What litter size is too small for you?

[SarWildDog]

In the past week and a half, I've had three females all drop their first litters.
First is my varigated russian blue dumbo-who is important to what I want to work with
Second is my mink mismarked blaze-whose babies are only keep worthy if they have a wedge blaze
Third is a fawn with a perfect wedge blaze, but is kind of mean :/

The first two both dropped ten, but despite the fawn being older and larger than the other two, she only had six. I would just feed her off, but I really want to pass on her perfect wedge blaze. What should I do?
And also, when is a litter size too small to be worth it? When do you just retire/feed off the female and replace it with one that produces larger litters?

[E71000]

keep her breed her again remember it's only her first litter i retire/feed off my females if they give me two litters of 5 in a rowthat's the end i had a female that had only 2 and no she didn't eat them i watch her give birth so i know for sure she only had 2 but her second litter she had 12

[MootWorm]

Yeah I'd say give her another shot or two. I had one drop a litter of 6 for her first, then a litter of 13. Sometimes they just need time to get in the swing of things

[satomi325]

My girls average 10-16 pups per litter.
Once they drop to about 8 pups or less, I retire them.

First time moms may have smaller litters, but drop normal litters the second time around.
I always give them 2 times to prove themselves.

[NH93]

Sorry, but what does "feed her off" mean...? :S I am new and have never heard this term before. Thank you!

[MrLang]

Feed the rat to a snake.

[Sita]

6-7 is my limit, but I sometimes keep females that I know have small litters (unless I know it's because they're old) and breed them at the same time with either a new mom or one I know has big litters (I have a line that has never had less than 11 babies, even on their first litters). That way, the one female can help take care of some of the other babies.

However, you mentioned she's mean. Aggressive behaviour is often hereditary, so you might end up with mean babies as well. And Satomi, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't blazes have problems with hereditary mega-colon? It's something to do with white markings.

[satomi325]

And Satomi, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't blazes have problems with hereditary mega-colon?

Yes.
Many lines of blazes and high white rats are prone to mega-colon, but not all.
You just have to be vigilant with your rats.

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[SarWildDog]

There are two different types of blaze, recessive and dominant. Dominant blazes are part of the high-white class and those lines are often associated megacolon. However, I'm still trying to determine whether my two blazed rats are recessive or dominant. In this case, the male is not help because I'm pretty certain that he has recessive blaze in his family. One blaze litter is already coloring up, and so far only one has the blaze, which is making me lean toward recessive.
Either way, I'll be keeping an eye out, obviously. I've been breeding rats for a couple of years and did many years of research prior to owning any. My last project was the creation of a line of siamese dumbos, but I wanted to try something a bit more adventurous.

[sorraia]

In the past week and a half, I've had three females all drop their first litters.
First is my varigated russian blue dumbo-who is important to what I want to work with
Second is my mink mismarked blaze-whose babies are only keep worthy if they have a wedge blaze
Third is a fawn with a perfect wedge blaze, but is kind of mean :/

The first two both dropped ten, but despite the fawn being older and larger than the other two, she only had six. I would just feed her off, but I really want to pass on her perfect wedge blaze. What should I do?
And also, when is a litter size too small to be worth it? When do you just retire/feed off the female and replace it with one that produces larger litters?

If the fawn is mean, I'd cull her for that reason alone. You can get perfect wedge blazes from imperfect blazes or even headspots. Likewise a perfect wedge blaze doesn't necessarily mean you'll get more perfect wedge blazes. Markings are highly variable in their inheritance, and I've even read some literature suggesting they are "fluid" to a certain extent during gestation (meaning until the pigments cells really set in, the markings can change, they aren't strictly genetically determined, so a perfect wedge blaze can become imperfect during gestation, depending on where the cells are when they "set"). To me, temperament is far more important than colors any day. (And I say that after having to cull a cinnamon hood who had attitude, even though I like mink and wanted to see more white markings.)

As for litter size... for production purposes, and in my personal opinion, a mother who consistently produces 8 babies or less, when others are producing 12 or more, isn't worth keeping. For a first litter I'd give her another chance. If she produces 2 small litters, then she's gotta go. Right now I have 8 ball pythons and 2 rosy boas, so that's 10 snakes the feed (I'd just have to pull babies sooner for the rosies than for the balls, I also now have 2 kings, but they are too small for rat babies of any size). If I keep 1 or 2 babies from every few litters (to replace older breeders, replace culled breeders, add more color or markings, or whatever reason), and I need a minimum of 10 babies to be able to keep my snakes fed, that means these moms need to produce at least 12 babies to remain productive enough for me.