Starting Rat colony advice pls

[Shad0w]

Good day all :)

Okay... Im going to start a breeding feeder rat colony...

Any advice is appreciated...
Im thinking 3 females and one male.

Can and do people keep them in large rubbermaids? If so.. which ones?
How about feeding them... what is most often used?
What about substrate? Is aspen okay?
Ummm Anything else I should be asking or know?
How about smell? Do they smell?
How often will 3 females produce?
Anyone have pics of their rat colony to give me some ideas?

ThanX :D

[marisa]

Rats do not smell nearly as much as mice for starters. It's the males that cause the majority of smell in both species anyways so keep your males down.

As for rubbermaids, I haven't found one that keeps them in for long personally. But I am sure they are out there. I use tanks .

Aspen is fine for them and all animals as always :D

I feed ours plenty of rat food bought at WalMart, dog food sometimes, and leftovers.

I put the male in with the females and leave him there for a few litters, or sometimes I remove him. It just depends. Both seem to work fine.

Marisa

[mykee]

Don't want to seem rude (smirk) BUT rather than asking every question you can think of, maybe you should do a LITTLE bit of research on your own, and then come back with some specific questions. Just a suggestion...

[Shad0w]

LOL.. Yea I should have :D
Sorta posted this ? in a rush.. was on my way out and it was a fleeting thought.. Gunna try this out tho...

Least ya slammed me politely Mykee :)

[Mark]

Okay... Im going to start a breeding feeder rat colony...
Any advice is appreciated...
Im thinking 3 females and one male.
Can and do people keep them in large rubbermaids? If so.. which ones?


A: I use slugis from ikea and run between 1.3-1.6 rats in them.


How about feeding them... what is most often used?


A: Mazuri 6F all the way. Rat food for rats and dog food for dogs. Anyways mazuri is cheaper then dog food I find pound per poud and it lasts a while.


What about substrate? Is aspen okay?


A: I use pine as it is dirt cheap. Aspens good but for rats cheap also works (no ceder). I use a pine/spruce mix myself at approx 10cu ft unconpressed for about $6 after tax.


Ummm Anything else I should be asking or know?


A: Watering systems are one of the greatest rodent watering parts I've found to date. I find the time you save changing bottles and the expense of bottle it is by far worth the expense to get water valves from agselect (www.agselect.com). The price per cage for a watering system is not much more then buying a bottle for every cage and you can either plumb it into the house water (I did) or use a bucket on top of the rack. Reg will run 600 valve while bucket will run 70. Also rack systems are a great invention and are better to use then rubbermaids sitting rthe the floor/shelf.


Anymore questions ask away.


Also mykee has a link on his rat racks on his web site that is worth a look at.


How about smell? Do they smell?

A: I'm running around 150ish breeders and thew smell is not unbearable. My 50 or so mice smeel worse IMO.


How often will 3 females produce?


A: Expecct babies approx. every 3 weeks when the breeders are still in their prime. I usually rotate females breeders at about 8-9 month area and males are good for 2 rotations (16-18 month) before they get culled.


Anyone have pics of their rat colony to give me some ideas?


A: good pics of mykee's setup from his site
http://www.strictlyballs.ca/ratrack.html

Mark

[mykee]

Thanks for the plug, Mark. Check's in the mail.

Shad0w: Not a slam at all, just a good starting point.

[Mark]

Anytime mykee. Can't beat the breakdown on rat setup on your page.

[wiseman001]

this is what I do .. I have been doing this for 4 yrs +

1. lots of males.. with lots of females... more the better
Some females will resist, some females are wonderful..

I put my male ( 2 only ) with 6-8 females.... SUPPLY lots of food at that time....rats breed with more food supply than less, If u have skinny female B 4 U start breeding they May not have has many babys.. as a large Fat female or a couple of them.. I fatten them up for a few weeks ( B 4 ) i toss the males in..ie.. lots of bread, carrots, seeds, crackers/ peanut butter..and rat seeds, Lots of sunflower seeds... cracker jacks popcorn, cereals.. I have 80 babys right now.. ON average i get out of 4 large females 10-12 babies..each

Now i leave the males in there for a week or two weeks and then they go back into the male tank and the female rats are all together....

I monitor them for the belly load of babies.. ALWAY MOST INPORTANT.... W A T E R ... they drink alot

if they start to look LARGE she will go into a 10 gal tank along with Fresh wood chips ( usually pine ) NO cedar AT ALL and then I cover them so there is No stress....

NOW what I have noticed.. if u handle her with she is feeding of touch the babies she " may " disown them... I now feed her 2 times a day and a lil dish of water.. NOW remember that as she runs for water and has a baby attached.. the baby MAY fall in the water and drown... happen to me many times...I only leave a lil water in the dish Most of the time it will be filled with chips

just leave her along.. for a few days and hopefully the babies grow to be strong.... IF the mother is stresssed out she may EAT the babies.. or if they are weak she will eat them...Give it a few weeks til there are walking around on there own .. the its safe to change the chips... i take the mother out ( handling her gentle.. move the babies to 1 corner with an OBJECT not u'r hands.. she can smell u'r sent..

Female rats can have upto 5-6 more litters in the future with NO male around... Don't put another male with them once there babies are walking around and playing.. I'll give it6 months b4 i put males in the female tank...

Usually they know on there own when they are ready to breed again.... I use to have 16 RUSSIAN BLUE rats.... by I got bread her a lil to much i got 20 + babies out of her in 6 months... she died.. and went as food...I never used the Russian blues as food ... they were and still are pets.. I gave alot away...always.. thats some of the stuff that I learned as I was breeding.... Any questions???

[Mark]

For myself I leave the colonies intact and if there are any problem. Eatingn young, badly biting young the whole bin gets culled. There is no point in keeping female that are going to eat their babies. They are there to breed not just to look pretty. Also as far as handling I jsut grab all my rats by the base of the tail and it seems to work the best.

As to the leaving the females in a 10g while they have babies is not really needed as I find that most rats could care less if they group birth and all the females usualy pitch in a steal babies and nurse everyone. Also you can clean even with babies in the tank. i've never had problem with mother caring about stress. Even my cat comes down come cleaning time and jumps on the mice and rat cages and they couldn't care less.

[Shad0w]

Thanks for the advice guys!

Mykee, Nice rat setup you have laid out on your website!

[sapphire_moon]

only leave a little water in the dish! Why not try a water bottle?

peanut butter can choke a rat

If your mothers is eating the babies, it could be because she isn't getting enough food!
Rats have high metabolisims and NEED access to water and food ALL THE TIME.

I may not be as expierenced as mykee, and I may be partial because I own rats as pets, but I have also bred them for food for snakes!

This will work if you only want one colony, or a 1.4-1.6 group

What *I* did (everyone is different) is I had a LARGE ( I mean it was huge, lol) sterilite container, about 2ft tall 4ft long and about 1.5-2ft wide.

I cut most of the lid out
used 1/2 inch galvanized mesh for the top.
Used 1/4 mesh to creat a tube like that would be the feeder basket.

used remaining 1/2 inch mesh for the bottom of the feeder basket (so they could get the food, but the food wouldn't fall out the side)

Everyone has their own opinion on food. if you feed a block make sure to give it some kind of meat protiene, especialy the pregnant/nursing mothers.

I used ol roy bites and bones dog food.

I made the basket so that it would be about 6 inches off the floor, low enough for babies to get it, high enough so that adults wouldn't perform amazing back turning stunts to get to the food ;) lol.

Don't forget how much litter you have in the bottom will make the floor level higher.

then I attached the feeder basket, cut out the hole on the 1/2 mesh on the top to put the food in.

I drilled 2 holes in the side, got some picture hangers from wal-mart, attached those, put water bottle nozzles through the holes, used a bit of chain (like dog chain) and that held the bottles up.

There were some knobs in the cornors but I used a sodering iron and melted those out, nothing to chew on, so they didn't chew on the plastic.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=19861&password=&sort=1&cat=998&page=1 (sorry don't remember how to post pics! :( )

There should be no problems with handling the babies from day one. If the mother is agreesive put her in another container while you count, cull, whatever needs to be done.

If mother rats always got stressed out and ate their babies becuase someone handled them and "Human scent got on them" then there wouldn't be many pet rats, as breeders ALWAYS handle them from day 1 to make sure they get to be well socialized babies.