Rats not breeding fast enough

[satomi325]

I tried to feed off males first, and keep all my females, but my odds have been terrible. I lost 2 litters due to bad parenting, and I only got 3 females from my first wave of litters, and 5 from my second wave of litters. Now all my starters have had 2 litters and need to retire. 2 of my hold backs are pregnant but the other 5 females are still too young and even once they are old enough I have to wait out the pregnancy.

So now my question. Does anyone know of a way to increase the speed of production? more males, smaller colonies, just plain more females, a different species, such as african soft furs perhaps? Im still pretty new at this and dont know all the tricks for success quite yet = P

Don't retire breeders after 2 litters unless there is something wrong with them. Healthy females will breed well for at least a year, if not more. Retire them once you see their litter size significantly decreasing and/or after a whole year of breeding. It's only unhealthy for the female if you over breed them back to back. (i.e, no breaks after 3 consecutive breedings. It's taxing on their bodies)
If you're not getting enough litters, get more females and harem breed (1 male with multiple females at all times).<-- This will get your production really high.
If you want to give the females a break, then stagger your breeding.
For example, if you want a litter a week, you need 12 females. With those 12 females, you breed one a week. That way it will give some girls rest while others breed in their stead. You just need to come up with a nice system.
Personally, I have 8 snakes and breed a single female every other week. 1 litter can last me about 2 weeks worth of feeding.

Norway rats:
-Pros: Grows fast, has many sizes you can feed
-Cons: litters average 8-12

ASFs:
-Pros: Has very large litters and breeds very fast
-Cons: litters take long to grow up into proper feeding size.


If you get any pretty coat types and dumbos, sell your rats for more.
My rats price at:
$5 - standard top ear
$10 - dumbo
$10 -rex
$15 dumbo rex
People do go for them. 3 dumbo rat sales alone can feed the entire colony for 2+ months for me.