Can rats be weaned at 3 weeks?

[Adam Chandler]

It looks like I may not have gotten the male out of the tub fast enough when I discovered this last litter and the female still nursing looks like she is pregnant again.
So I'm going cull some babies and if i can I'd like to wean some and move them to another enclose.
They are just about 3 weeks old. Would it be safe to try to wean them at this point?

[mues155]

I think rats usually wean at 20-30 days old.
Depends if you see the babies eating and drinking on their own. Time means nothing unless the babies are able to take care of themselves. Observe them a while and see if you find them eating and drinking on their own, then yes pull them.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Yes they can be weaned as early as 21 days.

[jasbus]

Short answer, yes...
Long answer, best if they had a little longer. You could always foster them to another mom who has babies about the same size. They aren't as dependent on the milk at 3 weeks...

I wean by look/size myself, usually right at the 4 week mark, give or take a few days.

[suzuki4life]

pretty much, if their eyes are open....you can wean them. They seem to grow faster nursing than eating on their own. So if you want larger rats quicker, let them nurse longer.

[Sarin]

They should be fine.

I was at an expo earlier this week and they didn't have any female weaners. (I wanted to raise as breeders.) So I took 6 female pups (2 weeks old) they are eating and drinking on their own just fine. All I had to do for the first 3 days was water down the rodent block. Might be a bit smaller/slower than if they stayed with their mother, but they were fine on their own in terms of survival.