Hi All,



New to the rat breeding scene, but I have too many animals at this point not to give it a shot.



Basically the first litter went great, 9 offspring 5 male, 4 female.



First question:



Is there a minimum age when the female young can be introduced in with a male? Basically at this point the females are about 6 weeks old. Last night I attempted to put a male in with the 4 females and their mother. This DID NOT GO WELL. In about 15 minutes tops, the male had killed 2 of the 6 week old females.

I am curious to know why this happened and try and prevent it in the future.



Here is the best background I can give:



1) The male came from a 30gallon aquarium setup and was placed with the 5 females in a rack setup.



2) The bins for the rack setup are not very large, measuring something like 15L X 13W X 6H. But I figured this would be o.k. because the females are not fully grown.



3) The bin was fully stocked with food and water.



4) The bin recently also held the male young offspring, BUT I did not change the substrate after separating the offspring out.



I am curious to know if the problem was because the females were too young to be introduced in with a male?



OR



If it was because the substrate had not been changed?



OR



Because the male came from a much larger enclosure and felt threatened by lack of space and therefore killed of some of the smaller females?



OR



Some other reason I haven't thought of yet.



I believe 99% that the animals were sexed properly as well.



thanks,

Rob

[ Show Entire Thread ]