Breeding rats

[Mase]

i have finally successfully bred a creature all myt attempts of breeding aminals always result in a failure. just wanted to know what i should do with the rat pups are there any special requirements for them or for the parents ?

[nervous]

just make sure the mum has enough food and water .
cause if she doesnt you can kiss the babies good bye "she will eat them"

and make sure mum and bubs are seperated from the other rats

[Recharge]

I keep all my rats in two huge cages and so far I've never noticed a lack of babies...
and I have between 1 and 200 of the buggers (mostly female and I feed the males off)
I'd be producing at least 100-150 pups a month. (if I farm them properly, which I usually don't haha so lazy)

[Mase]

is it a must to remove the father ?

[wood_nymph]

yes take dad out the most common cause of mums killing babies is that they're pregnant again. when they give birth they go in post partum esterus (excuse the spelling) in other words go straight into heat. the stress of feeding and carrying more at the same time will stress her usually resulting in eating the babies in order to support the one inside. i have also seen male become agressive towards babies

[dansfish4tea]

how long did it take for the rats to do the tango
jst bought 3 rats last week 2 f 1 m and jst wainting for them to screw

[serenaphoenix]

how do you humanely kill them for feeding?

[dansfish4tea]

put them in with the snake lol or fish

[serenaphoenix]

or fish? hmmm.... actually i think i said humanely - being squished to death isn't very nice - and i don't suppose the freezer is the way to go either - because i want to breed them to feed to my pythons - but i don't want to feed them live (because i've heard that can cause damage to the snake as well) and i don't want to chop their little heads off. somebody said Co2 - that's sounds expensive and difficult though..

[wood_nymph]

yea they tend to do it wen you ain't looking, sneaky little things.
i leave them together for a week, if tehy're over 6 weeks they'll breed. gestation takes anywhere between 3 and 3 and half weeks. i would also recomend resting your girl for at kleast 4 weeks after the abies are gone so she doesn;t get physically stressed and kill the next lot. the most efficent way to do it if you have the room is to have a couple or several girls and breed them in a cycle

[wood_nymph]

o for killing i reckon freezer is the best they just go to sleep

[dansfish4tea]

not sure lol is it humane to kill a little pup in any way wat so ever

[serenaphoenix]

i don't know - freezer still seems a bit sick - but i trust you... might have to buy another freezer though - my boyfriend would have a heart attack

[wood_nymph]

yea, i breed for pets, but if i have to like there's something wrng or its been abandoned and not taking to hand feeding freezer is my choice

[serenaphoenix]

can you take them to the pet store and exchange them as pets for frozen snake food?