I've been pondering a change in the way I manage our breeder rat group. Currently we put one male with 2 or 3 females in breeder bins, once the females are pregnant we move them into individual 10 gallon tanks and the male returns to the communal male breeder enclosure. After the females wean the litters or they are fed off, the female goes into a communal female breeder enclosure to rest before going back into the breeder bin. Biggest problem I'm facing with this system, that has worked quite well thus far, is that with the growth of our snake collection I'm running short constantly on the 10 gallon tanks and they do take a lot of space. They are also too small for the females that deliver large litters once those litters are pup sized but yet unweaned.

So I've been thinking of doing things a bit differently and would like some input.

I'm thinking to establish permanent groups of 3 females per large, roomy tub. A certain male would be "assigned" that tub and be in there until all females are pregnant (ensuring three litters at a time born close together, which I do need to happen). Then the male would go back to the male enclosure. The three females would be left to raise their combined litters until either fed off or weaned. They would then stay in that tub for their rest period.

The pro's I see to this are:

Less need for some many individual tanks, saving me space and cleaning time.

Ability for females to have a permanent social group, lessening stress and dominance scuffles when they are moved in and out of various female groups.

Females can assist each other in raising their young so less need for me to foster out some of the larger litters.

Good genetic control as for instance certain groupings of females would be permanently assigned a certain male (we have 6 breeding males to choose from currently) so record keeping would be simplified.

The con's I see would be:

Less specific genetic information about any litter as they may get mixed up between females. I'd always know who the father was....not completely sure as to the specific female that delivered them.

Possibly of damage to pinks if the females fight over them.

I am planning to match the female trios as closely as possible. Example would be one tub having 3 beige hooded females, another tub 3 mink self, etc. I may in fact use three sisters from a litter who closely resemble each other as the basis for each tub trio. The male (related genetically to the females) would then be assigned to a trio (or more than one trio). I'm also going to take into consideration any issues between the female rats as sometimes certain rats just cannot exist together without fights breaking out.

So input folks please. I'd like to know what you think about this or your experiences with communal breeding colonies.