Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I'm setting up a rodent breeding operation out of an existing 12 x 12 shed. I'm considering several different methods of producing rats. I know I'm going to pull pregnant rats & let the mothers raise up the babies. The first question is do I house all the breeder rats in a large wire cage, or do I want to put breeding groups in large tubs in rack systems ? My second question is this; I have heard that 3 or 4 days after the female has been pulled & had her babies, if you take all those mothers with their babies (after culling the small litters)& put them in a community maternity cage with females that were pulled at aproximatly the same time that not only do the females come through it in a lot better shape, but the babies are better also, due to the fact that they take turns nursing so they tend to get breaks from it. They can be ready for breeding sooner supposedly. Any ideas, comments or suggestions? Thanks,
Paul Edwards

Set up breeding groups and leave them alone. There's no reason to pull the mothers to let them have their pups... Rats are communal animals.. let them have their pups together.. they'll take care of them together and you'll have healthier pups.. Moving the mothers around so much is undue stress and could cause them to kill their litters more often than not.. My entire breeding colony save for one female is a communal nursery... and that one female just does better with her pups if she's alone to raise them. She's the exception not the rule.
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Lucien

1.0 Columbian Redtail Boa (BCI)
2.1 Leopard geckos (2 Blizzard and 1 het Blizzard)
0.1 Savannah Monitor
13 rats
12 Gerbils
2 Dogs
3 cats
1 Albino Corey (fish)

I'm going to be working with 200-300 female rats. I have heard from many many breeders that pulling the pregnant females is wise for many reasons. I've done it myself & ir works better I believe. That's the way the labs do it too. The qustion really isn't to pull or not to pull, but what type of system am I going to breed rats in; 1)a friend of mine has a lrg wire cage he made from plastic coated wire shelving (awesome idea)& has a wash down system underneith it that washes the droppings right into the sewer - another awesome idea! Ideal, but difficult & expensive to set up. 2) Weather to keep females alone with their babies the whole time their lactating, or put several lactating females together in a community cage.
Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.
Paul

>>I'm going to be working with 200-300 female rats. I have heard from many many breeders that pulling the pregnant females is wise for many reasons. I've done it myself & ir works better I believe. That's the way the labs do it too. The qustion really isn't to pull or not to pull, but what type of system am I going to breed rats in; 1)a friend of mine has a lrg wire cage he made from plastic coated wire shelving (awesome idea)& has a wash down system underneith it that washes the droppings right into the sewer - another awesome idea! Ideal, but difficult & expensive to set up. 2) Weather to keep females alone with their babies the whole time their lactating, or put several lactating females together in a community cage.
>>Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it.
>>Paul

My thoughts would be that moving all the pregnant girls is going to be intensive labor and record wise with that many rats. And if you have a large communal cage and a virus strikes you lose more. If you have tubs you can compartmentalize the illness more. You are also more likely to notice problems. And, there is something to the rats and overcrowding thing. I think it will be more stress for no reason.
What I found works for me is to have the females in groups and introduce males as I want to time litters. If I don't want to give them a break then he stays in throughout and if I want to give them time off then he goes somewhere else. Stressing the male is a lot less detrimental than stressing the ladies.
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Sonya