Reptile & Amphibian Forums

But despite my efforts of trying to find this information on my own......can't seem to find the fargin answer!!!!

Don't know the exact age of my rats.....but the females are around 110 grams and males 80 grams......so are they of breeding size?

Been housed together for @ a month and a half.....thought some action would be going by now!!!

Thanx

This should answer most of your questions.

http://www.ratsandmice.com/breeding.html

>>Don't know the exact age of my rats.....but the females are around 110 grams and males 80 grams......so are they of breeding size?
>>
>>Been housed together for @ a month and a half.....thought some action would be going by now!!!

Well, in my rats they would be about 5 weeks old. Don't know how big or old you got them. But I tend to have monsters I guess. My 3 week olds are 50-75grams, and obviously not gonna breed. But if the mom was raising a big litter and all I can see your females being 8 wks and the male 5 or 6wks. Still not sure how big they were when you got them/age. I would say let them be another few weeks.
I will have to weigh mine for 'adult' weights. I know the little ones weights since I note the size of prey fed. But I do know my males are well over a pound and a pet rat friend thought that was HUGE. Seems normal to me. Especially since the one male is only 6 months old.
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Sonya

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

I used to have two males that were about a year old (or year and a half) who were both over 600g. They certainly had no problem breeding with females that were about 8-12 weeks old. No clue how much they weighed though (the females) as I never weighed them.

>>I used to have two males that were about a year old (or year and a half) who were both over 600g. They certainly had no problem breeding with females that were about 8-12 weeks old. No clue how much they weighed though (the females) as I never weighed them.

Okay, because this sort of thing bugs me, and I am avoiding cleaning the garage out, I went and cleaned a few rat cages and weighed the occupants.
Females
Splat black irish dob Nov 03, 307 gms weaned 3rd litter
Blue dob Nov 03, 317gms weaned 3rd litter
Pirate blue dob Mar 04, 272gms just bred for 2nd litter (small one eyed thing, but great mom)
BlueAgouti dob Mar 04, 385gms just bred for 2nd litter, full sib to Scar
Opal black badger dob Mar 04 303gms, weaned first litter
Riff Raff , black badger(Opals mom) dob Dec 03, 367gms, just weaned 3rd litter

Males
Scar, blueagouti dumbo, dob Nov 03, 507 gms
Remi, black badger, dob Dec 03, 530gms

Both boys are down almost 25grms from 1.5-2 months ago...maybe I am working them too hard ;0
I didn't weigh some that are obviously bred or just popped last night. Ironically it seems the females that are a touch smaller, though not bred before 8 wks are having better litters right now. Too many variables to work with though. I do like the RemiXRiff Raff line. Another full sib to Opal- Petey just had 15pups last night and I am keeping a Blue masked girl from the just weaned litter. Mostly I am an old softy and am keeping the ones with the most personalitys. A bit harder to feed them off at times....but that is why I keep a couple black irish around...so I can't tell the pups apart.
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Sonya

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

for weighing your colony.........I had checked several different sites and everywhere I looked..only age was discussed. And considering I don't know the age of the rats......kinda did me no good. So I needed info based on weight.

Looks like my rats need a lil more growing to do.

Thanx again