Thanks for the tip on the dog food, I'll have to try that! I use Mazuri 6F right now, I like the way it smells too. Supposed to keep the rat smell down with some of the ingredients in there too, but it's twice as expensive.
Every time I use pine I'm tossing out at least one dead rat per week. I actually switched to shredded paper that I got from work for free, works great, my losses went to zero for nearly a year! I've since switched to a combination of pine pellets with a handful of shredded paper on top of the pellets. As soon as I switched to the pine pellets I had some rats die, maybe a coincidence? Maybe one out of a hundred rats per week. There are scientific studies out there that show that the oils in pine is toxic to rats and affects their liver. I'm still looking for hardwood pellets, but I believe wood pellets on the bottom and shredded paper on top is the ideal bedding. The rats love shredded paper and the wood pellets are absorbent (and cheap), but the rats don't like walking on the wood pellets so a top layer of shredded paper helps them get comfy. I actually buy reams of new printer paper to shred when it goes on sale and mix in a little shredded newspaper.
I have 30 tubs for rats and mice, I just ordered another ARS rack with 21 grow out tubs. I've tried all kinds of breeding. The very best way is to separate the females right before they give birth. Even with two females to a tub you will have some losses, sometimes significant losses. With just one female it's amazing how healthy and strong the babies are. The fewer babies they have the bigger and fatter and faster those babies will grow. I have one tub right now with six pups and two females (because I fed them off). I've never seen such fat baby rats! All my other rats look very skinny compared to those babies. I also tend to move babies to other moms if the size is similar to share the load.
I keep going back and forth to what is the best approach, I guess for me right now I separate my females for birthing, then let them grow up until their eyes are opened. At that point you can put two females with babies and a male in a separate larger tub. That way it cuts weeks off your wait time, the females will get pregnant while nursing. Also, you have to wait to put females together until the pups open their eyes, if you put females together right after birthing they will fight and you will have losses.
If you keep the male and female together the entire time the female will have new babies before the old ones are weaned, a difficult situation. The only thing you can do at that point is to take away her new babies and give them to other moms.
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