>>... as far as placing the male back in with the female if they have been seperated for any amount of time I wouldnt, he'll kill the babies, the only time a male should be around babies is if they have been in he same cage since birth, even then the male will eat alot of the babies ...



How strange! I've been breeding rats for about three years, and I've never once seen a male eat newborns if he was present for the birthing of them. I agree, that to introduce to a cage with newborn babies that he wasn't there at the birthing of, is certain to result in their murder.



>>... i breed 1.2 to a cage ...



This works well. It depends on the size of the cage. In large cages, I usually set them up 1.4 or 1.5, but I use 1.1 and 1.2 for small cages. I like to keep pedigrees on my rats, and find that by using the small ratios, it makes it a snap to keep track of which momma a litter belongs to. If I'm just breeding for max productivity, then I go with the bigger groupings.



>>... and remove the male when they are ready to drop ...



Agreed. Not because of cannabalism, but to ensure that the momma doesn't get re-bred post-partum. I leave her with her babies for 21 days, then reintroduce her to her mate. I like to give my mommas a break, and agree that constant pregnancy will drastically shorten their breeding lives.



>>... I get alot higher production and less canoblism, once the litters are weened I reintroduce the male, the females fight alot less, I get longer breeding life out of them and this way the litters are born within a day or two of each other, the other thing you can try as well is place your females in a 10gal or something that size my rack units are all large cat pans, the smaller cage restricts the females and they tend not to try and steal each other babies and run with them, but lay togther side by side with the pups, Hope this help Jason




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tricia

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