Rat Sizes at pet shops, best size for female breeder, male?

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

I am shopping around a few pet shops for some breeders, and I am trying to make a decision on size.

I think a medium sized male should work for breeder, but what size should I get for the females? Small? Medium?

I asked 2 people at the pet shop and they said the mediums are 5 months old (err, what!?) I figured the medium was more likely 2-3 months old, and a good age to get for a breeder....

Any advice on this? i know it varies by pet store, and I dont want to generalize, but what size rats do you get for breeders?


Thanks!
Bryan

[Shelby]

Breeder rats should be 3-4 months old. Medium-large is a good size for females.

[SatanicIntention]

Actually, if you want healthier, larger litters, get a female that is 5-6 months old. If you breed the females too young, they will likely have many problems, such as babies getting stuck in birth canal(pelvis not fully formed and is small), hemorrhage, small litters with small, thin babies, as well as the mother may not lactate or even have a clue what to do and will reject the litter. Breeding them at an older age usually ensures that you will have bigger, stronger litters, and the females will actually have a clue on how to raise the babies. It just makes sense, hm?

[Shelby]

I've done alright with them being 4 months old (average about 12 per litter) I try not to breed at less than 4 months.

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

Ok great, I will stick with medium or large. Need to pick up 20 in the next few weeks

[Ginevive]

Back when I started my colony, I looked for half-grown or smaller females, to ensure that they had never been bred and weren't another breeder's castoff nonbreeders. Males it really doesn't matter their size to me; but again, if you want something that's definately not an old retired breeder, buy young.

[frankykeno]

I like to buy my males and females on the young side and raise them to up a bit myself, especially the females. I like my females to be old enough to breed but not too old. Apparently an unbred female rat over 9 months of age will have a fused pelvis if she's never had a litter and then there's nothing but trouble there. Loss of litter or loss of female breeder or just the most gawd awful hard deliveries (I suspect this to be the case with my recent rescued rat with the bad delivery...not sure...but am wondering).

Look for the things we talked about in a healthy rat and in a short order if you have more than one male and keep your colonies seperated....you can just raise females from one colony to be your future females for the other colony and won't have to deal with this blech pet store experience except rarely if you want or need to bring in new blood.

Too dang bad I'm way up in northern Michigan. I've a ton of lovely young females sitting around, munching rat food, hanging out with other nice females and pretty much living the high life (for an eventual feeder that is...I feed off male weans first).

~~Jo~~