mom and babies alone? watering system?

[rhsm]

Hi all I guess I am just full of questions tonight. I am going though the old post and coming up with more questions so sorry for so many post in a row.

What are the pros and cons of having one mom and babies verses 2 to3 moms with babies together. I am seeing where some of you do and some of you don't do this so I am just curious about it.
How often then not does it work to leave more than one mom with babies together?

Okay on watering systems . What bottles are the best as far as not leaking out?
Also I have seen where some of you use a cold drink litter or two litter bottles and I am just wondering about these and what kind of drinking nozzel do you use for these?

And would also appreciate the pros and cons of auto / gravity waters.
I saw on line I think it was a peta thing so I wanted to ask about this issue.
Anyway it show where the waterers has flooded and drown all the ratties.
Does this happen with this type of waterer?
Is there better nozzel tips to keep them from leaking ?

Once again Thanks you and I look forward to hearing your answers.
This is it for me tonight as I am signing off.
Thanks all
Good night
rhsm

[rebeccabecca]

I keep my females together when they have babies. Most large breeders do atleast 2 in a container.

I find the blue petsmart ones work the best are are the cheapest. I use what ever I have on hand from before I found the blue ones but will buy the blue ones from now on. try adding the tip on a 2L bottle it should work.

Gravity water systems can fail and cause flooding. If your not looking at them atleast daily then they won't work for you.

[ThyTempest]

I sort of answered it in your other post, but the pro's and con's of communal vs private nesting is often just personal preference. A lot of people will say that use communal nesting no problem, but a lot of people will say they have had moms rip babies apart fighting for them. We have used communal nesting without any issues.

One of the biggest pro's for private nesting, which we use whenever we have the space to, is that you know for sure the dam of the litter...very useful when you are breeding selectively in your holdbacks. Yes...we are breeding feeders, but they are also our pets, and we like to produce more than the standard black/white hooded. We have not been breeding that long, but we are currently trying to nail down a color that popped up in our colony, as well as selectively breeding into selfs and high white berkshires.

As far as watering systems go...I don't have any experience...but I wish I did. We have like a dozen and a half water bottles of varying sizes for our 6 tubs...and it is a pain. Some of the tips are really loud when the rats use them, some bottles can just be bad and leak all the time...but the big pro with bottles is safety. No risk for floods. I have never heard of people using pop bottles with the water bottle stems, but it sounds like a good idea...kind of a balance between bottles and gravity systems.

So...gravity watering systems. They save a lot of time, and potentially a lot of hassle and restless nights (depending on where your rats our). In the long run, a watering system will probably save you some money, and certainly a lot of time and energy...but it may cause a few headaches and heartbreaks along the way. Flood risk is always there. The two main reasons we have not switched to a watering system is flood risk and cost. Floods are a big issue. Not only would it probably kill the rats in the tub, if the resevoir was recently filled, it could trickle over...etc. Our rats are our pets as well as breeders, so it just doesnt matter enough to us to risk drowning them to save us some time and better sleep. With that said, I am sure that if we get more and more snakes and produce more and more rats, we will eventually hook up a watering system.

The typical valves are made by Eldstrom...a lot people buy them from reptilebasics.com
The larger valves are perfect for rats, guinea pigs, rabbits, chins, etc...while the smaller valve is really meant for smaller rodents like mice, but can also be used by rats. The larger valve is more leak resistant, so if you are only doing rats, I would go with those.


I tried to cover everthing...sorry about the reallllly long posts.

[littleindiangirl]

Gravity water systems are the way to go! Bottles suck!

I prefer seperating the moms. That way I know who is at fault for any lost babies (reaaaallly good to know in my experience), and I'm limiting any chances of losing feeders from the other rats, whatever that reason may be.

[West Coast Jungle]

Gravity water systems are the way to go! Bottles suck!

I prefer seperating the moms. That way I know who is at fault for any lost babies (reaaaallly good to know in my experience), and I'm limiting any chances of losing feeders from the other rats, whatever that reason may be.

I separate them too. For the same reason Connie said and because we see some girls fight over babies and play tug o war with them with ugly results.

I find we have a higher survival rate of babies when separated and we can also weed out the bad moms, rest good moms in between litters and have better production per adult rat. Many do not separate but to each his own.

[ScottyDsntKnow]

This setup is what I want to build when I start up a feeder colony. Single tubs and a really cheap/simple watering system.

The other thing that people can do for floods prevention is just install a drain line somewhere in the tubs and run them all into one line and into a bucket filled with bedding in case a valve ever gets stuck? Not sure it that would work but it would probably save at least some of the animals.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I used to do communal birthing keeping 2 females together at all time however while it was working there were losses, moms fighting over babies can get rough.

I now have a birthing rack, moms are alone when giving birth and nursing and it has definitely reduced the losses, no fight no stressed out mom everybody is happy.

As far as bottle I use spring loaded ones which do not leak however I only use 6 of them since everything else is now working with a watering system.
The watering system has a 5 gallons reservoir much better than having to fill up bottle every day. As far as flooding is has happen twice and no loss just some wet rats.

[littleindiangirl]

Floods haven't been too much of a problem. We put enough water in for the week, the lids of the reservoir is covered to keep gunk out.

We also use pellets, that soak up just about all the water. Its like the rats are trying terraforming in their tub.

I found that most of my floods were caused by the leaking sipper valve, I just needed to tighten it a bit. And once in a while a piece of wood shaving will get jammed in there, and will make the valve leak.

While leaking will likely happen at least once, keeping just enough water in the reservoir to limit just how much water can leak, using an absorbent litter, and keeping the valves tight enough to not leak will reduce those chances.

Also helps to check on them at least once a day.