Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Alright, after three months and no babies with mice, I want to start breeding rats. Here's my setup,
>10 gallon aquarium, pine shavings, water bottle, rodent chow/dog food mixture. I plan on only having a male and female in there, and they will be multi colored because that's all that the pet stores have.
Here's my questions:
>I want to save up pinks for a 10 lot of baby ball pythons I want to buy, as well as produce enough to feed my 2 foot ball. How many pinks can I expect in a litter, and how many (if any) should I freeze off, or does it matter.
>How often will they produce a litter?
>What do you think about my setup, is it too small? I could possibly use a big rabbit cage, but I can't fit that inside, so it'd have to stay in the basement or my horse stable. If I used it I'd have two females and a male.

Sorry for all the questions and thanks a lot for replying,
Taylor

>>Alright, after three months and no babies with mice, I want to start breeding rats. Here's my setup,
>>>10 gallon aquarium, pine shavings, water bottle, rodent chow/dog food mixture. I plan on only having a male and female in there, and they will be multi colored because that's all that the pet stores have.
>> Here's my questions:
>>>I want to save up pinks for a 10 lot of baby ball pythons I want to buy, as well as produce enough to feed my 2 foot ball. How many pinks can I expect in a litter, and how many (if any) should I freeze off, or does it matter.
>>>How often will they produce a litter?
>>>What do you think about my setup, is it too small? I could possibly use a big rabbit cage, but I can't fit that inside, so it'd have to stay in the basement or my horse stable. If I used it I'd have two females and a male.
>>
>> Sorry for all the questions and thanks a lot for replying,
>> Taylor

A ten gallon is too small for one rat, let alone a pair with a litter. Go with a cheaper but bigger tub and drill holes in it.Or the cage, provided the wire spacing will contain them. Keep them in the same temp range as mice and away from wild counterparts or you will have parasite and disease probs. Pine shavings in a low air flow enclosure is going to probably give you uri probs with rats. Try rabbit pellets for bedding. Almost all the stats for rats are the same as mice...except personality and socialability....ie males don't kill each other with rats. 5-20 in a litter, I usually leave 8-12 to raise, but I only raise them to 50grams each and then in the freezer they go. Gestation is three weeks.
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Sonya

How do you freeze them. Spoon them and put them in a plastic bag in the freezer or do you add water?
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irtBikeBoy50@aol.com" target="_blank">DirtBikeBoy50@aol.comMy pets: Savanna Monitor, 2 pictus geckos,hamster,cat,and 6 goldfish.

>>How do you freeze them. Spoon them and put them in a plastic bag in the freezer or do you add water?
>>-----
>>DirtBikeBoy50@aol.comMy pets: Savanna Monitor, 2 pictus geckos,hamster,cat,and 6 goldfish.

With my 50gr two week olds I just sever vertebrae with the back of a butter knife blade, carefully, as they have delicate skin. Freeze them on a paper plate or baking sheet, (golly I have a tolerant husband) and once they are frozen solid I seal them in the food saver vacuum bags in usable amounts. Freeze them first if you are gonna vac seal...or you end up sucking out eyeballs and many other gross things.
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Sonya

I freeze all my pinks.. (gerbils and rats) in a container that has 20 layers of wax paper in it and 2 sides... a pink goes under each sheet of wax paper.. keeps them seperated and no one opening the fridge will get a surprise eyeful... *chuckles* Then I package them first in plastic wrap then in aluminum foil... Since I don't have a vaccum sealer..

I agree with Sonya about tubs. I use sterlite 32 Qt. or 66 Qt. tubs. They have the same floorspace, one is just taller. I posted some pics on Photo Gallery that are pretty self explanitory for making them. The tub($6), water bottle($3), 1/2" hardware cloth($2) and nuts and bolts for plastic top($3) or wood for frame top ($1). If something is not clear, post here and you'll get lotsa help. These are something that has kind of evolved here. Others do it differently and have great results also.

I've kept as many as 1.4 in a tub that size, but think 1.3 works better. Now I keep 1.5 split between 3 tubs. Who ever looks like they're going to deliver next goes in with Big Daddy. That way I take advantage of the female going into heat the day after they deliver. Not everyone does this. Some think it is to hard on the females. I bought mine as medium rats in OCT 2002 (I think?) and they are still going strong. If you don't do this you will get half the production per month.

For bedding, I've used pine shavings, alfalfa hay, alfalfa pellets (rabbit food) and now I'm experimenting with alfalfa/oat hay pellets (horse food). They are about 2/3 the price of alfalfa pellets here. They are much bigger though 3/8" X 1" to 3/8" X 3". So far, I'm undecided between rabbit or horse pellets.

I feed rat chow or dog food (no red dye). I feed cabbage once a week to supplement vitamin C but am not sure that's nessecary.

I usually get a litter a month per female. I figure on 10 to 12 per litter, but my last litters have been 16, 13, 16, 6, 14, 13, 7. I've just started keeping records. The same female gave the 6 & 7 litters. Without her the average would be 14 . I've been trying to decide who to cull, without records I wouldn't know.

No need to apologize for asking questions here, that's what we all do!

Keep them fed, watered, clean, ventilated but not too drafty. You won't be able to stop them.

Good Luck, and let us know how things work out.

DeMak

Thanks all you guys. I have taken all of your input and will apply it. Thanks,

animalmaniac