Question about Rat breeding!

[Holbeird]

Super Pet Deluxe My First Home, Pet Rat
purple base 24.5"x12.5"x14.5"

OK so I have my two females, Tess and Isabelle in a Super Pet Deluxe, My First Home, Pet Rat cage. The Dimentions are 24.5"x12.5"x14.5" with a purple base. Here's a link to what the cage looks like.

I was wondering, how many rat's is safe to keep in this one cage. Currently I have my two females living here and they both seem quite content. The reason I ask, is soon I plan on introducing one of our males into the cage and was wondering if I'd need to remove one of the females, or if the male and two females could all be together.

Also when the females get pregnant we plan on moving them to their own tanks.

Thanks for any information!

[tmlowe5704]

1.2 is the most I would go in there, maybe even 1.1 and remove any prego mommas

[Adam_Wysocki]

A boy and two girls will be fine in there.

-adam

[Pork Chops N' Corn Bread]

Just make sure like tmlowe said to remove any prego moms before they pop. The sight of dead babies stuck in the bars is a sight you don't want to see

[Holbeird]

Yeah, I planned on it. I play with my rats on a daily basis, and my favorite rides around on my shoulder for most of the day while I'm home! Currently I had the two females in there and I just wanted to make sure that if I was introducing the male into the cage I wouldn't need to remove one of the females due to space. Don't worry, as soon as we notice one is pregnant they have their own 10 gallon tank waiting for them. Currently I'm just trying to decide if I should stagger the breeding or not. I have 1 snake eating small rats, 1 eating medium rats, and 3 eating full grown mice (going to switch them to rats soon) I wanted to stagger it so that we don't have to go to the pet store for feeders any more than needed! I was thinking maybe introducing a male and female, then a week later putting in the other female, and so on. Not sure yet

[Ginevive]

I would personally only keep one male in there. 1.2 is the ratio I would do. However, sometimes with just 2 girls, you can run into a "feast or famine" breeding snafu where you have two litters at once and then nothing for a few weeks.. maybe seperate the females and rotate the male, so that the girls will have their babies at different times? Or even better, get 1-2 more females and rotate like that, and you should never be without babies. This is what I do. I have 1.6 and am "in the rats" most of the time.. and this is feeding 8 snakes.. but I do freeze the extra ratlings and thaw/feed when needed.

[Flagg]

I have that exact cage, it actually WAS "my first rat cage". I now use it for a nursery cage only, for 1 female.
My adult rats are in MUCH larger cages now. I don't breed them constantly and so keep the males and females separate most of the time.

I use ASF rats for my primary feeders and harem breed them in permanent colonies.