Best way to breed rats in concrete mixing tubs

[hype1108]

I have a rack I just built that holds 21 concrete mixing tubs. I am feeding 30 carpet pythons/ball pythons a week. What is the best way to breed the rats as well as how many do I put into each tub. What are max numbers of small, medium and large rats per bin?

What is the best food for them to produce at optimum level?
What is the best bedding for the price to keep them on?

How often should they be changed out to keep smell at a minimum?

I appreciate it if someone can help me answer these questions that would help me out a lot a lot.

Thank you very very very very much in advanced and thanks for looking.

[snakesRkewl]

When I started out I had some super nice rat genetics but fairly skittish rats so I held over males from one line and females from several other lines and raised up my own.
The ones I raised I handled frequently so they are completely tame as adults and won't bite even when pulling babies off the teats
I hate biting rats, they quickly become food...

I use the smaller tubs from Home Depot and keep up to 1.5 in them and remove moms to birthing tubs when they are obviously pregnant.
This isn't necessary but I prefer my mom rats not be pregnant while nursing.
You can leave them together and pull weanlings as they mature to hold over bins to raise up for larger snakes.

I use aspen bedding and I change bedding once a week
I have a box fan blowing outward 24/7 to keep the smell down
I feed Mazuri 6F and Average 12-13 kits per litter and frequently get 15-17
I also treat with table scraps most days.

[hype1108]

thank you! That helps out a lot what size are your birthing tubs? How many tubs of 1.5 do you have? How much do your produce?

[tomfromtheshade]

I'm going to save this thread about 500 posts.

Dog food is no good for rats!

Dog food is great for rats!

Blah blah blah!

Pine shaving will kill your rats! Use aspen!

Pine shavings work great!

Separate the moms into birthing tubs.

Leave everyone together. I never lose any babies that way.

Did I miss anything? Oh yeah...

Wean the babies at 21 days.

Wean the babies at 28 days.

Don't breed the female before she's 16 weeks old.

12 weeks is a great age for breeding females.

I think that's it LOL.

1.2 rats per tub if you leave them together. Up to 1.6 rats if you're pulling the pregnant moms.

Pine shavings work. People who don't know any better will tell you otherwise.

Macronutrient profiles make up good rat food. It doesn't matter if its dog food, hog feed, lab block, or anything else. As long as it has what you're looking for nutritionally and it's easy on your pocket you should use it.

Invest in the auto watering systems.

The smallest birthing tubs I would use would be the Petmate medium litter pans.

Everything else is up to you.

[snakesRkewl]

LOL, nice rant Tom...

[tomfromtheshade]

LOL, nice rant Tom...

I try to include some real answers in my rant though LOL.

[hype1108]

hahaha thanks tom. Thats good to hear this isnt as picky as everyone makes it seem. Just wanted to get some insight and that helps a lot.

[BuckeyeBalls]

hahaha thanks tom. Thats good to hear this isnt as picky as everyone makes it seem. Just wanted to get some insight and that helps a lot.

from what iv read the best way to do it..... is to do is each way until it works.

Im just starting doing it but from the way iv read things people do it so many diff ways and get results theres no "right" way its the way that works for you. So try many different ways until you see your production count go up

[Wh00h0069]

This is how I did it and it worked great for me:
Purina 5001 Rodent Diet
1x5 adults per tub
Pulled females once gravid and set them up in their own kitty litter pan
Rotated females through males
Usually housed around 12 - 15 weaned / smalls per tub until they were feed off
Housed in garage, so they did not breed well in the winter or summer
Used gravity fed water system
Pine Pellets

Hope this helps.

[snakesRkewl]

I try to include some real answers in my rant though LOL.

So your saying your way is the only way?
Real answers? lol

Notice in my small rant I didn't say it was the only way
or even the best way as the OP asked, just how I do things