Breeding female timeline

[billye1982]

How long is it for you between when you introduce a female to a male, let them have their babies, then re-introduce them again. I like to try and give my females plenty of time, just wondering if I give them too much or not enough, but here is what I do. I put .3 rats with one male rat (I just did this yesterday). In two weeks I move the females down one tub and put .3 more in with the male. I have a 4 tub system, so I do this two more times before the first group of females get put back in with the males. So from the day I start pairing to the day that first group of females get back with the male is 8 weeks. How often do your breeder females see a male?

[snakesRkewl]

I find it much easier to move the males and leave the females in their own tub full time.
Females do not NEED time off, it can prolong their lives but also means they don't produce as much so you need to hold back fresh blood more often and/or breed more rats to achieve the same production.

[Annageckos]

I keep my males and females together all the time without problems.

[Scubaf250]

What I hear is that they can get pregnant again quickly after they give birth and that it can be bad for them but i think as long as you have about 1.3 there should be plenty of action for the male.

But I can also see why people would want to give them a break. Maybe get one more male to cut down your recovery period and boost your production? If I was going to do it this way I would only give the time it takes to wean as a recovery period.

[RestlessRobie]

I give all my girls a week or two after weaning before I reintroduce them to the male. So about every 8-9 weeks sounds about right to me