how old until the male stops doing his job?

[SquamishSerpents]

just wondering, at what age does a male ASF stop/slow down on impregnating the females?

originally i got a 1.1 pair, who was a kid's pet that got wildly out of hand. when i received them there were 14 weanlings in a separate tub, and another set of pinks that had just been born. i grew up some of the babies, and now have 2 colonies of 1.4.

the second colony contains the original breeder pair, and i added 3 other females, as the other male i grew up got killed and eaten when the water bottle stopped working one day. when i added the other 3 females, there was a bit of squabling for the first night, a couple squeeks and a few "tumbleweeds" of various rats rolling around and fighting, but things settled right down after that.

the colony of 1.4 "freshies" is doing fantastic, keeping a very steady stream of rats coming.

the 2nd colony i just told you about FINALLY dropped about 18 pinks today (in a single litter, so i think it must be one of the newer rats that gave birth). but it's been awhile and they're not pumping out rats half as often as the other colony. so i'm just wondering if the male is getting old and tired of breeding. if so, can i grow up and add another male, and remove the original one, or will they kill him?

another thing i was wondering about, the original female gave birth awhile ago, however it seems all the rats died at about day 4 or so. but it didn't appear they had been killed, which is weird. there were just 6 dead, intact rats, and 2 that had been half eaten. i could see their skeletons sticking out, but they hadn't been completely consumed.

could they have died because the female is getting old therefor not producing very healthy young? i suspect her to be about 8 months old, if not older.

should i just scrap this colony and start a new one? or keep it going until the male dies? they all seem to be in good health but i'm just unsure when to retire the old breeders.

whoops sorry for the long-winded post!

[SquamishSerpents]

anybody got any advice for me?

[greghall]

keep growing out females,swap them out every 6 months Thats what I do my rats are real ragged looking by then anyway.

[Emilio]

From what I've noticed with mine the males always do there job the females get burned out much quicker than the males. Grow each trio together when you see a female start to slow down leave a female from there own litter to replace her. This has worked for me.

[SquamishSerpents]

so the females likely won't fight if the replacement female is from their own litter? amazing! should i slowly swap out the females, or do them all at once? it takes foreeeeeeeeeeeever to grow them up old enough to breed! also, if replacing the male should i do the same thing, grow one up from a litter?

because i'm fairly sure i read somewhere (can't find it for the life of me) that if you throw in a new male, the mature females will kill him.

also, does anyone have any possible explanation for the dead fuzzies i found in their last litter? like i said, i don't think they were killed because there weren't any bite marks or blood on them, it looks as though they just died of natural causes. is this possible?

side note, today i swapped their setups from sterilites to tubs, and counted the latest litter. 24!! TWENTY FOUR!!!! i *think* this is all from 1 momma, as they're all at the same stage. usually i can tell when some are born one day, and some more the next, but all these ones look like they're from the same litter. is 24 even possible?

sorry for all the random questions

[singingtothewheat]

I have had the same issue in the last 30 days two litters, all born, not eaten up but I am guessing those two females both around 6 months are unable to keep the babies fed. I'm going to replace them with the two females from the last littler that made it.

[RichsBallPythons]

Males will mate till the day they die. They smell the females scent and then they go in a fritz.