What gives...

[BallsUnlimited]

so far knock on wood i have had no problems with breeding rats. I even leave the males in with them and they do just fine. Every now an again a baby will be eaten but thats to be expected with breeding them. Its gonna happen to everyone at some point. I leave them in the dark for the most part and give them plenty of food and water. So far no problems. I just picked up a few new breeding groups that have been breeding for a few months from a local so i will let you know how they do in the rat rack. The rats ive been breeding are 2 males and 4 females. I average about 13-18 rats per litter.

[jben]

i just picked up some weanes from a local also to raise and breed, hopefully they'll do the job right, the person i picked them up from averaged a minimum of 10 per litter. i'll continue to use the others until i feel it's time to go. i plan on keeping 1.3 per colony in a small HD tub and see what happens.

[PghBall]

I had one female that I had the same issue with, she would give birth and by the end of the week all would be dead. Since she was to big to feed her off, I was going to just keep her as a pet. Anyhow, she got pregnant again and to my surprise, she raised all of them without issue. Sometimes, you just have to keep trying. I started with 2 males and 2 females (added an albino female and dumbo female later) and now have 4 bins of 1.3 breeders and 2 bins of holdbacks that keep my Ball collection well fed.

[jben]

I had one female that I had the same issue with, she would give birth and by the end of the week all would be dead. Since she was to big to feed her off, I was going to just keep her as a pet. Anyhow, she got pregnant again and to my surprise, she raised all of them without issue. Sometimes, you just have to keep trying. I started with 2 males and 2 females (added an albino female and dumbo female later) and now have 4 bins of 1.3 breeders and 2 bins of holdbacks that keep my Ball collection well fed.

Thanks for your advice.I will continue to breed them and just see what happens but i have added more breeders as back up. going forward i will have two tubs of 1.3 and two tubs of holdbacks for feeders.

[tomfromtheshade]

I just started air conditioning the rats this week and I lost a bunch of babies.

Friggin' sucks.

[suzuki4life]

I just started air conditioning the rats this week and I lost a bunch of babies.

Friggin' sucks.

hmmmmmm....haven't lost any.

[tomfromtheshade]

hmmmmmm....haven't lost any.

I lost half the babies in one of my birthing tubs...maybe 6-7 babies. Have no idea wtf happened.

[jben]

sorry to hear that, that sucks bro.

[suzuki4life]

I lost half the babies in one of my birthing tubs...maybe 6-7 babies. Have no idea wtf happened.

they reacted to an environment they were not ready for.

My rats always produce more in the summer than winter. That leads me to believe they deal with heat much quicker than cold. So under that belief I would say they if you suddenly cooled their environment, they reacted.

In the wild, mammals would associate cold with lack of food and water. teh cull their population as a result.

That is my theory. I know even in the cities, where do you see the rats? In air conditioned buildings or out in the hot and humid trash piles? There is food in both places. I know, I worked in NYC for years. In the restaurants you found roaches, but rarely a rat. But just outside the door, you found dozens by the trash pile. A human would've commuted

[tomfromtheshade]

I don't cool them below 75 degrees. However, taking them from 90 some degrees to 75 degrees has really cut down the amount of water they drink and as a result cut down the amount of urine they produce. This is a HUGE improvement lol.