Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thanks for your responses about cat and dog food.

Now my new questions;

1. I have read mice and rats should not be raised in the same room as the smell of rats will hinder mouse production, have you found this to be true?

2. You see, I am actually raising mice for a raw ferret diet and rats produce larger kittens in just about the same amount of time (My ferret could eat several mice a day). So I was thinking I might raise both rats and mice. I'm trying to figure out if this would be a good idea as rats take up a bit more space.

3. That 30 gallon I have, about how many adult rats would you keep in that size tub?

4. Also, can you raise rats in the same way you raise mice? IE Setup a colony of 1:3 and just leave them produce litters? Or do they have to be seperated?

5. Lastly, At the petstore here I believe they have many different sized rats- small, medium, large, xlarge, jumbo sorta thing. I know they are all the same species and will all ( in theory) grow to a large size. But what size would be best to buy if you intend of breeding?

Thanks so much!

i raise mice and rats in the same rack. just different size tubs with no probs i leave the male in with the moms with no probs. i do have 1.3 in a 20 gal tank, it's my jail for 4 escape artists with no problems other then it is a job to clean. gene

>>Thanks for your responses about cat and dog food.
>>
>>Now my new questions;
>>
>>1. I have read mice and rats should not be raised in the same room as the smell of rats will hinder mouse production, have you found this to be true?
>>
>>2. You see, I am actually raising mice for a raw ferret diet and rats produce larger kittens in just about the same amount of time (My ferret could eat several mice a day). So I was thinking I might raise both rats and mice. I'm trying to figure out if this would be a good idea as rats take up a bit more space.
>>
>>3. That 30 gallon I have, about how many adult rats would you keep in that size tub?
>>
>>4. Also, can you raise rats in the same way you raise mice? IE Setup a colony of 1:3 and just leave them produce litters? Or do they have to be seperated?
>>
>>5. Lastly, At the petstore here I believe they have many different sized rats- small, medium, large, xlarge, jumbo sorta thing. I know they are all the same species and will all ( in theory) grow to a large size. But what size would be best to buy if you intend of breeding?
>>
>>Thanks so much!

If you want to do rats in a 30 I would say 1.2 maybe 1.3 and feed them at somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks old.
I do find that with my own ferrets they don't like to tear up beasties that are much bigger than that. Though that may just be my goofy three.
Rats are much more flexible than mice and will get right to it if you take home a trio of mediums. I wouldn't recommend large rats since some are beyond their best fertility. Personally I would say aim for small mediums.
You will like rats better for the speed to size as well as the less annoying smell.
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Sonya

I'm not mean. You're just a sissy.
Happy Bunny

I have 1.2 in a 10 gallon, then each expected rat mother is seperated into their own 10gl. Mice i keep in together unless multiple mothers are expecting then they all go into a ten together. I keep my males on one side of the room and expecting females on the other and rotate the female rats to the males so i have many different litters at different times. Right now i have a mother who just popped 16, i have another female ready to pop in another week or so, when the 2nd mother pops i will place the first mom in again for breeding so by the time her pups are weaned she will pop again and i do this with all the females i have to work with. I have 7 snakes to feed and figure how many of what size i need for them at different stages and raise whack accordingly to size, keeps things even. I love my little system.
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1.4 various boas(Flicka,Felony,Nova,Alias,Alibi)
0.1 BRB Abalone; ABBI
1.0 Rott X (OSO)
2.0 cats (Simba, Morris)
fish & feeders
~:~~~~~~~ ~:~~~~~~~~

Do you guys have little rats or something? My males get about two pounds and my females about 1 1/4 pound. I would never dream about crowding three of them into a puny ten gallon.
You'd have to clean that every day!
I feed my rats to my snakes, so don't think I'm some snakes-don't-have-to-eat-rodents nutjob. But, comeone people, these rodents are living creatures too. How would you like to be so crowded that you couldn't even turn around without bumping into someone else?

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~Sara~
5 ball pythons
1.0 Black-lined plated lizard (Lizzy Butt)
0.1 Burmese Python (Pixil)
lots of Rats
1.1 Dogs (Ozzie and Mandy)
0.1 Cat (Isis)
0.0.1 Synodontis Catfish (Big Spotty Fish)
0.1 Convict Cichlid
0.0.1 blood parrot cichlid
0.0.1 African Featherfin Catfish