First time breeding rats

[artgecko]

I only have pets now, and am on the fence about breeding, but what I found with litter boxes was the following: different kind of substrate than the rest of the cage, put a smooth rock in the center (which will encourage peeing), move poo, and dirty bedding into the box to mark it, and remove all poo from other areas dilligently.

I had my two males completely litter trained when they were small... When I purchased females and another baby male, they didn't take to it so well.

It may be easier to just provide a deep pan in the bottom of the cage and use very absorbant litter that will help with odor and be easy to change. I use a layer of tractor supply pine pellet horse beeding with shredded aspen over it and it works well.

As to whether to seperate or not... Most people that breed for food use rat racks with bins... I've found with just 6 rats in wire cages that the smell gets bad, fast, due to peeing on the bars of the cages, etc. The racks also provide more space to grow out rats to the right size.

You need to decide how many rats you will need and in what frequency. Most people suggest 1 female per snake. Then you have to decide what you will do with "extras".. Many people CO2 gas them and freeze, while others try to sell extras to other keepers. If you don't want to produce that many feeders, you will need to breed each female and separate out the male, give the females rest periods, then put them back with the male when you want her to breed again. If left with the female, the male will breed with her right after delivery and you will have a constant stream of babies.

Personally, I'd have at least 3 cages: breeder pair, growout males, and growout females. If you want to seperate out the male / female, you could keep the adult male in a separate cage while the female is recovering.