Mine are just starting to produce (60 babies from two colonies) but I can agree with others that they are prolific, smell a lot better, and don't seem to eat (or drink) that much. I think if I can keep enough grow out pans going they will do fine for me after a long startup period. But how many would you need for every breeder pen? I use those big concrete mixing tubs so there is a lot of room but if it's going to take three months to grow them up I'm just not sure when to remove babies from parents to make room for more and how to shuffle them around during that time.

I'm thinking maybe four breeder tubs and 3 grow out tubs but maybe even with the big tubs I'll need to up that to 6 for grow out. Take all the weanlings (how old? 6 weeks?) from a week or two (depending on if 6 or 3 grow out tubs) and then grow them up for another 6 weeks? Doesn't look like I'll have a steady flow of feeders until about 4 months into this but as long as you have the space to grow them up the feed doesn’t seem to much so shouldn’t be a big problem after you fill the longer pipeline than Norway rats.

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• breeding african soft fur rats??? - fire_flyny, Thu Oct 16 20:41:12 2008
• RE: breeding african soft fur rats??? - BrianMRay, Fri Oct 17 00:41:41 2008
• RE: breeding african soft fur rats??? - fire_flyny, Fri Oct 17 10:13:44 2008
• your key to success is to ........... - pitoon, Fri Oct 17 10:28:49 2008
• RE: breeding african soft fur rats??? - Gimptafied, Fri Oct 17 20:49:03 2008
• RE: breeding african soft fur rats??? - LordBaal, Fri Oct 17 22:45:35 2008
• RE: breeding african soft fur rats??? - bizkit421, Sat Oct 18 06:09:13 2008
• RE: breeding african soft fur rats??? - rabernet, Sat Oct 18 10:04:53 2008
• RE: breeding african soft fur rats??? - rabernet, Sat Oct 18 10:07:29 2008
• ASF Grow Out - RandyRemington, Sat Oct 18 12:51:18 2008