I just began breeding rats, and have a female rat that had a litter of 7. I removed the male from the female shortly after she had the babies. I have kept the male in a seperate cage since then - which was 2 weeks ago. How long should I wait until I put the male back with the female? The rat pups are fully covered with hair, and have all opened their eyes in the last couple of days. Thanks for any help you experienced breeders out there can provide.
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Wait time....
AzSnakeGuy
Mar 23, 2005 07:39 PM
Replies (3)
Sonya
Mar 24, 2005 02:05 PM
>>I just began breeding rats, and have a female rat that had a litter of 7. I removed the male from the female shortly after she had the babies. I have kept the male in a seperate cage since then - which was 2 weeks ago. How long should I wait until I put the male back with the female? The rat pups are fully covered with hair, and have all opened their eyes in the last couple of days. Thanks for any help you experienced breeders out there can provide.
Why did you take the male out? If he was very long she may be bred back already.
All that said.....I would worry about mom abusing him if you put him in with too young pups. I have not had a male abuse pups or females. If you want her bred back to back leave him in next time- he won't hurt the pups OR put them together in a separate cage for a half an hour OR put him back in and see what happens. I usually move males around to time litters and control genetics a bit. But I don't usually put him back in with tiny pups as the moms can be very defensive and do him serious harm. And it defeats the purpose of resting the girls.
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Sonya
Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron
crizot
Mar 29, 2005 04:53 PM
I've ben breeding rats mice for 2or3 years now.I learned that 1.2 rats or 1.3 mice per tub works fine and I never remove the male.He will not hert the pinks.Just keep lots of food water in the tub.
AzSnakeGuy
Apr 04, 2005 07:27 PM
Thanks everyone for the advice. I put the male back in with the female as soon as I read Sonya's reply - and they have been doing great. So great, in fact, that the female had 14 more babies this afternoon. I will continue to keep them all together (except for the ones that get picked out for feeders) from now on. Thanks for your assistance!
