Not breeding

[sarahlovesmiike]

I recently moved and we now have an air conditioner. I breed my own feeders but it seems that my girls are just not getting pregnant. I gave one mom about a month of recoup time and I put a male in about a month ago... She didn't start to look pregnant at all but I did see them mating quite a few times. SO I swapped the male out thinking maybe he just wasn't producing and added another plus another female in case it was the original mom. I've gotten two good litters out of her and I can't understand why they wouldn't be breeding for me. I've heard of rats not producing if it's too hot, but too cold? It never gets below 60* in the room. Could the temps be causing it?

[SlitherinSisters]

So wait....are you keeping her in with the male at all times? She could be just a poor producer, having the babies and they are getting killed off before you notice. I'm usually pretty good at picking out the mommas a day or two before they give birth, but some of them don't have very large litters and I have to keep track of when I put them in with the male and take them out after three weeks. I have a couple girls that have small litters and it's very hard to tell when they are pregnant unless you have a very trained eye. My guess is that your girl has small liters and the babies were killed before you noticed. If she's not really young or really old she should be producing.

Oh, and I'm doubting the temp is the issue. My rat/snake room is in the basement and it was around 60 for several days during the winter when it was -20 outside. I have a heater running in there all winter, but on those super cold days it couldn't keep up. Plus we keep our house at 65 in the winter, so it was bound to be pretty chilly down there. The average temp of my rat/snake room in the winter is 70, but for about a month it's pretty darn close to 65 almost constantly.

[suzuki4life]

so total time frame these rats have been together?

the problem in most cases is that the owner is impatient.

[sarahlovesmiike]

She's been with a male for about a month and a half. It's very easy to tell when she's pregnant. She has given me three litters of 10+ babies, and I check on her every day. She's kind of a pet so I take her out daily and check to hold her for a bit and see if she's looking pregnant. There is also another female in the setup but she's only been in for about a week now. If she doesn't produce for me within the next month or two I guess I'll have to go get some new babies to raise up. At what temp do they stop breeding?

[BAMReptiles]

temps arent really an issue with rats. something else is though. do you know how old they are? perhaps they are too old to produce now. also moving could have stressed them, when i moved it seemed quite a few of mine took longer than normal.

[SlitherinSisters]

I'm thinking she might be too old too. I had a female that was giving me 13 babies every time then one month she had two babies, and since then nothing. It drops off rather suddenly when they reach a certain age. That girl just turned three this month. It's been about three months since her litter of two.

[sarahlovesmiike]

I'm not sure exactly how old she was when I got her but she was pregnant so I kept her instead of feeding her off. If I had to guess I would say she was probably only a few months old because she wasn't like tiny but definitely still growing. The guy I bought her from was doing a Harem style breeding so she would have gotten pregnant as soon as she was able. I've had her less than a year now though. I think she may just be having a small litter cause she's been kinda standoffish for the last few days. She usually comes right out when I change food and water to give me kisses and whatnot.