Sleeping rats??

[ssscales]

My mice have been very active during the nights, I can hear the male getting busy with the ladies!!

As for my rats, they sleep ALL day and then at night the male rat (a smaller medium rat) basically eats, drinks and sleeps again. Will he reach an age when breeding instincts awaken? I've got three large girls that are nice and bright eyed at nights and he just wants to sleep!!

Also, I had an extra male weaned rat that the breeder gave me during my last pick up. He is now about the size of a small rat and is doing great, very tame and loves to be handled since we've handled him daily. Would it be ok to place him with the large females? We've been keeping him alone in his own tub, but I'm assuming he gets lonely.

If later on I introduce him to the females as a male breeder, will they attack him?

[wolfy-hound]

Male rats are notoriously lazy. They just about sleep eat and sleep. Mine seem to do nothing but that. They manage to impregnate the females anyway.
The other male might have a problem with the younger one, but I put several together and mostly don't have problems. The females shouldn't bother him.
Only using my own experiance which is limited in time, I haven't been keeping rats long. I have had the feeder bin of male rats(adult or close to adults) kill a individual rat. Dunno what set them off.
I have actually had a female mother small rat pups tossed in with her.

[frankykeno]

Gerry, think of rats more akin to a cat than a mouse if that will help. Their habits seem to more closely resemble a feline in that they like to relax a lot, groom constantly, etc. Male rats actually make the better pet rat in my opinion as they are generally very laid back, big lap rats when they mature (and if handled like a pet rat when babies) and heck you can put a ferret harness on the big boys and leash train em.

Your females will likely accept the young male though keep an eye on him. They will roll him, sniff him and the most dominant female of the group will likely harrass him a bit. If he's over 5 weeks of age (which it sounds like he is) he's fully capable of breeding them. I have only one female (my albino) who I have to keep an eye on as she's VERY bossy with other rats.

Female rats usually foster very naturally (especially if you transfer some scent) or tolerate young ones around them. My big breeder male, Casanova, has been spending the last couple of weeks hanging out with a group of his male weaned offspring as none of my females are in need of his "services" at the moment. He's been great with them, very tolerant of their hyper wean rat play. I do provide toilet paper tubes/paper towel tubes and a handful of newspaper strips to the weans to give them something to do plus a place to hide if dad gets a mood on but so far it's going just fine. They play, jump all over him, then curl up and cuddle with him.

I'll have to take some pics as it's kinda cute. Casanova's only 8 months old but a really big male...some of his sons are identical in markings to him....hilarious to watch them mimic him but in minature! LOL


~~Jo~~

[ssscales]

Thanks, I'll take some pics of the small rat today, I guess he's a fancy rat as he has some color and is not solid white/red eyes. I was just a bit nervous of placing the little one with the larger girls as he's so small and they don't know him. I wasn't going to put him with the other male. I have two tubs set with 1.1 and 0.2, I have 1.1 in one tub and was going to rotate the females in with him and remove as they become pregnant.

[Bdadawg]

Ive found that with multiple males with females that usually only one male takes on the breeding role. The other male just lays about eating,drinking, and crapping, doesnt even really make a fuss. It isnt always the oldest male that takes on the breeding role.

To introduce males to eadh other I will normally put them in a seperate enclosure that neither has scent marked. Dont put in a hide/nest this will force them to sleep together. After 2 days put them back into the breeding enclosure (once it has been cleaned and bleached to remove scents). However with really only one of them doing the breeding its more productive to keep them in 1:3 or 1:4 matchings and rotate in females.

Some rats make terrible mothers. Usually its first timers ... but I have another one that just wont take care of them ... you can either foster them out (Ive had no problems) or use them. One bad thing about fostering is that it is alot of extra work on the part of the adopting mother. Mine usually have 12 that live when i give the mother an extra 6-12 I can visibly see her getting thinner and spending more time apart from the babies. You should give those females a bit more recoup time in-between litters.

As my breeders get moved around alot Ive invested alot of time and my wifes time in making them into "pets". Potential breeders are handled from day 1 to get them accustomed to being moved around. Its alot easier to do this than to try and figure out if you should go to the emergency room because a female just bit all the way to the bone.

Bryan

[ssscales]

We don't plan on housing two males together. We wanted to house the small male rat with two large females I have set up on their own.


I bought 1.3 large white rats at PetCo and they aren't very friendly or tolerate much handling. The small rat has been handled for 2 weeks now and is very friendly and looks forward to getting out of the cage and interacting with us. I'm hoping to keep 1.3 or 1.4 fancy small rats to raise and when they reach breeder sizes I'll feed on the solid white rats I have now.