New Colony

[MitsuMike]

Here is the set up. This is temporary. From what everyone said and from experiences of jpen I will be building a small rack soon. But this should last til then.
Tub (yes there is a vented lid but not shown)


The females like to burrow for some reason....


There is a 1.2 ratio of rats

Female 1: 240 grams
Female 2: 250 grams
Male: 235 grams

I have a light on for 12ish hours and off for the rest (they are kept in a big cabinet so they don't stink up my place haha). Aspen bedding with the chew things shown in the pics. Food is Doggy Bag. How can I tell when my females are prego? I was reading and it told me that it only takes 24 hours.
BTW I got these guys from a small mom and pop shop and he was like they norm only have one sex but when we managed to come across 2 males and the rest females. I don't know if that matters.

PS I have had them now for a week.

[Aeries]

All of a sudden your female will look like she ate a golf ball! Gestation is 23 days after copulation, so you normally can tell for sure about a week before they pop. Their estrus cycle is every four days, so even if he misses out it won't take much longer before they have a second chance.
Do you know how old they are? Sometimes they take a little bit before they start cycling. They have the potiential to breed as early as 6 weeks (this is bad though) but I find they usually don't start until about 2-3 months of age.

[MitsuMike]

All of a sudden your female will look like she ate a golf ball! Gestation is 23 days after copulation, so you normally can tell for sure about a week before they pop. Their estrus cycle is every four days, so even if he misses out it won't take much longer before they have a second chance.
Do you know how old they are? Sometimes they take a little bit before they start cycling. They have the potiential to breed as early as 6 weeks (this is bad though) but I find they usually don't start until about 2-3 months of age.

I have no clue the age. They buy from a rat supplier I would think. All the people with snakes go to this place to buy their mice/rats so they go through them quick I would think.
But no clue on the age. I don't think any of them are infertile just not big enough for that. I guess I will have to see in a few weeks what's the deal. And if not I don't know what else to do.
I'll just weigh them every week and see how that goes.

[jben]

Here is the set up. This is temporary. From what everyone said and from experiences of jpen I will be building a small rack soon. But this should last til then.
Tub (yes there is a vented lid but not shown)


The females like to burrow for some reason....


There is a 1.2 ratio of rats

Female 1: 240 grams
Female 2: 250 grams
Male: 235 grams

I have a light on for 12ish hours and off for the rest (they are kept in a big cabinet so they don't stink up my place haha). Aspen bedding with the chew things shown in the pics. Food is Doggy Bag. How can I tell when my females are prego? I was reading and it told me that it only takes 24 hours.
BTW I got these guys from a small mom and pop shop and he was like they norm only have one sex but when we managed to come across 2 males and the rest females. I don't know if that matters.

PS I have had them now for a week.

holy crap! the one on the bottom left hand corner looks like one of my females, except mines is beige. i also started with 1.2 but my bp's refused an albino feeder rat so since it was a female i kept her but she's a little creepy looking tho...LOL. so now i have 1.3. i was a little impatient when i got mines but i was really excited when one of them gave birth today. your tub looks good for now but i would definitely get the mortar tubs because they loooove to chew.

[MitsuMike]

Haha yea that is why all that stuff is in there so they won't chew on the tub.

[MitsuMike]

So random ?......will a male not mate with a female if they were housed together before hand (petstore) or for some reason?

[Tim Mead]

If thats styro foam in there, ya might want to remove it so none is injested and keep your eye on the zip ties holding the screen on..

[MitsuMike]

If thats styro foam in there, ya might want to remove it so none is injested and keep your eye on the zip ties holding the screen on..

No styrofoam all cardboard or plastic for them to nom on.