OK, so I bought seven juvenile unsexed rats from the pet store a few weeks ago, the guy at the store couldn't sex them at the time and either could I, so just got a random 7 rats. Now that they are older I found I have four males and three females. Was wondering the best way to pair them up, I was thinking of keeping one male and three females together, but right now I'm waiting for them to mature a bit before I breed them. So if I got rid of three of the males and just kept one the male would be all alone in his own cage, I hear that's rough on a rat to be by himself. So then I was thinking I could keep two males and just move one out to breed with a female when I need them bred, but then I'd still be left with one male by himself for a week or so at a time. Maybe three males together, then I could randomly pair up one male and one or more females (more or less females depending on how many snakes I have at the time)?? I would also like to stagger the breeding so I don't have too many of the same age at the same time, they may grow a bit too big for my snakes and then I'd be in trouble (I'd have to freeze some or sell them). Any suggestions? Right now I have 14 snakes but they are all pretty small, six are young ball pythons still taking small adult mice max. I also have mice breeding (not going well) and ASF that just had their first litter, trying to see which ones I like and how to organize them all. Trying to get a handle on the rats for the moment. They are still too young to breed for several months so I have separate male and female cages. I'm planning on using the ASF babies to feed the snakes for the next couple months until the rats are ready.

Probably best for me would be to have one male and three females all in separate cages, then introduce the male to one female per week and then give him a break back in his own cage. But this way all the rats are mostly all alone by themselves... Not sure if that's good? Would the male get aggressive if he was rotated through several female cages? And if my male died and I didn't have a backup I'd be out of rats for months until I could grow one up or find an adult.