Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm trying to get into breeding rats for my snakes, but I am ignorant on the subject. I was wondering if anyone has a good site for me to take a look at?

Thanks sym
-----
"You can't appreciate Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon."

I think most of the sites you look up will be for pet rats. So here is some info I learned.

Keep something like a 1.2 or 1.3 ratio (no more than 1.4 if you have a large enough cage)

keep good food in there for them, I use lab diet 5001, and plan on getting mazuri breeder diet.

You could also use a cheap dog food (ol roy bites and bones)

Get a rubbermaid/sterelite cut a big square in the lid, put 1/2 hardware cloth over the top and bolt it in.

Make a square drop down, food hopper, and you can put a water bottle in it.

Add substrate (I use pine shavings and shredded paper).

put food in hopper, put in water bowl (or vice versa). And let them do their thing.

Don't take the male out, and if you do, make sure all and any babies are weaned and gone before you put him back in. if I'm missing anythign I'm sure someone will say something.
-----
1.1 Ball Python, 0.1 motley amel corn, 1.0 western hognose

Thanks for the info...

Do not seperate the male? I thought he would eat the offspring. Do you ever seperate the male? I have been reading the fancey rat sites, but that seems to not apply to feeder rats.

thanks in advance
sym
-----
"You can't appreciate Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon."

Thanks for the info...

Do not seperate the male? I thought he would eat the offspring. Do you ever seperate the male? I have been reading the fancey rat sites, but that seems to not apply to feeder rats.

thanks in advance
sym
-----
"You can't appreciate Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon."

>>Thanks for the info...
>>
>>Do not seperate the male? I thought he would eat the offspring. Do you ever seperate the male? I have been reading the fancey rat sites, but that seems to not apply to feeder rats.

The male won't bug the babies. Pet rat sites tend to be overly worried that breeding somehow damages rats and all the PC sort of stuff about 'pets'. I have pet rats and feeders. You can leave the male in but within 24hrs of birth he will mate with the mom and sometimes back to back to back litters is hard on the mom AND results in smaller pups or not enough milk etc. I tend to breed a couple litters back to back and then pull the male for a bit. Give the moms a break and then put him back in. I also breed for traits (dumbo, hairless and colors) so I tend to choose the dads for each girl. I have even taken a particular pairing I wanted and just put them together for a couple hours in a separate cage a couple evenings in a row. Works to breed specifically and time litters.
-----
Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

...
-----
"You can't appreciate Shakespeare until you've read him in the original Klingon."