Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Nothing to tragic just an O.S. moment.

I fed my snakes the other day and the big female is still off feed. So I throw the rat(place gently)into a spare ten gallon tank that I have and start the baby sitting task. It's been a few days and I have to admit I was kinda wondering but I always wonder. Well, I'm checking the Friday evening posts and hear a faint whistle noise. Kinda familiar, but no way. O-yeah, she dropped babies. Don't get your hopes up, it was the rat. Good news, I won't have to buy next time. Bad news, there goes lunch and now I have to raise rats.

Knowing the big guys raise already, any of you rodent buyers ever have this happen?
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Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots

Oh yeah! A few times, actually. One rat actually had babies on Valentine's day! I kept the two cutest ones for pets and then everyone else became snake food.

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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Lizard
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 mice (Cute Girl Mousy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
3.0 horses (Buddy, Sam, and Scout)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

jenny.thegreenes.org

LOL, I actually buy rats hopin' one or two may be pregnant. The bad part is you still gotta buy more while you wait for those to get up to size, and what few snakes I have will take everything from pinkies to jumbos so it's a "Rat Race" LOLOL.

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

No actually....I feed small and maybe small medium rats to balls......large rats are too large.....jumbo rats are just that..

.......good luck....in 21 days you'll have extra small or smalls......

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...........you would think so huh?...........

That's the kinda odd thing. The rat's not that big. Either that or I'm way off on sizes. How big is a small,medium,large,jumbo rat? I've gotten large rats that look like full grown mice and small rats that looked like small dogs. I have seen rats the size of an average squirrel. What is the standard scale?
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Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots

one problem is that everyone has a little different idea of a smell and large rat........jumbos are the squirrels.......LOL........

........large mouse size and gerbil sized prey is what I normally use....

I have used big mediums and guinea pigs and large hamsters.....and from the 5 huge girls I own, I got one clutch......11..and 6 were good.....

this year some of them were fed a small rat every month for alot of the year........they are still fat........they better lay.......

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.......................
...........you would think so huh?...........

Rats are sexually mature at 4-5 weeks of age. Probably the parent of your rat's babies was one of her brothers. She could be only 2 or 3 months old and a mom, and if I remember correctly a 2 or 3 month old rat is about the size of a medium.

~jenny
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1.2 normal ball pythons (Cindy, Darwin, and Periscope)
0.2 rescue chinese water dragons (Yoni and Linga)
0.0.1 Mountain Horned Lizard
1.0 rex rat (Scurvy)
1.0 gerbil (Yerbul)
0.1 mice (Cute Girl Mousy)
0.1 bunny (Spazz)
1.1 betta fishes (Vicious and Killer)
2.2 great danes (Shasta, Odysseus, Merlot, and Watson)
1.0 fat fuzzy mutt (Smokey)
1.1 cats (Thidwick and Turtle)
3.0 horses (Buddy, Sam, and Scout)
1.0 goat (Billy Jack)
1.25 chickens (Ugly the rooster and his harem)

jenny.thegreenes.org

Many, many times.

And raising rats is not hard. I have 1.2 rats in a tank. I basically just keep them watered and toss in food scraps that I have. Stale bread, cereal etc. They breed and survive no problem.

Rats are incredibly durable and adaptable creatures.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

yes, but they smell like rats. No, really, I think this is Gods way of telling me I need to start raising rats. Do you leave the male with the females full time or will he eat the babies? Or are they like mice and the females castrate the males?
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Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win and never quit are idiots

J... I've had a few mean female rats(Their genetics are no longer floating around though.lol),but for the most part they all get along.

Come by and i'll show you how i keep up with everything.
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Charles

So...I cleaned out my rat colony, which consists of three female rats I got two females from a lady, and promised her I would not feed them, and keep the two females togather. I keep my promises, so I have one female rat in one bin, and two female rats in another bin. I actually have two nice home made rat racks, probably 15 tubs each, with only TWO tubs total being used. Anyway, long story long...I heard the sqeaking of baby rats, but it took me a couple of days before I really looked in on them. There were 16 babies. Now my question is, could both females have had babies at basically the same time, and could they be babysitting for eachother. All sixteen babies are togather. Or did one female have 16 babies? Any opinions? Do you think all 16 are from one female, or are they from both females, and they decided to put them all togather?
Babies and moms are doing great.

Dave

Hey Dave,they could all be from one...but they will share the work load with babies(even steal them back and forth).
Just lift up the adult females and look at their bellies to see which one is nursing them.
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Charles