Help With Small Scale Rat Breeding

[NorCalPythons]

I need help with breeding rats at a steady flow. i have 2 racks with 6 cement tubs each, i jest need help on how should i breed them so that i will have a steady flow of rats. i have found a few ppl that want to buy them, but the first person baught all my rats i had ready. so i need to breed as meay as i can with the 12 tubs i have an at a steady flow. what would be the best way to do this?

[truthsdeceit]

How often do you want a litter, every week? And how many litters do you want per week?

Say you want 3 litters every week.

3 females per tub. You have 12 tubs (1-12) and assume you have 2 males (M1 & M2).

Assign the males there own tubs. i.e. M1 gets tubs 1-6 and M2 gets tubs 7-12.

Rotate the males through the tubs so that they spend two weeks with each set of females. If you stagger the rotation so that M1 moves one week and M2 the next you'll get litters every week. If you move them at the same time you'll get 6 litters every two weeks.

Never place both males in the same tub!

This system has the advantage of producing constantly while allowing the females vacation time after each litter. You can do this with a few as 4 tubs per male (any fewer tubs than that the male arrives to early in tub #1 when the cycle repeats) So if you want to use 4 tubs per male (8 total) and keep the remaining 4 tubs for grow outs you can.

I use this method with my mice and it works great! And will be easier with rats.
Hope it wasn't too confusing. Feel free to ask Q's.

Also heres a more comprehensive post of my method:
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=77619

[truthsdeceit]

Oh, if you are looking to produce pinkie piles. Just put a male in with some females and leave him in constantly (make an established colony). Remove the pinkies every time they have some. You'll get litters of pinkies every 3 weeks (cause gestation is about 21-23days).

The rotation method I laid out before is good if you want to raise rats all the way to at least weanling stage because the mother won't be a fat prego while still nursing.

Just establishing colonies and leaving them alone is good when you need pinkies and fuzzies.

[littleindiangirl]

We put in two females with a male every week so I get two litters a week to feed. Females stay in the males tub for 3 weeks, then are pulled out into my maternity rack to birth and nurse. Then they get 3 or 4 weeks of vacation to regain weight and then they go back in to breed again.

This is how we do it.
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=52894

It is my belief and with lots of experimenting....that sets of 12 are the ideal number. What a lot of feeder breeders forget is that rats need a break after you wean a litter. They need time to regain weight, bone mass and minerals. Keep in mind there is only about a 2 week period when you can feed rats before they grow to big to be what most on this forum consider the perfect size feeders.

Here is how it works
* I typed this out in another thread and Thanks goes to Richard <Halfdawg> for this graphically version and littleindiangirl (for the initial layout - I think?)

Quick explanation of what you are looking at: The male goes in with the first female for 2 weeks (after 21-23 days the female gives birth, 4 weeks later the babies are ready to be fed off and the female gets 4 weeks to "vacation" - to gain weight, bone mass and nutrients before the male comes back to visit. Every 2 weeks the male moves to another tub.




So why 12? Because 12 is the number of weeks it takes for one female to start the process and complete the birth, weaning and rest before starting over. So with 12 breeders that means every week you will have 1 litter ready to be fed off. If you assume 10 weaned babies each week (this is a very broad average) you can then figure out how many sets of 12 you need. ie. if you need 20 feeders per week you need 2 litters every week so that means twice the number or 24 breeders, need 30 feeders you need 36 breeders, etc. etc.

I have this same setup but using 5 females for each week (60 females total) and for the past 3 years and have always had the correct number of feeders needed (any excess are sold off to a local pet store or friends)

You can work with less females but you will stress their bodies by over breeding them without the necessary rest period so they will die quicker and produce less.

This system is designed so you produce all the feeders that are required each week...you can have less breeders if you want but the risk is the need to occassionally buy extra feeders (bad week, small litter, sick breeder, etc.) or to feed F/T on occassion.


Hopefully this information helps anyone considering breeding and with the question of How many?
Attached Files
File Type: xls My_RAT_Schedule2(1).xls (31.5 KB, 8 views)

[truthsdeceit]

We put in two females with a male every week so I get two litters a week to feed. Females stay in the males tub for 3 weeks, then are pulled out into my maternity rack to birth and nurse. Then they get 3 or 4 weeks of vacation to regain weight and then they go back in to breed again.

This is how we do it.
http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=52894

You put it so succinctly.

[littleindiangirl]

You put it so succinctly.

LOL, I tried to go a little more in depth there.

[NorCalPythons]

thank you for your replys they really helped