Adam,

Yes it is fine to house 1.2(a male and 2 females) rats together.

The problems occur when there is more than one male in a breeding colony; they will fight for dominance.

There are more humane ways to prekill before freezing.
I prefer a cervical snap or co2.

As a suggestion, even though you are going to form a breeding colony, I would recommend not buying adults.

You may run into difficulties getting them to start breeding.

I would get some small/medium rats (about 100-120 grams) and let them grow up together; you will get more reliable breeding results in my opinion.

It doesn’t take long for a rat that size to reach breeding size.

Good luck, and check out the feeders forum, there are some real nice people over there
TomChambers

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