I have4 mabey 5 pregnate rats and they been in the same tank for over 4 months and i am wondering if i can put the 4 pregnate rats in the same cage together.
thanxs for all your help and answers
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Pergnat's rats need answers ASAP......
CBred-tails
Aug 23, 2003 07:59 AM
Replies (1)
becgs
Aug 23, 2003 10:47 AM
>>I have4 mabey 5 pregnate rats and they been in the same tank for over 4 months and i am wondering if i can put the 4 pregnate rats in the same cage together.
>>
>> thanxs for all your help and answers
>>
>> ANTHONY
Housing pregnant rats (or mice) together rarely presents a problem since, after all, they are "colony-minded" creatures. However, it sounds like you're using tanks for housing. 4 or 5 rats plus their respective litters can definitely create a space problem, in addition to possible respiratory issues (caused by lack of ventilation/ammonia build-up within a glass tank.)
When rats or mice sense that the health of the colony is at risk (predator, inhospitable environment, lack of food/water etc.) their response is often to cannibalize. Presumably the mentality (can't think of a better word at the moment) is that the young are easy to "replace" and the older, mature rodents will not just increase their chance of survival but in doing so will continue to reproduce.
All this said, I don't know how large a tank it is your 5 females are currently living in. Whether or not you plan to raise the pups to be weaned or if you only need pinks/fuzzies will also impact their space requirements and should be considered if you decide to separate the females, and into how many groups. If your question is whether it is okay to separate your females at all, the answer is that they should do fine alone as well as in groups of two or more. You would not, however, want to introduce a male into situation where a female has pups not yet weaned.
I've found that whether housing females alone or in groups, increasing dietary protein (with table scraps, or dry cat/kitten chow, etc.) and fat (slightly - via a few black oil sunflower seeds with each feeding) seems to prevent cannibalism in situations where it might otherwise have occurred. Not always feasible or appropriate in some breeding set-ups.
Most of the time, all females (and a male if present) will foster all pups indiscriminately. Be prepared to observe a lot of "baby swapping" -- amusing to say the least!
Hope this helps....
-----
Rebecca
TSBabe66@hotmail.com
Honored to moderate at Snakefeeders, the place to buy/sell/trade feeder animals. Come check us out! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/snakefeeders/
