Well I'm pretty much done experimenting with different combinations of communal mothering with the rats. This is just my personal take on it and the results I've seen with my own rats.

I used a number of female pairs. They were bred so they would deliver quite close to each other and went in together to breed with the same male in a large tub that would be sufficient for when they delivered their litters. I particularily tried to pick experienced mothers who get along well with each other. I left the male in until I observed both females were pregnant than simply removed the male.

Across the board I'm not terribly impressed with my results doing it this way rather than 1 female per 10 gallon like I usually do. I found for the first time I lost some newborn pinks to exactly what Becky warned me about....skin damage from mother's stealing them back and forth. I also had a few almost lost because they got dropped between nests and got sort of lost in the shuffle. I feel the females were acting stressed and competitive over the babies, defensive over their nesting areas, etc. I also noted a few females that did not carry their fair share of nursing so the other female nursed far too many babies. Lastly, I didn't like that I could not track a litter for any health or genetic issues because they were all mixed up together.

What I've started to do this past week is to find a place sort of between my old way and the communal way. The new procedure I'm doing is to put each female in her own 10 gallon tank as soon as she shows pregnacy. She delivers there and raises her babies until their eyes are open. Once the babies are all active pups they are going in with her breeding buddy female and her pups in huge rubbermaid bins my husband hauled home for me.

I think this way I can still track my litters as I like to do, have better control of genetic issues as you usually see a problem if it's there by the time they are 15 days old and avoid the issue of some many tubs and overcrowded 10 gallon tanks. Those 10 gallons get pretty crowded with a female and her fast growing big litter of pups.

This communal mothering after 15 days post-birth seems to be working out nicely so far though it's early days yet. The pups are big enough to suffer no injury from the two females, they certainly seem to enjoy the socialization of more pups to wrestle with and the females are acting very relaxed after the initial settling in together period. This also allows me to cycle my available 10 gallon birthing tanks far faster than before.

Now if I could avoid the the blisters on my fingers from cutting and melting these darn huge bins and all the wire that's needed for them. I just did another bin today and I've got some "ouchies" LOL Mike keeps telling me to leave him to do the heavier cutting parts but I'm stubborn and impatient (and hate working in work gloves).