Practices for maximum rat production?

[BigIan]

I have, I believe 5 1.4 breeding colonies of rats, 2 groups were bought at different, later dates than the first 3 groups. the 3 initial groups all produced litters and now seem a little slow to give me new litters.

My main question is whether it's best to separate the females once I see they're preggers or if I should just leave the groups together and let them do their thing. I know at one point, even with 50+ snakes I'll start producing more than I can use but at this point I could really stand to get to that point.

Is there any other tips on getting maximum production and litter size from my rats?

I keep them very well fed and hydrated....

[edgarfl]

I have had alot of succes with 1.4. Once I notice they are preggo, I pull them and place them in a birthing tub. I am able to monitor the top producers and any issues. I keep around 20 females and 3-4 males all the time and rotate them. I have seen that females do better in a rotation. I produce ALOT of rats and usually have to freeze leftovers. I feed about 50 snakes of diffetent sizes and sell to about 10 friends.


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[kc261]

To get the highest production, you have to balance 2 things. You don't want adult rats sitting idle, because obviously that means less production. But if the females are bred constantly, they'll tend to produce smaller litters and they'll get "used up" and you may have to replace your females more often. So you want to breed your females as often as possible without it over straining their bodies. Unfortunately, there is no magic answer of exactly how often that is. Most people seem to separate pregnant females, let them have their litter and raise them to weaning size, and then either give them a little bit of rest (maybe a week or so) or just put them right back in with the male as soon as the litter is weaned. If you do not separate pregnant females, they should still raise the babies just fine (the male shouldn't hurt the babies), but the females can become pregnant again only hours after giving birth, and being pregnant while nursing a litter can really take a toll on them. Some rats handle it better than others, depending on their genetics I guess. I have experimented some with allowing a female to have 2 back-to-back litters, then giving her a rest, and for most of my females it has worked out ok. Several didn't get pregnant or reabsorbed the 2nd litter (possibly a sign there was too much strain on their bodies). None of them looked really poor after the second litter, but they didn't look quite as fat and happy as normal, either. However, with many of them, the second litters were noticably smaller than the first litters. I guess that's nature's way of giving the momma rat a sort of "rest", but it slows down production, and in some cases the litters were as small as only 3 babies, so it was barely any better than giving the mother a break. So really the bottom line is if you want to be sure you are maximizing production, you'll have to experiment to see what works best with your rats as far as how often the females can be bred without compromising the mother's health and the litter size, and also work hard on improving your lines by only holding back babies from the mommas who do best with back to back production. But if you just want a safe formula that should get you a good steady production, then I'd suggest separating pregnant females, and breeding them again as soon as the litter is weaned.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

For my maximum production I rotate females.

I have several tubs with males and add new females each week. Females are removed as they become pregnant and placed in individual birthing tubs, they are kept in those tubs until their babies are at least 7 days old, then it's communal nursing. This help preventing death due to females fighting over babies and those babies are the most fragile.

Once the babies are 3 weeks old they are weaned and females are back into rotation.

[ElliotNess]

Ok so I am literally going to start breeding friday. My friend gave me 31 rats at close to breeding size. I pick up an awesome deal of a pro built rack so I will be bothering for advice. I have read everything written I can find about starting to breed but I am always on the lookout for stuff like how to know when a female is pregnant before its too late. Can you control the species like you can by line breeding snakes. Just things to watch out for....

[J.P.]

if you are getting a new colony of rats, do not be disappointed if they do not produce right away. even if you get adults, it may still take a little time for them to settle in before they start making rat babies. i noticed that whenever i bring in new breeding stock, the earliest pregnancies in the new rats come at least two months after getting them (that translates to at roughly a month before they start copulating).....

do not worry about not noticing the pregnant females. it will be very obvious when it's time to move them to their own birthing tubs.

[ElliotNess]

Cool.. im in no rush but my buddy said he wouldn't be surprised if type female aren't pregnant already. Hopefully they take but if not I can wait it out..

[Starsnake]

I'm reading what everyone is asking and saying here and pretty much do what a lot of you do. Only thing I don't do is rotate males which I probably should to make production better. But I have also been told dumbos rats grow quicker. Does anyone have this experience?

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[Rhasputin]

Good food is really important.

[ElliotNess]

What is your opinion on good food. I have seen numerous threads on it but the key factor to me is found locally or free shipping. I am 2 blocks from Kahoots so if they carry an appropriate brand or style, that would be ideal.