Posted by:
Sonya
at Wed Nov 19 11:03:22 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Sonya ]
>>I'm going to be working with 200-300 female rats. I have heard from many many breeders that pulling the pregnant females is wise for many reasons. I've done it myself & ir works better I believe. That's the way the labs do it too. The qustion really isn't to pull or not to pull, but what type of system am I going to breed rats in; 1)a friend of mine has a lrg wire cage he made from plastic coated wire shelving (awesome idea)& has a wash down system underneith it that washes the droppings right into the sewer - another awesome idea! Ideal, but difficult & expensive to set up. 2) Weather to keep females alone with their babies the whole time their lactating, or put several lactating females together in a community cage.
>>Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.
>>Paul
My thoughts would be that moving all the pregnant girls is going to be intensive labor and record wise with that many rats. And if you have a large communal cage and a virus strikes you lose more. If you have tubs you can compartmentalize the illness more. You are also more likely to notice problems. And, there is something to the rats and overcrowding thing. I think it will be more stress for no reason.
What I found works for me is to have the females in groups and introduce males as I want to time litters. If I don't want to give them a break then he stays in throughout and if I want to give them time off then he goes somewhere else. Stressing the male is a lot less detrimental than stressing the ladies.
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Sonya
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RE: Which method do you use to breed rats? - Sonya, Wed Nov 19 11:03:22 2003