Well she had the babies on morning of day three. 11 babies in all. She is already taking the treats I give her by hand. I believe I will be keeping her a while. I also went back and found two more pregnant rats, one of which gave birth the night I bought her. 12 babies in all. rat #2 rejected one of the babies and I tried to get rat rat #1 to take it but it was too much smaller and the other 11 always won out. After a day of trying to get one of them to take it I ended up feeding it off to my smallest snake.

Rat#2 doesn't have as good of a personality, and will take the treats but is definitely not trusting. Rat #3 hides all the time and hasn't given birth yet. I have been giving treats of fresh veggies, and fruits, pasta, and almonds. I try to give them something every time I check on them to get them used to me.

I have been able to hold all the babies so far to get them used to my smell. Some of them I will be keeping back for future breeding and I want them to be used to me. I will probably keep most from Rat#1 since she is much more docile and fun. I have even let her out in the rat safe room to run mazes I set up and play everyday when I clean the cages and check the babies.

Right now #1 is in a 20 gallon, and the other two are in 10 gallons. I don't plan on keeping more than the 12 total for breeding recommended for the size of my snake collection. I plan on euthenizing, and freezing the others when they get about 4 weeks old. I figured if I get enough stocked up I can always separate the males from the females, or sell some of the extra frozen.