Reduced My Colony..

[zackw419]

I just got rid of a bunch of my older breeder rats and now im down to two, a male and a female. It would be very convenient to house them together but the female would probably always be pregnant..is this ok? I mean, is it unhealthy for her to have babies that often?

[suzuki4life]

I just got rid of a bunch of my older breeder rats and now im down to two, a male and a female. It would be very convenient to house them together but the female would probably always be pregnant..is this ok? I mean, is it unhealthy for her to have babies that often?

it is perfectly fine...I run rats 1:8 and they breed 15 cycles in perfect health.

people who argue this are worried about pets not production of feeders.

[zackw419]

they kinda are my pets.. but im glad they will be fine.

[CA cowgirl]

What you can do is some things like I'm doing... with my mice I don't have a need for the male when the females are definitely pregnant. So I feed off the male to one of my snakes. Less mouths to feed and I can get a breedable male in a heartbeat. The females like it better too. They each had 11 babies this time around and none were eaten. Soon the babies will be weaned and I'll put the moms in a cage separate from the babies, and put in a male with them after a week or so. Wait until they are definitely pregnant, then feed off the male again.

If you don't want to feed off your male and you don't want to keep a second cage going, then you may as well keep them together. I just try to think of it as if I was the animal... would I want to be pregnant non-stop Nope... so hopefully if there's a reincarnation stage of life, I will be treated as I've treated my animals.

[tomfromtheshade]

it is perfectly fine...I run rats 1:8 and they breed 15 cycles in perfect health.

people who argue this are worried about pets not production of feeders.

1:8? I guess you started running those bigger tubs?

[suzuki4life]

1:8? I guess you started running those bigger tubs?

yep I have 10 racks in place. Waiting on more tubs.