Breeding Rats on a small scale - Questions

[tomfromtheshade]

I have several questions on breeding rats. Any help is appreciated.

What is the maximum ratio of females to males? (ex: is 1:5 possible?)

Do they have to be in tubs or can they be in glass aquariums? What size?

How bad is the smell? (No smell, noticable, or just terrible!?)

Can they be kept in a garage? What are the temperture extremes? (40f-90f?)

Can I house a whole group together (1:4?) forever, leaving the male and females together even with the babies?

Any tips would help also. Thanks

One male will keep up 100% of the time with one or two females. Three or four females may have him missing a few the first time they cycle, but he will catch them. I know people that run up to eight females per male, but I wouldn't do it. I have been doing some experimenting running them in pairs. They pop babies every four weeks almost on the button and I'm getting larger litters. However, its a much larger space investment.

You can raise rats in aquariums, but they are easier to raise in tubs in a rack system. One pair will do well in a 10g tank. A group of 1.4 can breed in a 20 gallon tank if you remove females as they get pregnant. I group of 1.4 can be kept full time in a 40g breeder. You just remove the babies as they are weaning age.

Rats can smell atrocious. Your main enemies in the war on odor are temperature, humidity, and ventilation. If you keep your rats cool, dry, and there is fresh air coming and going all the time the smell is very tolerable. If you let the room get hot and humid, and their bedding is wet all the time they will stink so bad that the ammonia will burn your lungs when you breathe it in.

Rats can be kept in a garage as long as you are meeting their needs. They need to be between 60F and 80F ideally. They need fresh air. They need clean water, clean bedding, and food. If you can meet those needs you can keep them on the moon. Its not so much the where as it is the how. How you keep them makes more difference than where.

You can keep the male with the females full time. When you keep them in a large group you will inevitably lose some babies. Some moms will fight over them. Some moms will steal babies from other nests. When you have babies of various sizes all nursing from the same mom the larger stronger babies will always beat the smaller ones and the smaller younger ones will starve. When you separate the moms almost all of the babies always live. Its up to you whether or not you want 100% survival in your litters or if you want 80% survival with less tubs to clean.

Here is my last bit of advice. Start small and plan to have plenty of extra tubs for the extra rats.