My rats just arrived.

[stephanbakir]

Got 6 females 1 male LIVE and 10 frozen from 1 breeder, and 60! female 10 males LIVE from another... Woot typos...
Prolly gona freeze off 70 or so rats, gona keep 1-2 males and 6-10 females...

[TeaNinja]

you got 77 live rats? O.O lol
holy crap.

[stephanbakir]

Freaking typo on an online order... Pre-payed.

[TeaNinja]

hahaha! that's pretty bad :D

are you just gonna gas chamber the lot of them or what?
that's too many necks to snap O.o

[stephanbakir]

Gona Co2 the bulk of them for sure, screw breaking that many necks...

[Jenn_06]

Co2 is the best, get a tub can you can put 30 at a time in there. i love my death camber lol.


how many snakes do you have? you might not need that many females i have 5 and they all have around 8 to 18 babies.

[stephanbakir]

I currently own just the 1 :P but I have a TON of friends that are being robbed price wise, so I'm going to be supplying them with rats for the price of the food.

[Jay]

I thought you only had 1 snake...

[Jenn_06]

have fun just dont get too many females to start out with you might just want to keep 6 then if you want more babies hold back a few of there girls. good luck and have fun cleaning.

man that reminds me i need to clean my rat tubs soon.

[stephanbakir]

I'll probably onlt keep 6-10 females. Leaning more towards 6.

[Jenn_06]

are the females you going to keep it did the breed before?

[stephanbakir]

They haven't bred before (so I'm told) and they are large rats

[Jenn_06]

ok there first few litters should be small then. my first timers had about 5 babies but now they are getting about 15 to 18 babies each litter.

[stephanbakir]

Alright, I'll be posting pics when it happens either way :)

[Jenn_06]

great what are you going to keep them in just curious.

[stephanbakir]

Before they pop I'll have them in this MASSIVE rat cage that I got for like 20$, its 4 feet tall lol, built a few shelves, they seam to love climbing. Mothers I plan on housing in terrariums, got 6-7 extra terrariums laying around. Prolly gona use tissue paper as bedding, don't want to cut pinkies with aspen. (what the rats are currently on)

[Jenn_06]

try this out if you really want to get into breeding it will save you space and its easy to clean up. i made one for my rats and when i move im making another one. you can use the rack to grow out your rats to the size you want before the co2 camber.

Building a rat rack (http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rat_rack/ratrack.shtml)

[stephanbakir]

I'll work on that as soon as I finish this incubator.
Anyone on here interested in a How-To build a good sized incubator?

[Jenn_06]

i do, i need one for my BP i hope GTP eggs if i can get another female.

[stephanbakir]

The one I'll show building will be a bit larger then you need, but downsizing wont be hard.

[stephanbakir]

I believe my rats might be sick... I JUST got them. All of them are constantly rubbing their noses and sneezing every 5-10 seconds... ALL of them...
There is no way they got sick here in 10 hours right? all they are in contact with that didn't come with them is the aspen and my cage, which is stainless steel that I personally washed prior to putting them in there.

[Lankyrob]

Could the aspen be too dusty and causing the sneezes?

[Jenn_06]

try to get different bedding but they might just be all sick.
Is your rat sneezing (http://maritimerattery.canadianwebs.com/custom3.html)

[Dehlida]

Make sure to keep the temps on the cool side. Mine don't breed in the summer due to being in a warm outdoor shed. Only the ASFs breed. Debating culling the rest of my colony and switching to nothing but ASF..

[stephanbakir]

The temp in their enclosure is 18 Celsius.
Gona swap the bedding, not sure what to though.

[Dehlida]

The temp in their enclosure is 18 Celsius.
Gona swap the bedding, not sure what to though.
Try sanichips. Cheap and available at most feed stores.

[kellcore]

We have about 20 breeding females and a few breeding males and about 60 live rats for sale :D its so much fun we freeze as well.

All my rats on first litters have around 10-18 babies but closer to the 16 average. They are all keeping the higher numbers as well. Just rememeber that it is about a 6-8 week wait depending of your male gets the females right away. I run a rattery. I constantly get orders right when we are waiting on a female to birth that is holding off on us.

You guys snap necks? I couldnt do that and just thinking of what kind of trauma that does to the meet. I have a hard enough time putting them in a tub and freezing. And packaging is the worse for me how do you guys store yours?

[kellcore]

I use pine shavings like the stuff they use for horse stalls out here its much cheaper to buy it in bulk and thats just for breeders and babies dont get cut up. I also use pine pelleted bedding for the feeders it is pretty much compressed sawdust but isnt dusty when it gets wet it absorbes and NO SMELL i hate the rat smell and the mix i use and everything works great but babies wont get cut on pine shavings and i am finding more and more rats allergic to the aspen and cedar isnt good for them either.

[stephanbakir]

I have about 40 windows in my house, all of them are open most of the time, so great air flow, the doors are wide open 90% of the time too lol. Smell is something we don't need to deal with during the summer.

[Lankyrob]

We have about 20 breeding females and a few breeding males and about 60 live rats for sale :D its so much fun we freeze as well.

All my rats on first litters have around 10-18 babies but closer to the 16 average. They are all keeping the higher numbers as well. Just rememeber that it is about a 6-8 week wait depending of your male gets the females right away. I run a rattery. I constantly get orders right when we are waiting on a female to birth that is holding off on us.

You guys snap necks? I couldnt do that and just thinking of what kind of trauma that does to the meet. I have a hard enough time putting them in a tub and freezing. And packaging is the worse for me how do you guys store yours?


Sorry if i have misread - but you FREEZE them whilst they are still alive?

[stephanbakir]

CO2 seams to be the preferred method.