rodent breeding questionz

[Aussie-Pride]

heya peeps, I have a quick question i had a mother have a litter of pups 3 days ago, I haven"t bothered the babies or the mother until today i went to check them out an see how they were going, i have 12 little pinkies my first question is how big should they be at 3- 4 days old they are very tiny about a cm long is that normal or are there a problem with them?

Also how long until they will be hopping around and have there eyes open? I have also found that my other female has had a litter in the other tub i had with her and my male in it, should i move the male into another tub or should i just leave him in with the mother and her litter? any help would be much appreciated.

 

[nagini-baby]

if the male hasnt hurt the pups yet i doubt he will, leave him there. the bubs will take about 4 weeks to open their eyes being a larger litter they may be a little smaller as they have to compete more for food. its certainly not unusual to have that many in the litter but ive noticed my smaller litters tend to have bigger babies.

 

[Ryant16]

usually the larger the litter the smaller the pinkies.
some people will kill off a couple of pinkies to reduce the number back to 8-10 to allow the mother to feed the little ones more. something to do with amount of nipples the rat has. i personally leave all of them alive and seperate them from the fathers as i found them cananbalistic. i cant remember the eye opening i believe its around 8-10 days and hopping around is like 13 days

 

[Fuscus]

As a general rule what ever is in the tub can stay in the tub and whatever is out of the tub stays out of the tub. It is, of course, not 100% safe, you can sometimes get murders, in which case all the occupants get to "meet the snake"

 

[nagini-baby]

the eyes dont open until they are nearly weaned... alot longer than ten days.

 

[saximus]

the eyes dont open until they are nearly weaned... alot longer than ten days.

Incorrect. They open their eyes after about 14 days but weaning occurs after about four weeks

 

[nagini-baby]

them how come mine dont open their eyes that early?

 

[saximus]

Weak blood line maybe? No idea but they should have open eyes after about two weeks and crawling around exploring very shortly after

 

[Jen]

If they are a cm long at 3-4 days old there is a massive problem. I am assuming you have mice and not rats? Mice open their eyes at around 12-14 days, and are able to be weaned at 21 days. 'Hoppers' are about 15 days onwards. Pinkies should start to fuzz up at around 5-6 days. If you want continual breeding, leave the male in as there is postpartum estrus, if you want the female to have a break, take him out once you can see the female is pregnant.

 

[-Katana-]

I found some mothers are hell biatches and won't allow anything (me, males or other females) near their pups at all.
It's largely down the individual disposition of the females and males themselves.
Generally speaking if you keep the male in the tub he'll service the female right after the birth of the pups which cuts down on time between litters. Nutrition needs to be high if you are going to do this because she is not only having to support lactation but fetal growth of the new litter as it develops insider her.
Males will act as a baby sitter so the female can feed and he will also help to keep the pinkies warm who can chill easily because they have very little in the way of body reserves and no hair.

 

[nagini-baby]

lol if we are talking about mice its all good i agree sax if its rats then im stumped. as all mine take longer and they are different lines

 

[Wrightpython]

leave them in and they can breed straight away again. All of mine open eyes around day 12 and are weaned at 21 days and then sex seperated until 5 weeks old then tubs made up of 6 females related to 1 male unrelated and they stay together until they all meet there maker around 1 year. Never have problem with cannabalisation due to using bio-mare feed. on average i get two litters every 2 1/2 weeks per tub. Quite often females will share feeding duties and each female should have twelve nipples and if there is more than 12 pinkies average some get removed and frozen. If you are taking pinkies for food dont take all of them leave a few otherwise they can raid other nests for bubs. Take note of where each baby feeds from and you will see they go back to same nipple each time. Reason yours are small is large litter and im guessing new mum.

 

[solar 17]

90% of the time what you feed is what you breed.
.......solar 17 (baden)

 

[-Katana-]

90% of the time what you feed is what you breed.
.......solar 17 (baden)

Exactly right Baden.

Ever since I took your advice on feeding my litters have jumped from 10 per litter to 16 and my mothers are lactating so well that I have to stagger the weaning so my females don't get mastitis.

 

[Justdragons]

How long can you leave the mice or rats in the freezer for after they are the size you want??

 

[nagini-baby]

lots of different opinions on freezer time but generally six months is a good rule

 

[Wrightpython]

How long can you leave the mice or rats in the freezer for after they are the size you want??

If i kill for long term storage i vacuum seal bags and get 2 years out of them in a pinch. Only feed to monitors after 1 year.

 

[UrbanJungle]

Where do you get the breeding pair from? just go down to the pet shop?

 

[Wrightpython]

Where do you get the breeding pair from? just go down to the pet shop?

Depends how big your wallet is Kellyville pets charge $26 a rat most herpers will sell you them for $4-5 depending on amount etc put an ad on wanted section someone will have excess i reckon aussie pride will have some in 3 weeks

 

[UrbanJungle]

Depends how big your wallet is Kellyville pets charge $26 a rat most herpers will sell you them for $4-5 depending on amount etc put an ad on wanted section someone will have excess i reckon aussie pride will have some in 3 weeks

Ok sweet, trying to find some albino ones, so there less like pets to me.