Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have been trying to start breeding rats to feed to my 5 ball pythons. A month or so ago I purchased 2 female rats and 1 male. I placed them in a rubbermaid tub with the sides cut out and replaced with heavy duty screen. I keep the rats on aspen, with food, fresh water etc. I keep the rats in my snake room which stays around 80 degrees. After having the rats for over a month No babies and neither of the females appear pregnate.
Is the room too hot for them to breed? Does it take longer than a month? My little girls have 2 large older male rats as pets. Could I put one of the females in the cage with the 2 males, this would get one of the females inside the house and in 70ish degree temps? I do not think there is enough space to put both females in the cage with both males.
Any suggestions??
Thanks in advance
Jason

I've been told that male rats will become sterile at 80F so that may be one of the problems right there, putting two males with one female would not be a good idea either .

When i started my colony it took about 2 months before i had pups, but i started with med sized rats.
Jim

>>I have been trying to start breeding rats to feed to my 5 ball pythons. A month or so ago I purchased 2 female rats and 1 male. I placed them in a rubbermaid tub with the sides cut out and replaced with heavy duty screen. I keep the rats on aspen, with food, fresh water etc. I keep the rats in my snake room which stays around 80 degrees. After having the rats for over a month No babies and neither of the females appear pregnate.
>>Is the room too hot for them to breed? Does it take longer than a month? My little girls have 2 large older male rats as pets. Could I put one of the females in the cage with the 2 males, this would get one of the females inside the house and in 70ish degree temps? I do not think there is enough space to put both females in the cage with both males.
>>Any suggestions??
>>Thanks in advance
>>Jason

Unless you are going over the 80 degree line then it is probably not temps. How old were the rats you started with? You can expect to wait a couple months sometimes. And even if they don't 'look' pregnant, don't count them out. Many don't look pregnant until a few days before they pop.
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Sonya

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

I agree with Sonya, I have had a mother look like she was just beginning to gain weight when she popped, That same mother this morning was huge and had 13 tonight.
Good luck Jim

Just some tips,

You might want to move them out of the snake room. Some times a snake kept around it's food will stop seeing it as food. I have had it happen to me, and seen it happen to others as well.

Give it some time, as said above, some times a rat will look normal, then in a day or two have a litter, other times they look big for about a week before they have the litter.

I don't know about the 80 degree thing. I have never heard of it, and my rats breed year round in a garage. It gets way above 85 degrees in there and from june till Sep. it gets over 90 degrees and my rats just keep on breeding. ofcourse with high heat comes the bad smell, but that is another story.

anyway good luck

Have a good day!