Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ok, I bout a male and a femal rat and put them in a 29 gallon high cage. There is fresh bedding a water bowl and a food bowl. There is also a small nesting basket to have babies in. I figured after 2 weeks i can remove the male and get ride of him because the female will already be pregneant. Is that correct? I am breeding to get ready for my snake eating rats so i have a ready supply once the babies reach a good size i will freeze them to have a good supply. Can anyone give me tips and facts on rat breeding, thanks. Also one more thing my berm has been in his water bowl for 7 hours so far...is that safe?
mike

I recommend that you keep your male AND all the females from the first litter to get a colony going. Then, when they start getting a little older, replace your male to add new blood and keep the offspring once again, or replace all the females but that's more costly. (Even though they're for snake food, repeated inbreeding is still a potentially bad thing. Inline breeding is ok once but not repeatedly.)

In a 20 gallon, I keep 4-5 females and one male. Is your 29 tall or long? If it's long, you can have more rats in there because you have more surface for them.

Hi There!
This is a reply I posted in anohter forum about the basics of breeding rats,I have bred my own feeders for years for my own snakes and for selling to pet stores and other reptile enthusiasts.
It sounds like you have a young small burm so can breed on a smaller scale,your tank you have now should be enough room to keep you well supplied,I would add a couple more females to the mix to give you a higher yield though,as space allows of course.

There are many ways you could go about breeding rats,I could explain it in depth but it would be like posting a novel here,if you're wanting to start breeding on a medium to small scale for your own collection of Boas then I would recommend purchasing a couple 10 to 20 gallon tanks with secure screen lids,setting them up with water bottles,food dish and a bedding of either pine shavings,paper mulch,shredded newspaper or aspen,anything but cedar shavings cause of the toxic oils.
Be sure to purchase healthy rats to base your breeding colony,I breed them polygamously with several females to one male,retiring or rotating the males to keep bloodlines diverse.
I feed my rats on a diet of four-way horse grain,black oil sunflower seed and dye-free high protein dog food supplemented with "lab chow",the hard blocks used by commercial and laboratory rodent breeders.
The mating is generally up to the rats,they need no encouragement,pregnant females will refuse matings and enlargement or "showing" will be obvious about the second week with gestation lasting 21-23 days,litters generally yield anywhere from under or above eight babies to about twelve being considered a large (though not uncommon) litter though quantity generally depends on the age and health of the mother.
Babies are born pink and hairless,sometimes female rats that have been raised together will share nursing and nurturing duites and pile them all together but sometimes they will participate in baby snatching from eachother's litters,it really depends on how comfortable the female rats are with eachother,this behavior generally dissapears in about your second generation of rats as they are all raised together,if that makes any sense.
The babies will generally open thier eyes and start eating soid food about 12 days of age,though they will still nurse,they can be fully weaned at about twnety one days of age.
I generally separate all the males off in seperate cages to be raised to the size desired for feeders,any outstanding specimens set aside for breeding,same with females,pick the ones you like the best that are healthy and robust then raise the rest as feeders.
Well,I hope this helps,just some basic info to get you started,if I may place emphasis on diet,I find my mix works very well,you can buy in bulk at feed stores,mix it in bins and not pay so much and have a better quality diet than that commercially prepared for small animals.
Most feed stores will show you samples of thier horse feeds,look for a good,strong molasses coating and reject those with alfalfa pellets,the rats generally don't eat it and it just becomes waste to be dumped from the food bowls.
Good luck to you!

StormyHall