Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I keep my males and females in seperate cages. I know most of you might keep a male with your females as a colony, but I prefer to keep my pet males seperate from my nippy breeder females. I heard that if you leave a male with the females too long that they will be agressive to their former male cagemate when reintroduced. So my question is, how long should I place a male with the females to give them a chance to breed, but not too long so that he will be agressive to his cagemate? A few hours or a night?

What are you breeding? Rats? Mice? Sounds like mice, rats aren't complicated like that. If it is mice don't put the male in the females cage she will try and kill him. put her in his cage. I always keep my mice in colonys because if you change things with mice you end up with dead babies or momas. If it is rats just pick a female put her with the male till she starts to look fat and then you'll have babies soon afterward.

Forgot to mention that they are rats. My concern is that I heard if a male rat stays with females to long and away from his former male cagemates, when he is returned after too long a period of time, he will be extremely agressive to other males. What I need to know is how long is too long? I would have to place my male in the females cage since putting a female into a cage shared by 2 males is just trouble. I read that females can go into heat every 4-5 days for about 12 hours. So would it be okay to keep him with the females overnight and then place him back with his male cagemate? The last thing I want is for my males to not be able to live with each other.

I have never had a problem with my males not getting along after one has been with the females for a while. I did have one rat that was always picked on by all of my males once. I never figured out what was going on but he was generally a wimp. When I would open the cage he would cower in the corner and make little whining noises. When I picked him up he shivered all the time and never did relax. I am guessing that's why the others picked on him. Eventually I culled him out as he didn't breed well either, just too timid! Other that that one rat my males have always gotten along. If I have a baby male that I want to keep I just put it in with my adults when he is weaned and they do just fine!

Marcia

How long did you let the male stay with the female? I am thinking about letting my male stay with the female for a week since I read they go into heat cycles every 4-5 days. If the female is still not preganat from that, I might just try again later since I rather have my males get along. The two females I want bred are approaching 6 months old.

I leave him in until I can see that the female is pregnant. She won't allow him to mate, and he won't be interested, once she is pregnant. I usually try to breed 2 females at the same time so they can share mommy duties, especially with a first time mom. I find that I have fewer losses if I pair a seasoned mother with a first timer. I have 3 females right now and I left the male in almost until the due date of the one who did get pregnant. I was hoping that one of the older females would breed but only the first time mom did. I am going to have to take my other females out because the mom is hording all the food and seems to be intimidating the non-prego two.

Hope you have lots of healthy baby rats so that your reptiles can be well kept!

Marcia

I've found that most males can be separated for up to three or four days and the put back together without any problems. Once, I left one for over a week, and wasn't able to put him back with his male buddy. So, I'd say, you'll have to experiment, but four days should probably be okay. Actually, you can tell when the female is in heat, because she'll "stand" for the male when he's introduced to her. So if you just watch them for a couple of hours after they're introduced, you'll know whether or not she's ready. If she isn't, then just try again the following night. If they've been together for two hours, and she's still not accepted him, then it isn't going to happen that night.

>>I keep my males and females in seperate cages. I know most of you might keep a male with your females as a colony, but I prefer to keep my pet males seperate from my nippy breeder females. I heard that if you leave a male with the females too long that they will be agressive to their former male cagemate when reintroduced. So my question is, how long should I place a male with the females to give them a chance to breed, but not too long so that he will be agressive to his cagemate? A few hours or a night?

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tricia