I'm on a rat forum and someone was asking about when to pull babies and I said 4 weeks is when I usually pulled babies, and I have pulled them as early as 3.5 weeks. Someone responded saying 4 weeks was way too early and that even 4.5 weeks was too early and babies should not be weaned until they are at least 5 weeks old. Now, this is a pet rat forum and NOT meant for feeder breeders like me, but I go there because I like learning how to better my rats' lives through diet, environment, and interaction.

So lets say you are pulling a rat for use as a future breeder, and not a feeder. You want this rat to be as healthy as possible so you don't want to pull it too early, so when do you pull a holdback rat from mom?