Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Awhile ago, I got a female rat that was housed in a pretty overcrowded (but cleaned daily) cage at my friend's house. (I basically took the rat to help her pare down her collection to a manageable level, and I also wanted another breeder rat.) Within minutes of getting her home and settled into a 20-l aquarium, she started giving birth. The litter and all her subsequent litters was pretty big (16 the first time, 12 or so last.) All healthy too.
Do you think that overcrowded conditions will cause a female rat to be reluctant to give birth? It just seems funny that immediately after I got her home, she began nesting.

Also, what's up with rat inbreeding? I am figuring that she was inbred the first time, since she was caged with her brothers and sisters, but all of the babies appeared normal. (I do not support inbreeding, however, and all the inbreds were fed to snakes.)
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2.1 Ball pythons: Goblin, Nothing, and Bela
1.0 Boa Constrictor Imperator: Apache
0.1 albino Cranwell's horned frog: Bene
1.0 Tiger salamander: Slasher
1.0 black kittycat, Inky
A bunch of Oscar cichlids, one giant pleco, huge breeding lot of "fancy" (read: deformed) goldfish, and me an' the boyfriend.

>>Awhile ago, I got a female rat that was housed in a pretty overcrowded (but cleaned daily) cage at my friend's house. (I basically took the rat to help her pare down her collection to a manageable level, and I also wanted another breeder rat.) Within minutes of getting her home and settled into a 20-l aquarium, she started giving birth. The litter and all her subsequent litters was pretty big (16 the first time, 12 or so last.) All healthy too.
>>Do you think that overcrowded conditions will cause a female rat to be reluctant to give birth? It just seems funny that immediately after I got her home, she began nesting.
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>>Also, what's up with rat inbreeding? I am figuring that she was inbred the first time, since she was caged with her brothers and sisters, but all of the babies appeared normal. (I do not support inbreeding, however, and all the inbreds were fed to snakes.)

I don't know if the conditions held her back from kindling or the stress of moving caused her to kindle. Obviously she was close.
Inbreeding is pretty much a given with most rats, after all PEWs are genetically pretty similar. I don't like to inbreed my line of dumbos and hairless too much as I was getting a fair number of stillborn that made me think there might be a lethal gene in there somewhere. But otherwise I don't worry about relationships and lines all that much.
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Sonya

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