Are My Rats Prego?

[Chuckels]

It's like you said, every one can do what they want... But, in my opinion, if a rat is still eating her young on the second litter, toss her and replace. it's just a waste of space, food and time to keep trying.
And, no, just because you can't handle them, doesn't make them bad breeders. Most large scale breeders don't handle their rats. I was just stating, that unless you handle them and get them used to be handled, they will stress easier when you mess with their young. My personal way of doing it, handle them often, and their young, I find works great. They are used to me going through the cage, pulling pups, cleaning, or whatever.
If you are planning on raising rodents for any length of time, and you don't like getting bit, then this is the best way. Why waste your time trying to raise pups out of a nasty or bad producing mother, when you don't have to? Especially when you have replacements already on hand? Just feed off the bad apples...
Not trying to step on your toes, just trying to give my advice. I've been doing this for a long time, with great success in the way I do it.

Definitely did not step on any toes bud, it's just 2 different ways of doing business. Im sure you've been doing it longer than I have, and its completely up to the OP what he takes from our posts/advice. I'll also take a few things from what you said, and apply it to my breeding colonies. I don't have snakes to feed off any of my bad apples though. (Sold my collection).

I apologize if I showed any sort of hostility, I was on my way home from vacation, and 6 hours in a car makes me kinda stressed.

[tomfromtheshade]

I cull every female that eats babies, first litter...tenth litter...it doesn't matter to me.

I also handle pinks and haven't ever had the mother reject them.

You're much better off culling heavily in the beginning. It takes longer to get the stock you want up and running, but when you do you will really have something then.

These are the guidelines that I use to pick breeding stock.
- They must come from a litter of at least 12 pups.
- They must conform to whatever trait I am trying to breed for.

There are the guidelines that I use for culling animals.
- Biters are terminated immediately and their young are disqualified as breeding stock.
- Tub chewers are terminated immediately and their whole tub is also wiped out.
- Baby eaters are terminated immediately.

This sucks at first, but now I have a colony full of rats that produce 12+ babies per litter, don't bite me, and don't chew through their tubs.

[JohnNJ]

I cull every female that eats babies, first litter...tenth litter...it doesn't matter to me.

I also handle pinks and haven't ever had the mother reject them.

You're much better off culling heavily in the beginning. It takes longer to get the stock you want up and running, but when you do you will really have something then.

These are the guidelines that I use to pick breeding stock.
- They must come from a litter of at least 12 pups.
- They must conform to whatever trait I am trying to breed for.

There are the guidelines that I use for culling animals.
- Biters are terminated immediately and their young are disqualified as breeding stock.
- Tub chewers are terminated immediately and their whole tub is also wiped out.
- Baby eaters are terminated immediately.

This sucks at first, but now I have a colony full of rats that produce 12+ babies per litter, don't bite me, and don't chew through their tubs.

Sounds like you cull "with extreme prejudice."

[jasbus]

Definitely did not step on any toes bud, it's just 2 different ways of doing business. Im sure you've been doing it longer than I have, and its completely up to the OP what he takes from our posts/advice. I'll also take a few things from what you said, and apply it to my breeding colonies. I don't have snakes to feed off any of my bad apples though. (Sold my collection).

I apologize if I showed any sort of hostility, I was on my way home from vacation, and 6 hours in a car makes me kinda stressed.

No problem. Thanks.
Yeah, everyone has a different way to do things. While I'm not as extreme as Tom, I don't tolerate bad apples much. It just doesn't make money for me, and I turn these for money and product. Even one female in a tub of three females not producing good numbers or eating pups, is bad for my bottom line. It's the difference of me making money on 10-15 rats that month, or paying out to feed a bad rat, and possibly her eating some of the profit from another rat's litter too. That's a potential $200-300 loss per month per bad female. That's what my feed bill is each week! Can't do that too often and still make money.
I do have the advantage of being able to cull my animals easily. Waaaay too many snakes....