Do you separate pregnant rats?

[JohnNJ]

All depends on how you want to breed your rats....

I keep 1.3 in every tub with their young, and retire females 8 months to a year of breeding.
If you want production, that's the way to go... Easy, and you don't have the headache or expense of keeping mom rats seperate.
I did to the seperate mom thing a little last year, I hated it. Too much work.

My view of the work is the opposite.

I have to clean tubs with multiple rats every week. Harem style breeding, like you use, requires me to move several adults and babies to a clean tub every week which causes stress for the rats and extra work for me.

I put each pregnant female in a lab cage alone and I don't have to clean it until the babies are almost two weeks old plus any days before she has the litter. Less stress for them and less work for me.

At that point I just move the mom and pups to a tub with one or two other females and pups. Everybody gets along and it's easier to keep on the pups when they're younger.