Quick question about breeding

[deathblooms]

Hey all, I just started breeding my own rat colony. I literally set everything up with the help of reading alot in this section on Saturday. Right now I have 14 balls, 3 of which are of breeding age and the rest are in the high 300g-500g range and plus 6 eggs getting ready to hatch within 2 weeks. All are eating small-medium rats. Right now I have 1 male and 3 female rats to start with, I know I'll probably need more in the future to keep up with my little collection lol. My main concern is when do I take the babies away from the mother rat? I'm going to need them to grow up abit before I can feed them to the snakes. Any help on this or other advice would be great! Thanks!

[llovelace]

I take them once their eyes are open and they are feeding on their own 4-5 weeks I think

[deathblooms]

Awesome! So anywhere from a month to a month and a half sounds good

[llovelace]

oh yeah, sometimes when mine are at the point of opening their eyes, I will let the mom spend the night with dad, so that she gets pregnant right around the time her current litter is weaning.

[deathblooms]

Sounds great! I just hope these four rats can cut down the $100 pet shop visit every two weeks lol. How many breeders do you have for your snakes?

[JohnNJ]

From my own experience, the rats are weaned at 3 weeks. By 5 weeks they're already at the high end of smalls.

YMMV

[snakesRkewl]

They open their eyes at 2 weeks old and I wean rats at 3 1/2 - 4 weeks old, typically they are about 35 grams at this age.
If I'm holding back rats to raise to become breeders I cull the litter down to 4-5 kits and by the time those are weaned they are HUGE, lol.
I like my holdbacks to stay with momma rat till they are at least 4 weeks old or even a bit older if possible.

[jasbus]

I wean em at 4 wks, if I'm holding back for breeding, I'll leave them in for 6 weeks to make sure they are huge and healthy... By then, the momma's are literally kicking them away anyway.

[llovelace]

Sounds great! I just hope these four rats can cut down the $100 pet shop visit every two weeks lol. How many breeders do you have for your snakes?

At the moment I have 10 females, 2 males. I need to raise up 10 more females & 2 males, and that should take care of my needs....hopefully

[CLSpider]

If you have 14 bp's plus 6 eggs that are going to hatch, you're definitely going to need more female rats. I think I've heard that you should have at least 1 breeding female rat for every snake you have.
I have around 60 breeding female rats....although I dont't have 60 bp's yet (someday soon enough! Haha). Anyways, when I first started out, I HATED not producing enough rats. So I prefer to have a little extra rather than not enough or barely scraping by with enough.
And I take most babies away from their mom around 4-5 weeks of age. A couple females usually get left in there with her for a while longer.