can they get pregnant while they're still nursing?

[pliskin]

my ASF female gave birth on dec 16 .

she looks like she's pregnant again already, is that possible?
she's lookin pretty plump again.

also, I think one of the babies is missing. I started out with 8 , and now I only see 7.
most of the threads I read about them eating the babies , they usually say they leave some leftover. I don't see any remains , if they did eat it.

[pavlovk1025]

Yeah they can get pregnant within hours after giving birth. As for remains, Ive never seen any. The ones my ASFs eat disappear completely. I actually had a whole litter be eaten within 2 days. Bastard rats.

[docturgonzo]

Theres a really good post on the forum somewhere not to far down with someones notes on litter sizes and times in between litters which is really interesting. The guy basically noticed about a 24 day period inbetween having a litter and then having the next. Based on this she will have become pregnant almost straight away after giving birth.



http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...d.php?t=102108

More people should show there stats i reckon

[pavlovk1025]

Theres a really good post on the forum somewhere not to far down with someones notes on litter sizes and times in between litters which is really interesting. The guy basically noticed about a 24 day period inbetween having a litter and then having the next. Based on this she will have become pregnant almost straight away after giving birth.



http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...d.php?t=102108

More people should show there stats i reckon

Yeah thats my thread lol. Oh and even with more colonies, the data still stands. Minus the one exception where one failed to birth any litter for me, everyone is consistently dropping litters 25-26 days in between each one.

[pliskin]

hey thanks for the info guys, gives me a good idea of what to expect.

I think I should be weaning them pretty soon and start looking for the next batch.

[Fallguy]

Yeah thats my thread lol. Oh and even with more colonies, the data still stands. Minus the one exception where one failed to birth any litter for me, everyone is consistently dropping litters 25-26 days in between each one.

After reading your thread I decided to take note of my own. It is a 1.2 group. I found very similar results. Thank you.

I also wean them at about 3 weeks. I keep an eye on them and make sure that some in that group are feeding, and getting water on their own. This gives the moms a few light days of shared nursing. I can also tell their sex, for seperating them into different areas.

Between the 2 moms, they are usually 5 days apart.

[pliskin]

I have a question for you guys. The one that just gave birth, I had 1 male and 1 female.

I was told that its not a good idea to introduce another into the colony after they've started breeding.

so, should I just leave one of the females and raise her up to be another breeder?
Fallguy's post mentioning shared nursing made me think about this. I would have started the colony with a 1.2 ratio , but I couldn't get anther female at the time.

I've got two other 1.2 colonies in the works, but they're still a bit young, I think.

and, about the babies, they're moving around on their own now but they haven't opened their eyes yet. do I remove them as soon as they open their eyes?

and can I start feeding them the mazuri rat food right away?

[Fallguy]

I am still a beginner at this, but what I do seems to work for me..

I think many people will just leave one of the females in after the others have been weaned. It will be a while before she will breed.

If you can remember their birth date, I would go 21 days +/-. Like I said, I just watch them every once in a while around that time to see if they are eating on their own. They will be eating on the same Mazuri 6F as the adults. I don't have it in the hopper above the tub. I keep it in a closeable wire mesh cube inside the tub. This is done inside the grow up cage as well. That way they don't just take it and bury it somewhere, and they dont just chew it to powder. I also make sure that the drink tube can be reached by the babies.

Hope this helps.

[pavlovk1025]

I have a question for you guys. The one that just gave birth, I had 1 male and 1 female.

I was told that its not a good idea to introduce another into the colony after they've started breeding.

so, should I just leave one of the females and raise her up to be another breeder?
Fallguy's post mentioning shared nursing made me think about this. I would have started the colony with a 1.2 ratio , but I couldn't get anther female at the time.

I've got two other 1.2 colonies in the works, but they're still a bit young, I think.

and, about the babies, they're moving around on their own now but they haven't opened their eyes yet. do I remove them as soon as they open their eyes?

and can I start feeding them the mazuri rat food right away?

You cant really add a new male to an existing colony, but you can definitely add a new female. I just did this the other day, and youll witness some fighting but theyll calm down and the female will be accepted after she either establishes her dominance or gets dominated.
I remove about 3days after they open their eyes, they usually figure it out on their own by that time. As for leaving a female in to raise as abreeder, it really is a waste. By the time she gets to breeding age (2-4 mths, 4 mths being typical) then half of your colony is ready to be retired.

[docturgonzo]

i have added females into my colonies with no real problems. Maybe a bit of excited chasing about and good once over from the others is usually what happens.

I added a new female to a 1.2 colony a week ago whilst one of the females was heavily pregnant..on saturday i got the lovely surprise of witnessing her helping my pregnant rat during Labour. It was nice to see as i have never seen an actual labour before and they all did there part. (apart from the male who just sat there asleep).

As for removing young , as it has already been said i would just try and observe after week 3 any signs of feeding and drinking on there own. Mine have all been roughly around 3 weeks to wean.

if there walking around its a matter of a few days befor ethe eyes open and id say a week after that to wean from what i have observed