General Population Question

[SnakeKB]

After my babies are weaned and i put them in general population tubs to grow up, is it ok to add weaned from the next litter and so on? Or will they fight and kill the new additions? General population tubs being split between male and female of course.

[marwari31]

As long as they are separated by sex they should be ok. I recently added litter number 4 to my grow out tubs and I have had no fighting.

[llovelace]

I put just weaned into a weaner tub. they hang there for 2-3 weeks then go into sperate m/f grow out tubs.

[ericzerka24]

I don't mess around with a weaner tub. I wean them at 18 days and put them straight into male or female grow out tub. They cuddle right up next to all the others in a matter of minutes.

[GoBoilers]

I don't mess around with a weaner tub. I wean them at 18 days and put them straight into male or female grow out tub. They cuddle right up next to all the others in a matter of minutes.

Cool...I was wondering that as well. I was going to let the babies grow up a little by themselves in a separate bin but decided to go ahead and separate them into sexes with the "older kids." It was actually pretty cute...the older rats treated the babies like their own (grooming etc. even caught the older female 'stimulating' one of the babies to poo/pee). The babies have been following the older ones around and everyone piles on top of each other to sleep. Dammit, I'm getting too attached to these guys!

[SnakeKB]

Thanks everyone.

[ericzerka24]

Haha yea ASF's are pretty sweet. I like em just as much as my snakes. It's nice that they don't smell that bad. I've noticed that the males are the stinky ones so I feed them off right away. The females grow a little slower but they are much cleaner and don't stink as bad.

[anatess]

I usually put new weaned rats in with the older rats during cleaning day. I don't know if it matters, but, I do the "rotation" cleaning thing - that is, I always have one tank extra that is clean, with new bedding ready to go. I move the older rats to the new tank, put the weaned rats in the old tank and let them run around for a minute or two, then i move them to the newly cleaned tank with the rest of them. I haven't had a fight yet. But I wouldn't be able to tell you if it's because of my method or if they just never fight. I've never tried it any other way.