[exwizard]

Our rat colony (and yes, only one) consists of 12.77 breeders. Each male gets a tub for himself and we rotate the females in after they've weaned from their previous litter. It usually works out that each breeder male gets 3-4 females at a time. The nursing tubs usually have 3 moms in each and we are very careful about which females go together. There are usually about 15-19 nursing tubs. The rest of the tubs are for growouts, weaners up to XXX large, usually about 16 of those. Thats the only difference I can see between Snakefood's and our methods for breeding rats. The idea of removing the pregnant females from the breeder males before they give birth is a good one. Its very hard on them to be both pregnant and nursing at the same time. Removing them at the right time gives them a break and they are able to be in action a lot longer than oitherwise. Way to go Snakefood. I like your approach to all this.