Quote Originally Posted by Chuckels View Post
I was about to make the same exact post as the author of this one did. Ive been breeding rats for a while, and these last 8-10 litters is just making me want to pull my hair out. My temps range between 78-84, I feed my rats Dog Food as well (23% Protein), and when a female gives birth, I use scrambled eggs to help with their protein intake. I also use fresh fruits/veggies. I have mine housed in a rat rack made from Mason Tubs bought from Home Depot, and have plumbing system vice water bottles. I have no idea what Im doing wrong, but its getting really annoying.

Any advice? Anyone? Please help me. =(
Yet another post of someone having issues...and what a coincidence your using dog food...

I really don't care for dog food as a staple food source. I see a lot of people on here stating this problem and they always are using dog food...I don't think its a coincidence. Some people have great luck with it, most don't. I think maybe its ok if they are not breeding, but for some reason nursing mothers don't do well with it when they have kits. I don't breed rats regularly but whenever I do I have great success and barely lose any babies,( some but nothing out of the ordinary) and they always produce fast. Whenever I bred rats I don't let the room go above 80(average temp of 78), keep them in nothing smaller then large mason tubs, and nothing else by mazuri 6f. Whatever is in this stuff works! I have pet rats still and feed them nothing but this and they are as healthy as can be. When I was breeding females didn't seem to have problems keeping them alive. Biggest problem I ran into was them fighting over the litters. Breeding rats shouldn't be THAT hard and if your having a hard time then your doing something wrong.