Pregnant females in seperate tubs

[jason79]

Right now I have 12 tubs with 1.3 rats in each tub. They are the concrete mixing tubs you get from lowes. and I have one of the larger tubs set up with 1.5 rats. So I have 41 breeding females total right now. My production seems to be pretty low doing it this way so I'm thinking of building a rack mabey 20 tubs or so to seperate the females in to when they swell up a week or so before they give birth allowing them to be alone with their litter until its weaned. How many of you do it this way? and what size tubs do you use for a lone female with a litter? Any help would be appriciated.

[Hulihzack]

I know a professional breeder that does that and he highly recommends separating pregnant females for maximum production. He uses about 6x12x6" tubs. He also says that albino females have larger litters because they are generally raised for and by labs who selectively breed for large litters.

[jason79]

I know a professional breeder that does that and he highly recommends separating pregnant females for maximum production. He uses about 6x12x6" tubs. He also says that albino females have larger litters because they are generally raised for and by labs who selectively breed for large litters.

Do you know where he gets his tubs?

[matt71915]

On the albino subject, I've noticed that i get bigger litters from them and they are generally larger than all my other rats.

[lamina1982]

I do it that way and for the most part they do better by themselves. I use 10 gal tanks for such and works great!

[tomfromtheshade]

I built a rack with medium size litter pans as tubs.

They're 16" x 12" x 4".

They work just fine for me.

[tomfromtheshade]

I built a rack with medium size litter pans as tubs.

They're 16" x 12" x 4".

They work just fine for me.

Its important that you pick a tub that is short enough for the small rats to get up into the food. They will watch the mother eat and they will follow her lead. They will wean faster and grow faster when they can reach the food.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I use this



Those are the tubs http://www.organize.com/storboxclear1.html

I keep the females individually with their litter at least for the first 10 days once the babies reach that age I sometimes put 2 females together with their litters.

Usually the damage (due to female fighting over babies) and the loss of babies occur during the first 10 days (based on what I have observed in my colony) which is why I make sure that each female is alone with their litter during those first 10 days.

[littleindiangirl]

I still wonder why folks believe that albinos have larger litters, or that labs concentrate on producing large litters with albino rats. There does not seem to be a correlation between the two. I have found that females that produce large litters, often pass that trait on to their offspring.

I certainly believe that albinos are capable of large litters, but lets not be mistaken that albinos are somehow genetically dispositioned to have large litters.

[bokuza]

I still wonder why folks believe that albinos have larger litters, or that labs concentrate on producing large litters with albino rats. There does not seem to be a correlation between the two. I have found that females that produce large litters, often pass that trait on to their offspring.

I certainly believe that albinos are capable of large litters, but lets not be mistaken that albinos are somehow genetically dispositioned to have large litters.

^^Thanks for pointing that out haha.
Right now im breeding a line that produces a high number of pups and are generally large, even the females. Color has crock to do with it.