With more posts popping up about the african soft-furred rats I thought I would update/share some more.
My colony is growing great and I have several females from my very first litter that will soon be used for breeders also. In talking with the buddy I got these from we are trying some things out to improve the life and reproduction of these rats. He has mentioned to me that he has smaller litters with tubs that are clear like the sterilites. Well that's exactly what I'm using 58qt sterilites, I think the best litter so far has been 12-13 per female with a 1.2 group. I have since placed in simple wooden hides in a couple tubs to see if it will make a difference. The soon to be breeder females have been growing out with 3 females to a tub (all tubs are 58qt)so they have lots of room and in one of those tubs I placed another hide so they can get used to it before breeding. The plan is to experiment with cycling a male through them rather than keep them together all the time as they WILL breed back to back non-stop. There may be some issues cycling but myself and the other person are going to try and and see how it goes.
Here's something I could be scolded for that seems like a no brainer now. My wife (at my request) had been tossing in scraps of greens, mainly stalks that the dragon won't eat. We have just always done this with the rodents, they loved something different and we where not wasting as much. Well if I had my head on straight I would have stopped doing this and now have. The greens retain alot of water and even though the af rats take them greedily it probably isn't very good for them. I noticed one female eating some of her poo before thought over what we where doing and I asked about it and was told once a week maybe it would be ok but not every day. I was also noticing the males where urinating a lot more no doubt related to the greens. I'm not positive if the poo eating is related or not but she is also due to drop another litter within the week.
More on food: I keep food available 24/7 and I have good luck growing out little ones pretty quickly. The food is a block form that I have actually used quite a while but I was looking at the label and its pretty high in protein...you other rat/mouse breeders for sure wouldn't want to feed it them. So another thing I am looking at doing is changing feed to something in the range most recommend for common rats/mice. I have had zero deaths to date and no skin irritations or allergic behavior with the litters but I still think I need get something lower and see if it affects litter size.
I am starting to see some neat variations in colors and patterns now which is cool. Most everything I have seen is the brown/white or the albino gold/white.
So that's where I'm at, still happy with them and not at all upset that I gave it shot. With a few tweaks and experience over time I know I will only be happier with them.
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