How to breed these guys

[rhsm]

Okay I am probably getting my rats from a girl that has 2 moms but 1 dad.
So they are kind of related.
But I thought IF I got equal amounts of females from each mom and then a male from each mom I could breed to the opposite ones and then once I find someone else to get another male from I can bring some new blood in.
I am probably still paying a little high for them @ $3.50 a piece but they do look like they are health and hand tamed and well taken care of.
I know alot of you don't see them as pets but I think at least my breeders will be considered pets .

I was told on another post that this would be okay for me to breed these guys so I just wanted to find out if the way I am planning on doing it would be okay as I want to try to get health breeders and keep them all healthy and in good shape.

Anyway Thanks I look forward to any help on this that I can get.

rhsm

[matt71915]

It depends what you want to do. Outbreeding could probably give you the healthiest strongest offspring with minimal chance of deformations. Some bad things about inbreeding is weaker animals. some people have recorded average size difference when they inbreed over outbreeding. Its a personal thing, inbreeding wont hurt for the time being. I personaly have 2 different colonies of different blood lines. I am no where near an expert on any of this but i hope this helps

Matt

[cobweb2000]

The correct term is 'line breeding' . Many people who breed rats for pets practice line breeding on occasion. What you would probably want to do is breed them as you described but make sure to keep track of the health of whatever offspring you let live to adulthood. Things that affect rats are myco flareups, other respitory issues, congestive heart failure, mammary tumors and pituitary tumors . Ideally if you see any of these come up, you would want to end that line.

I keep rats as pets only and think you will enjoy keeping your breeders. They are very friendly, intelligent little guys. I have no idea if you have kept rats before, so I hope I'm not insulting your intelligence, but just wanted to say: rats should not be kept on pine or cedar, wire cages are far better than tubs or aquariums (ventilation issues) and as far as keeping them as 'pets', it is recommended that you allot each rat a minimum of 2 cubic feet of space. Find a good quality lab block (I recommend HT) or a good quality senior dog food (protein ~18%) and combine it with a grain mix. They also appreciate fresh veggies daily. If you are so inclined, they are also very easily trained to come to their name and to use a litter box.

Good luck with them! If you want the address of a good pet only rat forum that has a ton of good info on care and housing, let me know.

[frankykeno]

You'll enjoy the rats I'm quite sure. Even if they are being used to breed feeders, there's no reason you can't make pets out of the adults. It's far easier to deal with a female rat on her babies if she sees you as a friendly person she likes to interact with (though nursing momma rats can and will bite as a protective instinct).

I use large tubs with huge cut outs for ventilation and just love them. There's a sticky somewhere showing my rat enclosures as well as ideas from other members who keep and breed rats. Ventilation is a must as well as enough space so they aren't overcrowded unduly. Make sure your two males get along so they can buddy up when the females are busy with their young. Rats do not do well alone as they are a very social creature.

Your rats can use up a lot of your kitchen leftovers. I used to have a link before my computer died of a list of "human" foods that can and cannot be fed to rats. Connie, do you still have that one?

[ThyTempest]

I don't know if this was mentioned in one of your other posts yet, but make sure the girls are not too young/small to breed right off the bat. People wait for the females to get to different weights, much like the debate about breeding small female bp's. I won't breed a female under 250 grams, and so far we have been waiting until they right around 300.

Good luck with your colony, and I agree that line-breeding is not that big of a deal, so long as you freshen up the colony on occasion.

[littleindiangirl]

You'll enjoy the rats I'm quite sure. Even if they are being used to breed feeders, there's no reason you can't make pets out of the adults. It's far easier to deal with a female rat on her babies if she sees you as a friendly person she likes to interact with (though nursing momma rats can and will bite as a protective instinct).

I use large tubs with huge cut outs for ventilation and just love them. There's a sticky somewhere showing my rat enclosures as well as ideas from other members who keep and breed rats. Ventilation is a must as well as enough space so they aren't overcrowded unduly. Make sure your two males get along so they can buddy up when the females are busy with their young. Rats do not do well alone as they are a very social creature.

Your rats can use up a lot of your kitchen leftovers. I used to have a link before my computer died of a list of "human" foods that can and cannot be fed to rats. Connie, do you still have that one?

I certainly do

http://www.petratscanada.com/forbidden_foods.htm

[Gtigirl]

I certainly do

http://www.petratscanada.com/forbidden_foods.htm

Thank you for that list! I have been curious as to what veggie type foods I can feed, and am glad I found this.

So far, I've only fed strawberries, carrots and broccoli.

[frankykeno]

I certainly do

http://www.petratscanada.com/forbidden_foods.htm

Thank you Connie! When my old computer went pfffft I lost ALL my links! This is one I refer to all the time and always post to new rat breeders so it's been missed and darned if I could get it to come up on google.

[frankykeno]

Thank you for that list! I have been curious as to what veggie type foods I can feed, and am glad I found this.

So far, I've only fed strawberries, carrots and broccoli.

Rats are omnivores so as long as it's not a forbidden "human" food and as long as their diet is balanced, I'm all for feeding them kitchen scraps. I keep an old plastic icecream pail in my fridge and just scrape leftovers in there. A few times a week I give each enclosure a big blop of their leftover "strew" along with their hard food and whatever fresh veggies are around. They seem to love it and I love using something that would otherwise go to waste. The rats also clean up all the ends of bread loaves no one in my house will eat plus that last handful of cereal in the box.

Bones are a favored treat. The rat colony loves wing night around here LOL. In the hot summer months, frozen peas are rattie icecream.