Rat Growth?

[Vengeance]

How long does it take for a Rat to go from pinky to jumbo?

I'm thinking about starting my own small colony just to save to cost of buying forozen. I was wondering what the time frame was for a Rat to go from pinky to jumbo? If someone could post incriments of weight vs time that would be awsome.

Thanks

[mykee]

In my personal experience, I get 50-70g weanling in three weeks, and 150g 'small adults' in around 5.5-6 weeks or so. I don't let my rats get to 'jumbo', but I would assume they would be 300+ grams around 10-12 weeks.

[annieb_mice]

I think this depends on what you feed them and the genetics of the rodents involved, however, for the most part, generally pinkie to jumbo can take around 4 - 5 months, though it can vary from 3 months to 7 months. With a high protein diet your rats could grow faster than if you were to feed a lower protein one. I normally feed mine about a 20% protein diet... but others do feed a higher count and the pups grow a bit faster. :)
Take care
Annie B. <:3 )~~

[vanderkm]

Only plan on growing males to jumbo size, tough for females to get that large anywhere near as fast as the boys (and some girls would never reach that size) and feed conversion rates are much worse for females. Those male hormones are good for growth!

mary v.

[marisa]

I can't believe how fast my rats grow from pinks to adults! It's so fast! I believe I use 21% protien for them although they do get things without a set protien value like leftovers and such.

Marisa

[Vengeance]

Thanks for the info, not sure if I'd ever actually need a Jumbo I just wanted to get a general idea of how much I would have to invest to get a rat to the proper feeder size for my ball python and the 2 other ball pythons I have coming.

[mykee]

You may never have to feed any ball pythons a 'jumbo' rat, I notice my 3000+g balls prefer smaller meals of 100-150g more regularly than one giant meal.

[RepTylE]

Yeah, my ball seems to prefer a meal in the 150 gram size range too. I gave him a larger size once or twice and he was so sluggish and slow to take the next meal. On 150's he is eating pretty regularly.