Rat's stopped breeding

[firehop]

Ok.... so I have a colony of about 60 females. All of them in tubs of tubs of 3 females with a male rotated out of each tub about every 3-4 weeks. The problem I have it all of a sudden about 2 months ago my group without any changes what so ever stopped breeding. It appeared they may have just restarted now as I have 2 clutches and I am hoping for more. I am wondering has anyone else had these issues this year? I am at the point is that if there is only 2 clutch's it would be cheaper for me to bring rats in because of feed. I am just curious if this has happened to anyone in the past and the group came back out of it.

[tomfromtheshade]

If you're using one male and you have 60 females then I would guess that it would be the male that is the culprit.

I would get a new male and see how things go.

[firehop]

If you're using one male and you have 60 females then I would guess that it would be the male that is the culprit.

I would get a new male and see how things go.

it's a different male for each row. So I have 6 rows of tubs and 6 males rotated down and through the tubs.

[kc261]

2 things immediately come to mind...

1) - Temps? 2 months ago it was the middle of winter. were they too cold?

2) - Age? You did not mention the age of the rats. Have you allowed your breeders to go too long without replacing them?

Since you have a few "clutches" growing up now, I'd hold back all of those babies (unless there are more males than you need) and switch out some of your older breeders and see if the young ones do better.

I love how you referred to the litters as clutches. Gave me a good chuckle!

[MarkS]

I do often notice lower production in the winter time no matter how warm it is in the room, however it also seems that my mice kick into high gear then so it really doesn't affect me much.

[suzuki4life]

if you have that many females, why are you wasting time rotating males?