Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all,

I just started setting up my rat breeding colony to feed my ever increasing snake collection. Anyways, I currently have 2 males and 4 females. I do have a few questions that I couldn't find answers to on other websites and this forum. 1st, How often should I breed my female rats. I know they could be breed continually but do you guys do that? 2nd, Should I let the females live alone once they are pregnent or can I leave 2 females together? 3rd, Is it ok to leave a male and a female rat together all the time or will there be problems. 4th, How would you go about breeding them to be the most productive. I currently have 13 snakes, so I will need a good number of rats. Any and all advice would be greatly appreceited..!!

i'm raising mice and i leave the colony together all the time, and i've heard that rats are better than mice for getting along .i have 5 to 1 female to male as for number of babies i don't know for sure but each should have about 6 babies a month

Hoppy
1 they will breed every 21 days i used to give them a week off after they weaned there litter looking back i think that worked the best now
2 if your tub is large enough 2 females are fine together as long as they can both have room for each other and get away from there litters to eat and take care of business
3 i beleive females do better on their own although i have seen females and males live togther and produce huge litters from same related rats as mine if I could only figure out the difference i even raised some of there babies and they do not produce as many pups same food,same light cycle, same temp different box size his is bigger but he has another female in there to
4 what i did is get 2 pair unrelated (diferent colours) i just keep mixing them it has been alot of fun it feels like sometimes i spend as much time with them as i do my snakes i would reccomend not to raise them in your house

hoppy do you have a website or pic album if i remember right you raise balls or boas or both

Glenn