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

[ Hide Replies ]

• getting a couple of rats soon - deerman, Wed Mar 2 16:27:03 2005
• RE: getting a couple of rats soon - TomChambers, Wed Mar 2 18:58:12 2005
• RE: getting a couple of rats soon - deerman, Wed Mar 2 21:22:07 2005
• Check Out This Link - LKirkland, Thu Mar 3 01:57:49 2005
• RE: getting a couple of rats soon - nicolerm, Thu Mar 3 07:46:46 2005
• RE: getting a couple of rats soon - deer86man, Thu Mar 3 10:10:47 2005
• RE: getting a couple of rats soon - TomChambers, Thu Mar 3 11:36:16 2005
• Pinkies and CO2 - reptilicus81, Mon Mar 7 00:53:03 2005