources to selective breed and get healthy animals. These people aren't going to waste their well-spent time adopting rats out to someone who is just going to breed for feeders. It's like someone adopting two golden retrievers and breeding them for feeders for their pet anaconda.

You can't just put two dwarf rats together and think you're going to be successful getting babies. Dwarves have alot of birthing problems related to their size. The pinkies are NORMAL pinky size, not dwarf size. It's like a human carrying 3-4 babies 1/3 the size of an adult person. Dwarves need to be robust, healthy, have very good genetics, and you're not going to find any dwarves in a pet store.

If you don't have a GOOD exotics vet, one who can do emergency surgery on a dwarf female rat who is unable to have her babies, then don't even think about it. If you're not willing to shell out possibly $1,000 for said surgery, then don't even think about it.

That said, a breeding quality dwarf rat sells for around $50. Add in the shipping fee which is around $100 plus the shipping crate, and then the health certificate from the vet and you're looking at a very expensive rat.

Also, PLEASE don't breed blazed rats. They are considered high-whites and high-white marked rats have a very high likelihood for carrying the gene for megacolon(causes bloating, smelly, profuse diarrhea, starvation and death in baby rats by the time they are 3-4 weeks old. Some are "lucky" and live to be a few months old on a very specific diet). DON'T subject a rat to all of that pain and suffering when it can be prevented.

[littleindiangirl]

Don't feel bad, everyone (including us) who asks about dwarf rats get's the truth from Becky.