And I thought it wouldn't be worth it

[beanersmysav]

Well I went down stairs this morning to check on the rats for water and my female who didn't even appear pregnant had popped out a litter of 18 babies! All live and kicking! I was so happy I couldn't believe it. Well I was removing the babies and momma came over *sneak attack* and grabbed on my finger so tightly that she left a ton of hair in my cuts and she was malicious I tell ya. She didn't let go untill I reached my other hand in there to try and make her go after that one. Well now I have 18 rat pinks and just saved myself in the long run about 40-80.00

[mykee]

Breeding your own rats is a wonderful for you to:
1. Feed your babies for 1/10th the price from a pet store.
2. Make a little cash on the side from relatively little work.

Congratulations.

[beanersmysav]

How often do the rats breed? You mention make cash on the side I assume they breed so much that I could have more before I even feed off the others. I've got a 1.1 pair right now but I'm going to buy 2 more females soon.

[mykee]

I have a (couple) colonies of 1.5 or 1.6 and the females drop a litter every 4-5 weeks. You're not going to make any money however only owning and breeding 1.2 or 1.3. The "making money" thing is not why I do it, I started doing it to feed my ever-growing collection of balls. I would rather have too many rats at feeding time then too few rats. Excess rats get CO2'd, then frozen.

[beanersmysav]

I definatly don't plan on making any money of them, you just said make some money on the side. I too would rather just have 40-50 uneaten frozen rats in my freezer than need to go pick up 1 or 2 to just feed my reptiles :)

[beanersmysav]

also is 18 alot for one litter? I know where I got her she had her 2nd litter and there were 9 babies so this one double. Of course now she's in a 3x3x3 ferett mansion when she breeds so I don't know if that matters.

[sapphire_moon]

Is the male still with her? If you seperated them, you can not reintroduce them untill you either, get rid of all the babies, or until the babies are all weaned and gone (with exception of females) because the male might not think that the babies are his and kill them.

18 is a pretty large litter, but it just depends on the rats (mother and father), and their genetics.


if the babies are still with her, get her out of that ferret mansion (if the spacings are more than 1/2 by 1/2 ) because she might get upset or nervous and try shoving them through the wires, lol. and once they get to moving around on their own, they will walk right out of the cage.

[mykee]

I would expect that litter size to go down with the next litter. I average between 12-15 per litter, with some of my females having been bred for anywhere from 3-12 months.

[HumphreyBoagart]

I'm with mykee. Most of mine have 12-13 the first litter, then each litter after goes up 2 or 3 more babies. Once they start having smaller litters after 5 or 6 litters, I then have some nice colossal sized feeders! (the mom)

[beanersmysav]

Well this is acctually her 4th litter I just contacted the original owner. Her other litters were 9-13. However she had a 3 month break before being reintroduced to the male because the original owner no longer needed to breed them. So they were apart untill I took them.

As for the other things AS SOON as I saw she had kids they were all in a nice snug 10 gallon tank when they are a bit bigger than pinks they will go to a 20 gallon. I will not reintroduce the male instead I will reintroduce the female into the males mansion. I know everything i needed to know about keeping rats I just heard litter sizes range from 6-15 so I knew 18 was a nice surprise.

[mykee]

First of all, I wouldn't seperate (and don't) the male from the mother and babies. They will do no harm, I repeat, not only will they do no harm, but they'll help keeping the babies in line and keep them warm at night. And yes, 18 is nice, but don't expect it consistently.

[beanersmysav]

Well I had to put them in a glass cage it'd probably be too late to put them together now

[mykee]

In the future, there's no need to seperate the male from the female when babies come. Aside from ot being a hassle and a half to have to wait to reintroduce the male once the babies are gone, it's just less work and worries for you. Rats are fairly easy to keep/breed; just keep them clean, fed and watered, and they'll do the rest with little or no help from you. Good luck.

[beanersmysav]

Only reason I split them apart is so that the babies wouldnt crawl the the bars