Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, after looking at old posts for an hour, I am left with a couple questions....What are the breedable age ranges for rats? I saw that the females should be in the 250 g range, and males don't need to be that big, but I read a post that said large rats may not make good breeders. Is that for males, or females, or both? Do they get too big/old to breed?
Thanks,
Randy
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"I am a cop, and you will respect my authoritae!"-Cartman

>>Ok, after looking at old posts for an hour, I am left with a couple questions....What are the breedable age ranges for rats? I saw that the females should be in the 250 g range, and males don't need to be that big, but I read a post that said large rats may not make good breeders. Is that for males, or females, or both? Do they get too big/old to breed?
>>Thanks,
>>Randy
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>>"I am a cop, and you will respect my authoritae!"-Cartman

I don't try to breed rats that are older than 6-8 months if they are girls and never bred before. Males may go for a year. But if he hasn't bred before that he may just look at girls like...yeah, so. Many are just infertile if they go too long.
What I do is get either my own bred babies til 4 months, or, rarely pick up an outsider that is obviously young....so 3 months. Then quarantine for about a month....so they are 4 months to breed.
If I need replacements I raise them. Even more rarely will I get 'new blood' by picking up a pregnant female. Or last time Petco (of all places) sold me a mom that had dropped 12 pinks that morning for the price of a white rat. She was a great mom and kept them all, didn't bite and is now done with them and out of quarantine and breeding back to my male. (really pissed off the teen sales person who I told outright what her 'fate' was. He doesn't realize that feeder breeders are probably fed and cared for better than most pets after the novelty wears off.
The trouble getting older rats is they are often 'done' breeders from the guy who supplys the pet store. If you get a litter out of them it is likely one of their last.
So, there is MHO
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Sonya

Hi:

I really enjoy your posts. I have a baby female that was born 13 jun 03 so she is about two months old right now. She will break 250 g in about one week. She is @ 225 grams. She will only be about 9 weeks when she hits 250 grams.

Do you think it will be okay to breed her @ 9 weeks when she hits 250 grams or is it too soon?

I do not want to do another home c-section, so I would like to minimize the risks. (remmeber? I had to do that c-sect on my female who turned out to have only dead babies inside of her?)

Please advise. She will make the weight in about one week. She is gaining 25 grms very few days!!

cheers.

thax in advance.

P.s. Please have a great Rat day!
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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.

I personally wouldn't breed her. But that is me. Loads of folks just let them breed asap and go from there, and it works for them. I personally wait til 3-4 months...usually 4. So....16wks If it were a rat that really seemed to level out her weight before then than I might breed her a week or two earlier. But I don't even go by weights.
If I am keeping a girl to raise for breeding I pull her at 4 or 5 weeks BEFORE I put the dad back in to breed back the moms. I don't keep dad in all the time. I move my male group to group. That way too I can give a group a longer break if they need it.
I have found that breeding them too young, while they are still growing, tends to result in mom's that don't have milk for large litters and the young don't do well.
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Sonya

thx. sonya.

I think I am going to wait until about 10 weeks. And if she happens to have a very large litter, I will cull some of the babies so that she can nurse more well.

so, in your experience, the young ones' problem is that they don't have enough milk. I guess you haven't had to take any in for C-section. This leads me to believe that c=sections are pretty rare and it was my bad luck that my one mom (old one) had to be taken to c-section.

Sicnerely.

p.s. please have a great rat day.
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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.

Hi:

I really enjoy your posts. I have a baby female that was born 13 jun 03 so she is about two months old right now. She will break 250 g in about one week. She is @ 225 grams. She will only be about 9 weeks when she hits 250 grams.

Do you think it will be okay to breed her @ 9 weeks when she hits 250 grams or is it too soon?

I do not want to do another home c-section, so I would like to minimize the risks. (remmeber? I had to do that c-sect on my female who turned out to have only dead babies inside of her?)

Please advise. She will make the weight in about one week. She is gaining 25 grms very few days!!

cheers.

thax in advance.

P.s. Please have a great Rat day!

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Longtang. I like snakes and rats.