Quote Originally Posted by Deborah View Post
2 females and a male will not get you far. It will get you 12 to 24 babies on average 5 weeks later your females can get back in rotation to produce another 12 to 24 babies 3 to 4 weeks later.

If you keep the females together with the male at all time back to back breeding will where them out, smaller litters, smaller babies (obviously being regnant and nursing at the same time takes it's toll pretty fast)

Average production is 6 to 12 (some do good some not so much and you only find out when they start producing), what you need to figure when pairing is that your females will be going through breeding/gestation/nursing, if you need crawlers to pups, we talking at least 5 weeks for the all process for each females so if you want to produce consistently on a weekly basis and have to feed 50 babies you need to take that into account.

That mean to produce 50 rats each week you will need at least 5 females to produce babies for you each week. (even that could be a little short depending on the females)

Now while I used to start everything on rats I don't anymore, mice is more enticing and the success rate of first feed first time offered is higher on mice (they are switch however after 2 meals)

As a general rule I have 1 female rat for every snake for the perfect rotation. Seems like a lot but those are realistic numbers long term.

Now if you only intend to produce for 2 weeks before the snakes are gone I would not go through that trouble, I would find an alternative solution.
Thanks for the detailed breakdown. Three rats I could deal with. Six is in the questionable range. The biggest reason I am even thinking about doing it is the availability issue with getting the smaller rats. I am talking to some local people trying to get something lined up but no luck so far. I can get live mice at the right size, but I like to get them on rats before going out the door (should I be that concerned about this?). I have so far always been able to switch babies over but should I even bother?