Rats

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Hi all

Question, does anyone find breeding rats is not quite as easy or successful as mice? Are they slower breeders or what? Not having huge success with rats. I have one breeding paid for say 6 months and they have only had I think two successful litters. Is that normal? I just have a male and female in there. Tried the trio and no luck. Just all seems very slow.
Mice on the other hand.....no dramas at all.

My breeding rats had a litter the other day, and the litter was killed/eaten! Very frustrating.

 

[glassless_mind]

I don't know that much about breeding rats, as I haven't tried it myself, but aparently too much protein in the diet can cause them to eat their litters. Maybe it would be worth reviewing what you're feeding them?

 

[bredli-sli]

i had the same problem. get some new females.... any female that doesnt look after her babies, or eats them, gets namend lunch.
try bigger tubs maybe? i had mine in smallish tubs, changed them over and they were fine?
food can have an impact on eating their babies to....

 

[TigerCoastal]

i have 20 breeding females and 7 males and i average 200-250 pinkies every 3 weeks, and have never lost a full litter to cannibalization, only the odd one here or there. I started with 5 females and 2 males and have bred my breeding stock from them, but i plan to introduce some new blood lines soon. I do find that i get some females that are better producers than others so i tend to cull the slower/older breeders to try to keep the numbers up

 

[symbol]

Yeah maybe I need to start again with the females. The male appears to look after the pups quite nicely. I try to give them a mix of pellets and vegies scraps etc....

I have them in the large tubs from the herp shop.

I would appreciate any one elses thoughts.

 

[bredli-sli]

i think them ones are to small, i like to keep them in uncruel tubs, so they can move ect, but thats just me.
tiger coastal was that all in one big tub? 20;7 ratio?

 

[symbol]

I suspect that all of his rats would not be in one big tub! It would have to be a bloody big tub! TC, what size tubs do you keep them in?
Also, once the mother has had the pups, do you remove the male? Id be interested in a couple of pics of your set up?

 

[JAS101]

Yeah maybe I need to start again with the females. The male appears to look after the pups quite nicely. I try to give them a mix of pellets and vegies scraps etc....

I have them in the large tubs from the herp shop.

I would appreciate any one elses thoughts.

what type and brand of pellets are u feeding them ?
i have only ever had one litter geting eatern due to the wrong pellet being used .
i have a 1:2 ratio [ one male , 2 female] per tub . as soon as i see the females geting fat i transfer them to a diffrent tub . atm i have 20 females [ 14 of them are breeding ] and the other 6 are future breeders .
i use 52lt tubs with a food basket and a generic water drinker [ the type that can go on any standard bottle - eg pepsi , coke , ect , ect]
also where about are u , and where are u keeping them ? in a shed - how hot or cold duz the shed get ? as theat can/will play a big part in them having liters.

 

[JasonL]

I have been breeding my own rodents for a few years now and yes, rats can't be compaired to mice as far as breeding numbers go, my mice are dynamic breeders and the rats really only breed Ok for about 6 months then just stop, they require alot more work where as mice require none, I have the same line of mice that I started with 5 odd years back and they are going as strong as they day I started..

 

[nico77]

I would also be intrested in seeing some pics of the way you guys set up your tubs , I have 2 big grey trawler tubs and have just cut some mesh lids now i am going to see what else i need for them and whats a good way to set up the rest of the tub .
I also have a empty 5 foot fish tank and was thinking about putting the pregnant females in there and leaving the males in the tubs ( 1 in each ) . Would a 5 foot fish tank be big enough for 6 females to have there young in ?

cheers nico

 

[symbol]

i think its YS stock feeds (which I haven't been happen with this time, too crumbly). I keep them in the large herp shop rodent tub (L)520mm x (W)360mm x (H)210mm. Is that big enough for two-three rats? They are kept in my garage which is not normally too hot or two cold (not in a tin shed)
Some photos of your setups would be good

 

[Bez84]

I find that my rats breed faster then the mice, i have 60l black recycle tubs with mesh lids and keep one male to 3-4 females and am over flowing with rats.
I have a 4 foot fish tank with a mesh lid that i use as a growing out tank.
Food i use is true blue dogfood from my local produce place, 20kg for $22.50 and a compress bale of woodshavings is $14 been using that combination for years with great success.

 

[cris]

I have been breeding my own rodents for a few years now and yes, rats can't be compaired to mice as far as breeding numbers go, my mice are dynamic breeders and the rats really only breed Ok for about 6 months then just stop, they require alot more work where as mice require none, I have the same line of mice that I started with 5 odd years back and they are going as strong as they day I started..

My experience has been the opposite, although i think i usually get very poor quality mice and it sounds like you have got poor quality rats. I dont like mice and only keep them around this time of year for small hatchies. If you keep rats(even 100's of them) in a single large cage or avairy they take very little work to look after and thrive and generally toilet train themselves. If you stick them in tubs like most people do they stink after a day without cleaning and take heaps of work to look after IMO.

If rats are constantly breeding and raising full litters they will burn out pretty quick, you can avoid this by taking some of the pinkies away, giving breaks between breeding or just culling them once they stop producing well.

 

[benjaffa]

I have 5 female and five males one pair never even gets preg but the rest are good and provide constant litters don't give them too much fresh veges that are watery like lettuce as this can give them the runs.I leave the males in with the pups and don't have problems sometimes the males help out

 

[TigerCoastal]

i think them ones are to small, i like to keep them in uncruel tubs, so they can move ect, but thats just me.
tiger coastal was that all in one big tub? 20;7 ratio?

Hell NO!!!! thats spread across 10 tubs, 2 females a tub and males rotate.

Have included pics of the First rack i built now have another 4 exactly the same and then grow out tubs are 100l tubs that are 200mm high

I keep my rats in out external laundry which we dont use, gets down to about 3-4 degrees in winter and they still produce decent numbers. I cull every second litter as pinkies to give the females a little break but doing it this way you still only get 6 months of good numbers before they burn out.

 

[TigerCoastal]

I suspect that all of his rats would not be in one big tub! It would have to be a bloody big tub! TC, what size tubs do you keep them in?
Also, once the mother has had the pups, do you remove the male? Id be interested in a couple of pics of your set up?

It depends on if i need the male elsewhere but i find that the males do help alot in rearing the pups

 

[symbol]

Thanks for sharing the picture. What do you feed them? In essence my are kept quite similar. Perhaps I should put them to nigh nighs and start again!

 

[TigerCoastal]

my rats have a hopper of cummins rat pellets constantly and get fed fresh fruit and veg every second day, i use shredded news paper as bedding and have some large cardboard tubes (100mm diam.) that the rats can use as nests but i find that they prefer to pile up the newspaper. Where abouts are you located? There are alot of people on here that breed their own rats that might be able to help you out with some from good breeding stock.

 

[JAS101]

i just have a wire basket as a food hopper , and heres some of my tubs .
i have an old cast iron bath tub as a big growout tub .

 

[hazza]

how old do the rats have to be to breed???