rat breeding questions

[Bartman]

Ive read plenty of breeding info off the net, but none seemed to say anything about introducing who to who. I have had a male for 2 days now and just got a female now. Questions,

Should I just toss the female in?

Will they mate forsure?

Will they fight possibly?

Any other tips you guys can offer?

Thanks!

[Mark]

toss'em together and leave them. They may fight a bit but as long as no one is bleeding just leave them. Pretty well 1 male rat + 1 female rats=babies unless one or the other is burnt out or sterile.

Ask away if you want to know anything else.

[Bartman]

Thanks Mark. I dont hope for much out of this, just some free pinkies for the sav and baby corns :)

[Bartman]

Could a rat chew through an alluminum mesh screen top?

[Mark]

I doubt it. good luck with the rats. At least they are easy to breed. Just feed them well and keep them clean.

[mykee]

They'll also need 24 hour access to clean water. Waters important.

[Bartman]

I didnt have any water for the first day, but I just got one of those bottle type ones with the metal ball at the end, specialized for rats.

Do I need to fill it up when its empty, or every day?

[Mark]

I just fill it up when it gets very low. Thankfully I only use bottles on the mice now. You'll notice rats drink a lot of water. Let them eat and drink as much as they want and they'll keep dropping babies for you.

[sapphire_moon]

and rats have very high metabolisim. So unless you want no babies (because if they don't have enough food they will eat the babies) they need lots of food available as well as water.

And something *I* just found out. If there is flouride in the water.....you might want to start using cheap bottled water. Floride can cause rats to get sick and/or cancer.

It may not hurt the animal you are feeding it to, *I* wouldn't take the chance though, if the prey item were not as healthy as it could be.