The reason alot of feeders are white with red eyes, is because MOST lab animals are just that....white with red eyes.......from all of my groups, I have noticed that the white with red eyed rats put off bigger litters for a longer amount of time....instead of replacing females in 6-8 months, they continue to put off big litters for sometimes UP TO a year. I am sure that I am not the only person that has noticed this. I am sure that rat breeders do as well, and if you can keep from "retiring" a female longer, and continue to get good solid litters from her, then you are not missing any time producing. When you replace a female, she is generally already pregnant, whether you know it or not, so you freeze her, or feed her off, and replace her with a smaller female, who will have her first litter for AT LEAST 3-4 weeks....lots of downtime for that tub.

Rat breeders look for the biggest litters, with out any interuptions, and in most cases, white rats do that. They will also keep rats from a litter where there was a high baby count also. If that litter count was high, then their litter count is generally high. A mom that has 14-18 babies at a time, generally have daughter that will have 14-18 babies at a time. I have a few females that I have kept from females that have 14-18 babies, and their first few litters were over 20. When females have that many babies, you always wanna make sureyou have multiple lactating females in a tub, as rats only have 8, or maybe 10, never really looked, nipples. Therefore some babies eat really good, adn some don't. If you notice smaller babies in a litter, move'em. Another female with babies will take care of them, and minimize your loss due to 'bullying' by siblings.

Anyways, back on topic.....white rats GENERALLY have ALOT of babies....that is why breeders use'em........

Jason

Jason